As tuberculosis ravaged the population of NYC and beyond before a cure was discovered in 1952, Staten Island’s Sea View Hospital was often the last stop for patients who were afflicted by the terrible disease that killed them slowly by ravaging their bodies. Beginning in the late 1920s, white nurses started fleeing Sea View to escape TB and move on to other job opportunities that were available to them because of their race. In an effort to keep the hospital open, the City called up Black nurses from the Jim Crow South. They began arriving to care and comfort the patients. Eventually, these brave women were instrumental in helping to find a cure for TB, as they administered new treatments, closely monitored patients’ responses, and served a critical role in the first human drug trials that were conducted at the Sea View.

These nurses, known collectively as the Black Angels, were celebrated on March 13 by a near-capacity crowd in the Center for the Arts Williamson Theatre with a program that shared their story of not only providing care and humane treatment to a patient population that was traditionally scorned by the majority of New Yorkers, but also had to endure scorn themselves because of their contact with infected patients and because of their race.

Featured in the program was a talk by Maria Smilios, author of The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2023). Smilios provided a brief history of the Black Angels, discussing the history of Sea View, which opened in 1913, and the eventual migration of Black nurses from the South who learned of the opportunity to come to the North, receive free training, and have a “rare opportunity” at a professional career. One such nurse was Edna Sutton who made the journey to NYC and Sea View from Savanna, GA, where she initially worked at the run-down Georgia Infirmary but was let go.

Smilios recounted the vast challenges that the nurses faced, from the harsh and often unknown  treatments that doctors employed on patients, the systemic racial issues within Sea View, the refusal of the American Nurses Association (ANA) to let them join the organization, and the redlining as they tried to purchase homes.

Smilios concluded her presentation by stating that although the Black Angels saved millions of lives by helping with the cure, integrating NYC hospitals, winning their battle to join the ANA, and to build homes in Staten Island neighborhoods, she stated that “We still have a lot of work to do,” particularly as science, history,  and diversity are currently under attack in the U.S.

The event also featured a video interview between Dr. Wilma Jones, Director of the CSI Center for Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development, and Virginia Allen, the niece of Edna Sutton. At 93, Allen is one of only two surviving Black Angels, the other is Curlene Jennings Bennett. In the interview, Allen shared her philosophy of nursing, noting that a nurse must understand the past in order to understand the future. She also discussed the parallel between TB and COVID-19, pointing out that in both health crises, nurses were on the frontlines, providing care and comforting patients and their families.

After brief comments from Janice Monger, President and CEO of the Staten Island Museum regarding an exhibit that the Museum is hosting in tribute to the Black Angels, there was a panel discussion between Smilios and Dr. Patricia M. Burke, President of the Transcultural Nursing Society Northeast Chapter, and Associate Professor of Nursing at York College, CUNY. After further discussion of the Black Angels and the painstakingly detailed process that Smilios used to research and write the book, the audience had the opportunity to ask the author questions on a number of topics.

The event was organized and co-sponsored by the CSI Nursing Department, in particular Dr. Marianne Jeffreys and Dr. Wilma Jones of the CSI Center for Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development; the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society in Nursing (SIGMA) Mu Upsilon (CSI) Chapter; and the Transcultural Nursing Society Northeast Chapter. Partial funding was provided by the College of Staten Island Foundation and the CSI Campus Activities Board, using Student Activity Fees.

To learn more about the Black Angels, listen to Season 4, Episode 11 of the CSI Today Talks Podcast, featuring interviews with Maria Smilios and Marianne Jeffreys.

If you purchase the book from Amazon, please DO NOT buy the paperback; it’s not a U.S.-authorized version.

Photo caption: Maria Smilios (left) and Dr. Patricia M. Burke

By Terry Mares