U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson Featured on Recent Good Morning America Broadcast

Judge Myron H. Thompson recently had, as he calls it, his “two minutes of fame.”

On February 28, 2024, Judge Thompson was featured in Good Morning America’s “Celebrating Black History” program.  In a segment about Tuskegee University’s critical role in treating polio during the height of segregation, the ABC news team interviewed Judge Thompson about his personal experience as a polio survivor from Tuskegee.

Speaking from the historic Frank M. Johnson Jr. Courthouse in Montgomery Alabama, Judge Thompson recounted how, as a child with paralysis, he was taken to the Tuskegee Infantile Paralysis Center and diagnosed with polio.  Thereafter, he received state-of-the-art medical treatment and care from Tuskegee’s Black doctors and nurses.  In fact, as Judge Thompson recalls, the lifesaving care he received as a child was so excellent that he actually enjoyed going to Tuskegee’s Paralysis Center: “I know it seems odd to say that going to the hospital is a wonderful memory, but it was!”

The Good Morning America segment not only highlighted Judge Thompson’s positive personal experience while being treated at Tuskegee, but the segment also brought attention to the long-untold story about the incredible role that the doctors at Tuskegee played in the creation of the polio vaccine.  “Something that people really need to know is that this Black school created and helped distribute one of the vaccines that literally has eliminated a disease from the entire world,” Judge Thompson told ABC.

But for the Black doctors at Tuskegee, the affliction of polio would have affected countless more children across the globe.  But for those very same doctors, Judge Thompson may not have been able to use his “two minutes of fame” on Good Morning America to personally pay witness to, and give thanks for, Tuskegee University’s role in eradicating polio.

Check out the full Good Morning America segment at the link below:

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/GMA3/video/untold-story-black-children-polio-treated-107639214.

And for more on Judge Thompson’s experience at Tuskegee’s Infantile Paralysis Center, visit: 

https://www.rotary.org/en/polios-hidden-figures-tuskegee.