Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing is hosting a book discussion with Maria Smilios, author of The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis, on Monday, April 8 at 4:30 pm.
The event will be held in the Larson Kelly Auditorium, Driscoll Hall, and via Zoom. Register for the Zoom here: https://lnkd.in/gqdXASyT
Moderator: Sunny G. Hallowell, PhD, APRN, PPCNP-BC, Associate Professor of Nursing
Here is a peek inside of the true story that unfolded 95 years ago…
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 world’s deadliest plagues: tuberculosis.
During those dark pre-antibiotic days, when tuberculosis killed 1 in 7 people, white nurses at Sea View, New York’s 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 city’s poorest—1,800 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 system—and regardless of their vital work in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea View—these 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. – retrieved from author Maria Smilios’s website
This was an EXCELLENT book. I had the privilege of joining a book club with other nurses across the nation to discuss the book. During our final discussion, the author joined us to discuss her journey in writing the book and answer our questions. The different perspectives of my fellow nurses, along with the rich history in the book made for a meaningful, not-soon-to-be-forgotten, experience that I will continue to share with my peers.