How the ‘Black Angels’ Saved Lives

Virginia Allen looks back on being a “Black Angel” and saving lives.
Black caregivers were called on to help treat tuberculosis patients in the early 1900s at Sea View Hospital in Staten Island, New York.
Nearly 300 Black women, who would come to be known as “Black Angels,” answered that call.
Many of the Black nurses who came to work at the Sea View hailed from the South, where legally enforced racial segregation and disenfranchisement of Black people, was accompanied by violence and intimidation. This prompted many of them to search for better opportunities in the North. But Black people could not escape racism. There were also racist people and policies in the North. Despite these challenges, the Black Angels continued to show up at Sea View, demonstrating resilience in the face of systemic oppression.
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What are some other under-told stories that you like to see get more attention?

[@treeofliberty5611]

Why are black man (6% of population) commenting over 50% of murders??? Black angels??? Or black murderers??? Seems like that topic is more relevant than this....

[@jryecart8017]

Virginia Allen
Born in 1931, she always wanted to be a nurse because, she said, “I would see my aunt Edna in her nurse’s whites,” and “I was inspired.” In 1947, at a mere sixteen years old during a dire nursing shortage, Edna invited her to come to Sea View where she was hired as a nurse’s aide in the Children’s Hospital. Some said it was the “saddest place on earth,” but Virginia remembers her time there fondly, “maybe because I was so young,” she said, “I found it a challenge, not a chore, but I also knew the children were very very sick.”
Fortunately, she began working during the golden age of antibiotics where more treatments were available for those sick with TB. In 1952, she, along with her colleagues, became part of a galvanizing moment in history, the isoniazid trials which ushered in a cure for tuberculosis; although the children were not part of the trial, Ms. Allen was privy to this long-awaited moment, “it was very exciting to see more patients going home.”
Following Sea View, she graduated from the School for Practical Nursing as an LPN and embarked on a long career in nursing. In addition, she began deeply involved in civil rights and her community. Now retired from nursing, she remains an essential part of her Staten Island community, serving on various boards, championing women’s issues, and continuing to advocate for education reform and youth development. She loves music, art, literature, theater, and traveling. She has always been guided by this principle, "This world is all we have, and it is our duty to care for one another with love.” ^^^ source, NURSES org

[@jryecart8017]

Kate Gillespie
Born in 1899 in Selma, AL, Kate was raised in the small town of Bessmer, ninety-one miles from Montgomery. She was the oldest of ten children born in succession to her mother, who was strict about education and the ethic of hard work, a trait that Kate embraced. Her father Thomas Anderson, an imposing and serious white man, with striking blue eyes he passed on to Kate, was 40 years older than her mother. His success as a farm worker and cattle owner allowed Kate and all her siblings to focus on one thing, school.
After graduating from Hale Nursing School, she worked in Alabama for years, but in 1932 she took a job at Sea View to “escape the south and its violence,” her granddaughter said, and secure a better life for her five-year-old son. Once, her family asked her why she left, and she answered, "There was strange fruit growing on trees."
While at Sea View, Kate was in charge of the Employee Clinic, but in the mid-1940s, she was promoted to a supervisory role and moved to the adult wards. According to her family, she was a lifelong activist for labor rights, and advocated alongside A. Phillip Randolph. Kate was one of the few nurses who didn’t move to Staten Island, “she loved Harlem and its culture, but mostly, Staten Island, reminded her too much of the south she wanted to leave behind.” ^^^ NURSES org

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Marjorie Tucker Reed
Marjorie was born in Norfolk, VA in 1925, and came to Staten Island when she was 10. In 1946 she began working as an aide at Sea View because she said, "I needed a job."
Of the many things Marjorie told me in our interviews, she vividly recalled riding the 111 bus from the Staten Island Ferry terminal to the hospital. “The people, they moved away from me,” she said, “like I had the plague. Like the germs were going to jump out at them.”
She also talked about the Black nurses being sent to Sea View, “At Sea View Black nurses knew they could get hired, but at the other hospitals they knew they would be put through the wringer, and the end line was that they weren’t going to be hired…[so] they came here in droves…it was a good opportunity for nurses down in the south to come here and have room and board. That’s the way it was in TB time.”. ^^^ NURSES org

[@jryecart8017]

Phyllis Alfreda Hall Lambert
Phyllis was born in 1909 in the rural town of Alachua, FL--in 1905 it had a population of 526 residents. It was a hub for the cotton industry that helped to expand the town. Phyllis came from a large family that struggled with poverty. Her grandfather was a Methodist minister, and at some point, according to her family, she was sent to the Baldwin School for Colored Girls.
After she graduated, she enrolled in the George E. Brewster School of Nurse Training in Jacksonville, FL. In 1940, she was recruited to Sea View where she worked for almost 40 years. She owned a home on Bradley Avenue, and her family described her as "outgoing and friendly, a mostly happy and caring person, who loved her job."