Maria Smilios recounts the remarkable story of the black nurses of Staten Island who were on the frontlines of finding a cure for tuberculosis
Tuberculosis – otherwise known as the ‘Great White Plague’ – was a scourge on society and killed countless sufferers. Rhiannon Davies spoke to Maria Smilios to find out about the little-known story of the black nurses of New York’s Seaview Hospital who helped fight the disease – and were part of the historic drug trials of the 1950s that saw the arrival of a long-awaited cure.
Maria Smilios is the author of The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis (Little Brown, 2023)