The intersection of Brielle Avenue and Sea View Hospital Historic District in Staten Island is now also known as Black Angels Way. This new street name honors the long-overlooked black nurses who risked their own lives to care for tuberculosis patients at Staten Island’s Sea View Hospital in the first half of the 20th century, before an effective treatment for TB was developed. The last surviving Black Angels, Virginia Allen and Curlene Bennett Jennings, attended the street naming ceremony on May 10th alongside many descendants of fellow nurses.
Descendants of the Black Angels at the street naming ceremony, Photo Courtesy of Maria Smilios
As tuberculosis ran rampant in the early 1900s, New York City's hospitals began to overflow with patients. New York City officials recruited Black female nurses from the South to replace the white nurses who left. Jobs in New York City promised freedom from the oppression of Jim Crow and the benefits of good pay, education, housing, and employment.
At the peak of the TB crisis, Seaview Hospital on Staten Island was bursting with over 2,000 patients (almost double the intended capacity), according to SI Live. As Seaview Doctors Edward Robitzek and Irving Selikoff worked to develop Isoniazid, the first drug to treat tuberculosis, 300 African-American nurses cared for the sick patients.
Among those nurses were 16-year-old Virginia Allen and 20-year-old Curlene Bennett Jennings, the two surviving Black Angels in attendance at the street naming ceremony on Saturday. While at Seaview, these young women work grueling hours and put themselves at risk to care for New York’s sick, at a time when they also had to face racism and discrimination.
Left- Curlene Bennett Jennings (Courtesy of the Bennett Family), Center - Courtesy of the Gillespie Family, Right - Virginia Lee Green (Courtesy of the Green Family)
Author Maria Smilios, who shed light on the story of the Black Angels in her 2023 book, The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis, credits the street naming toRoseanne Raso and dedicated New York elected officials at both the city and state levels. For years, Smilios and Raso wrote letters and gathered signatures from nursing organizations, universities, and doctors to send to elected leaders with the intention of getting the Black Angels the recognition they deserved.
"Today was many things: emotional, powerful, joyous, and unforgettable," Smilios said of the street naming ceremony.
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