farmer, mill worker, and the spokesman for the survivors of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study at the formal federal apology at the White House on 16 May 1997, was born in Tallassee, Alabama, the second of four children of Frank Shaw, a farmer. After his mother's death, Shaw's father moved the family to Plano, Texas, in search of a better life. Shaw excelled in his studies at the local segregated grammar schools, remembering always his lessons on the ancient world. When the farmland in Texas proved unyielding, Shaw returned to Tallassee and farming. The depression years proved difficult on the land, and Shaw was hired as the first black man to run a cord machine in a nearby textile mill. He would stay at the mill for forty-four years, while continuing to grow cotton, corn, and collard greens that were prized by his neighbors. He married Fannie ...
