The library is celebrating Black History Month and the 2023 theme "Black Resistance" by highlighting books in our collection about Black pioneers in U.S. healthcare and the barriers they fought to overcome.
Did you know that the first paramedics in America were a group of black men in Pittsburgh?
The book American sirens by Kevin M. Hazzard, tells the amazing history of Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh, a group of Black men who became America's first paramedics. At every turn, Freedom House battled racism--from the community, the police, and the government. Yet despite the long odds and fierce opposition, they succeeded and set the gold standard for emergency medical care around the world.
Twice as hard by Jasmine Brown, covers the struggles and successes of nine pioneering black women physicians, including: Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who finished medical school 14 months after the Emancipation Proclamation and treated newly freed slaves; Dr. Edith Irby Jones, the first African American to attend a previously white-only medical school in the Jim Crow South, where she was not allowed to eat lunch with her classmates or use the women's bathroom; Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the first Black American to become US Surgeon General.
African American doctors of World War I by W. Douglas Fisher, includes the accounts of 104 African American doctors who served in World War I, caring for the 40,000 men of the 92nd and 93rd Divisions, the Army's only black combat units, that fought alongside French and American units. Covers the early years, education and war experiences of these physicians, as well as their careers in the black communities of early 20th century America.
African American medicine in Washington, D.C. : healing the Capital during the Civil War Era, by Heather Butts, tells the story of the Black nurses and doctors who treated Union soldiers during the Civil War and went on to advance medical care for Black Americans in D.C. Alexander T. Augusta fought discrimination to become a preeminent surgeon, visiting with President Lincoln, testifying before congress and aiding in the war effort. Freedman's Hospital was founded to serve the growing free black population and later became Howard University Medical Center. The National Medical Association formed to represent African American doctors and patients.
We'll fight it out here: a history of the ongoing struggle for health equity, by David Chanoff, outlines the history of health disparities among Black Americans from pre-Emancipation days and how a coalition of health professions schools at Historically Black Colleges and Universities banded together to fight for health equity in the U.S. Nearly all minority health care legislation since 1983 is due to the battles fought by The Association of Minority Health Professions Schools (AMHPS), which continues to work to increase the number of doctors and health professionals from minority backgrounds and to advance healthy equity.
Black History Month is observed every February in the United States and Canada. It originated in 1926 with the establishment of "Negro History Week" by historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). The second week of February was chosen because it coincided with the birthday of Abraham Lincoln on February 12 and that of Frederick Douglass on February 14, both of which Black communities had celebrated since the late 19th century. (Wikipedia).
See the sites below for more information:
The books shown in this guide are all available for check out.
Search the library's online catalog on the library web page for other books on Black History topics.
