How Nurses Known as ‘Black Angels’ Helped Save TB Patients

Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll look at an exhibition about Black nurses who were recruited to care for tuberculosis patients in the mid-20th century.

Credit…Carl T. Gossett Jr./The New York Times

In the early 20th century, tuberculosis was raging in New York City, killing thousands of people each year. The city’s health department chose Staten Island in 1905 as the location for Sea View Hospital, which became one of the biggest tuberculosis hospitals in the country.

But tuberculosis was highly infectious, and by the 1930s the number of white nurses willing to risk their lives to care for Sea View’s patients was dwindling. Administrators started calling on workers often overlooked because of racism: Black nurses.

An exhibition now on view at the Staten Island Museum, “Taking Care: The Black Angels of Sea View Hospital,” tells the story of 300 Black nurses who were recruited. The name Black Angels came from patients and was embraced by the nurses, said Gabriella Leone, a curator.