From 1900 to 1950, tuberculosis (TB) took the lives of more than 5 million people in the United States. Sea View Hospital in Staten Island, New York, opened in 1913 to treat and rehabilitate patients with this horrific disease, but over time, most of the hospital's white nurses refused to care for these patients out of fear of contracting TB.
To overcome the nursing shortage, the hospital recruited approximately 300 Black nurses from around the country. These courageous frontline caregivers became known as the “Black Angels” for their bravery and compassion, and ultimately saving the lives of countless patients.
One of the last living Black Angels, Virginia Allen, recently spoke with AACN's Chief Clinical Officer Vicki Good and Clinical Practice Specialist Andrea Schmitt on the Voices of Nursing podcast. Allen spoke about her experiences working at Sea View and the important but largely unrecognized role of the Black Angels in advancing a crucial TB medication.
Listen to the podcast, or read excerpts from the following interview.*
Please start by telling us a little bit about yourself and how you became a nurse at Sea View Hospital.
My aunt, Edna Sutton, was a nurse at Sea View. I admired her so much. I had just graduated from high school and was looking to go to college or do something with my life, and nursing was appealing because of my connections with Aunt Edna. At the age of 16, I convinced my parents to let me move to New York to live with her to go to nursing school.
While I was waiting for nursing school, she suggested that I get a job at Sea View. I was hired to work in the children’s field as a nurse’s aide. Looking back at those days now and the training I received from the nurses in orientation, it really gave me a good foundation for the nurses’ training that I would receive later in life.
Could you share a typical day in the life of Virginia Allen, the nursing student?
I attended nursing school through a special program the Department of Hospitals set up because of the shortage of nurses. It was a work-study program. So I would go to school in the morning on Welfare Island, then travel back to Staten Island and work on one of the wards in the evening. And that was really quite a long day. But I went through the 18-month course, never being late or absent. At the end of my course study, I took the New York state boards and passed with a high average.
What was it like caring for patients in the children’s ward in the midst of the TB crisis? Were you afraid you were going to catch the disease?
I was never afraid. At 16 years old, you’re not afraid. I was more focused on taking care of the children and making sure they were getting the best care I could give them. That was mainly the focus of all the nurses who worked there.
It was a joy to take care of the children. It was nice reading to them and comforting them. There were some children who did not have visitors, because their parents were hospitalized and other relatives lived far away. So they didn’t have relatives to visit them. The staff, like myself, were their visitors. It was heartbreaking. But you had to not feel sorry for them. You had to step in and keep them cheered up and read to them and play with them, and make them feel as comfortable as possible.
Can you talk about your aunt’s role in the clinical trial for one of the antibiotics that became a successful treatment for patients with TB? What was it like to do a clinical trial like that without all the computers and databases we have now?
Aunt Edna helped oversee the clinical trials of isoniazid, which was one of the first drugs to successfully treat the disease. The nurses gave the dosage of medication that the doctors prescribed, and at that time they did all hand documentation. They had to observe the patients very closely, write their observations and report to the head nurse, who was my aunt.
It was a long, tedious procedure, but they did it and thank God they did, because this was the information the doctors used to compare how the patients were reacting to the medication over a period of time. And the patients responded to those drugs like the miracle it was. It was like night and day. These patients were so fragile. Some of them had lost so much weight; they were so weak; they were hardly able to ambulate, and many of them were bedridden.
After the medication, some of them were able to be discharged after a year or more. We could see them healing and getting stronger so that they were able to go home and take the medication.
It doesn’t sound like many of the nurses at Sea View contracted TB. Why do you think that was the case?
We had very good ongoing training on the isolation technique – the same technique that’s being used today – and how important that was. I still tell people not to rely on gloves alone. Those gloves can have holes in them. Make sure you wash your hands well with soap and water.
We had a plentiful supply of cloth masks and gowns, and we would change between patients. We were also taught never to wear our clothing home that we wore to the hospital, that we should always change before going home. We had a good protocol at the hospital, and I think that’s why so few nurses and staff contracted tuberculosis.
What do you want people to understand about the Black Angels?
These women accepted the charge and opportunity because when they came to Sea View to work, hospitals were segregated. And unfortunately, many of the well-trained nurses were not able to get jobs in quality hospitals. They left their homes to come here to Sea View, to a place where they could make a decent living and have a better opportunity to get ahead. Many of the nurses who worked here got married and bought homes in the neighborhood. My aunt was one of those nurses. It was an opportunity for a better living.
It’s a very important story, but it’s not a well-known part of our nursing history. I feel really grateful that I’m able to represent them. It’s an honor for me to be called a Black Angel. I’m sure they’re thankful also that they’re being recognized after so many years of just being pushed aside. The doctors and their staff received worldwide recognition, but the nurses were not given the proper credit they were due for their hard work and perseverance - and sacrifice too.
To learn more about these extraordinary women, read The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis by Maria Smilios, available for purchase at the AACN Store. The book features Allen’s story along with some stories of her colleagues, celebrating their legacy and spirit of survival.
*Excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.
