The Black Angels Audiobook Libro.fm

New York City 1929 A sanatorium a deadly disease and a dire nurse shortage So begins the remarkable true story of the Black nurses who helped cure one of the worlds deadliest plagues tuberculosis

During those dark preantibiotic days when tuberculosis killed one in seven people white nurses at Sea View New Yorks largest municipal hospital began quitting Desperate to avert a public health crisis city officials summoned Black southern nurses luring them with promises of good pay a career and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow But after arriving they found themselves on an isolated hilltop in the remote borough of Staten Island yet again confronting racism and consigned to a woefully understaffed facility dubbed the pest house where no one left alive

Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond this story follows the intrepid young women the Black Angels who for twenty years risked their lives working under dreadful conditions while caring for the citys poorest1800 souls languishing in wards waiting to die or become guinea pigs for experimental often deadly drugs Yet despite their major role in desegregating the NYC hospital systemand regardless of their vital work in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea Viewthese nurses were completely erased from history The Black Angels recovers the voices of these extraordinary women and puts them at the center of this riveting story celebrating their legacy and spirit of survival

Photo of nurses courtesy of NYCHHC/SeaView Archives