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

Combining powerful pictures, historical research, and shared stories, this presentation highlights the courage, strength, resilience, challenges, and tribulations of heroic African American nurses who cared for patients with tuberculosis (TB) when no one else would. TB killed one in seven people.

Meet researcher and author Maria Smilios, whose book “follows the intrepid young women known by their patients as the ‘Black Angels’. For twenty years, they risked their lives working under appalling conditions while caring for New York’s poorest residents, who languished in wards, waiting to die, or became guinea pigs for experimental surgeries and often deadly drugs. But despite their major role in desegregating the New York City hospital system – and their vital work in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea View – these nurses were completely erased from history.”1 Contemplate the courageous stories of these women in context with past, present, and future states of health and society.

The program will encompass a slide show and presentation by the author; insights from a living Black Angel, Nurse Virginia Allen; a panel discussion; a Q&A; and concluding remarks. Co-Curricular CLUE will be sought for the program. Light refreshments and a book signing session will follow.

Seating is limited. Pre-registration link and QR code to follow on February 7, 2025.

1 Smilios, M. (2023). The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis, book jacket, Putnam.