The “Black Angels” refers to a group of African American nurses who played a crucial role in caring for tuberculosis patients in the 1940s, particularly at Seaview Hospital in Staten Island, New York.
During this period, tuberculosis, often known as the “White Death,” had no cure and was highly contagious. Patients admitted to hospitals presented with severe lung damage, and treatment was palliative rather than curative.
Complicating matters further, the 1940s were marked by significant civil rights issues, including segregation. In health care facilities, a system of segregation prevailed, with white nurses attending to white patients and African American nurses responsible for African American patients. However, when white nurses refused to care for their white tuberculosis patients, the Black Angels stepped forward.
"The nurses had to keep daily logs of what was going on in the wards. It is page after page of pain and anguish and suffering.
It was at Seaview in 1957 that Dr. Edward Robitzek helped develop one of the drugs credited as a tuberculosis treatment.
