The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis

In 1929 New York City, Sea View Hospital on Staten Island faced a severe nursing shortage during the tuberculosis epidemic that killed one in seven people. When white nurses began leaving en masse, city officials recruited Black southern nurses with promises of good pay, career advancement, and escape from Jim Crow restrictions. Upon arrival, however, these nurses discovered themselves isolated on a remote hilltop, again facing racism and assigned to a severely understaffed facility known as "the pest house," where patients were said not to leave alive. Spanning from the Great Depression through World War II and beyond, this account follows the young women patients called the "Black Angels." For two decades, they worked under dangerous conditions caring for New York's poorest residents, many of whom served as subjects for experimental surgeries and untested drugs. Despite their crucial contributions to desegregating the New York City hospital system and their essential role in developing the tuberculosis cure at Sea View, these nurses were erased from historical records. This book restores their stories to prominence, centering their experiences and acknowledging their legacy.