Credit: Collection of Sea View Hospital, via Staten Island Museum
Tuberculosis is one of the oldest and deadliest diseases. TB was essentially a death sentence with roughly 80 percent of active infections fatal until the development of antibiotics and vaccines.
In the late 1920’s, segregation of health care facilities was prevalent, white nurses cared for white patients and Black nurses cared for Black patients. When Sea View Hospital on Staten Island in NYC was overrun with tuberculosis patients, white nurses fled the facility, and the young Black nurses replaced them became known as the Black Angels. They did not just face disease, they faced racism from patients, doctors, and society.
At Sea View in the early 1940’s, the Black Angels administered streptomycin to patients, but it was not a cure. A new drug called isoniazid arose in 1950, and the nurses at Sea View were the best equipped to conduct the first human trials.
The Black Angels set a powerful precedent for hospitals and nursing associations to look beyond skin color and prioritize the care of all patients.
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