You're correct, but for some reason heavily downed at the moment (Edit: no longer the case!). Relevant excerpt backing this up:

> the sugar industry paid the Harvard scientists the equivalent of $50,000 in 2016 dollars

I.e. it was something more like 6k-7k in terms of dollars at the time of payment.

Ah missed that.

$25,000 in 1969 has the same buying power as approximately $220,000 to $226,000 today

In terms of 2016, from gemini:

> In 2016, $25,000 from 1969 was worth approximately $163,490.

> Based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), $1 in 1969 had the same purchasing power as $6.54 in 2016. This represents a total inflation increase of roughly 554% over that 47-year period