Ep. 6: The Black Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis
Maria Smilios and I discuss her book, The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis
My Uniting Through History Book Club read The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis earlier this year. So I was really excited when author Maria Smilios agreed to be my guest on the Reading with Rachelle podcast.
There were so many things to like about this book! First and foremost, of course, is the story of the Black nurses, hired to work at Sea View Hospital on Staten Island, after the white nurses quit. Over the years, Sea View was home to 1,800 tuberculosis patients. Through interviews with actual nurses and their relatives, Smilios gives a detailed view into the day-to-day lives of the nurses—the racism they endured, their struggles, and their successes, both at the hospital and in their personal lives—along with their participation in the medical trials that gave way to their integral role in finding the cure.
Through detailed documents from Dr. Edward Robitzek, the doctor at Sea View who led the race for the cure, and interviews with Dr. Robitzek’s son, John, along with patient interviews, the reader gets a detailed look at the horrific surgical procedures used to treat tuberculosis and their effects on the patients.
Through meticulous research in addition to interviews, Smilios weaves in the bleakness of 1920s-1940s New York City, Staten Island, and Sea View Hospital, against the backdrop of the tuberculosis epidemic, the Great Depression, World War II, and Jim Crow segregation and racism.
Listen to our discussion above—or on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast—as we discuss all of this and more.
Also visit MariaSmilios.com for more information on the author and the book and to watch video interviews with Virginia Allen, one of the nurses at Sea View and the impetus behind the book.
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