Black Is Beautiful 2026 – Freedom House Ambulance
Its been three years since I did one of these for Black History Month! From 2016-2023 I drew and painted so many people, places, and groups from Black history that we dont hear enough about. And here’s one more:
The Freedom House Ambulance service was founded in 1967 in Pittsburg, PA by Phil Hallen (former ambulance driver) and Dr Peter Safar (Pioneering Dr @ Univ of Pittsburgh) in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, a predominantly Black neighborhood. EMT, Paramedics, and modern ambulances in the US owe a great deal to the Black men and women of Freedom House Ambulance. Around this time there were no ambulances for most working class folks in big cities, you called the police and they threw you in the back of a cop car or a police wagon. Being that there was rampant police brutality, profiling, harassment, and murder at the hands of police there was a contentious relationship when it came to emergency medical service. The majority of officers had no medical training and Black folks were at their wim when it came to being “sick enough” to warrant emergency medical services. As a result so many died from treatable things.
Enter Freedom House, a community based organization that got funding to not only create a hood based ambulance service, but to hire Black men; many of which were unemployed, did not graduate college, or had been in the system. Pioneering Dr Safar and several others gave them 12 months of medical training learning anatomy, physiology, resuscitation, etc. In addition to hundreds of hours in classroom settings , they spent time in the emergency and operating rooms, as well as the morgue before hitting the streets. And when they hit the streets they responded to six thousand calls in the first year or 16 emergency calls daily. Coming from the neighborhoods they were serving they understood when people were having a medical emergency relating to overdose, sickle cell anemia, diabetes, etc. In fact they were among the first paramedics to pioneer techniques using narcan for overdose, electric shock for heart attacks, intubating patients, CPR, and IV‘s. They were a mobile emergency hospital because they stabilized patients, saving thousands of lives.
Fast forward to the mid 70s, word got around that wealthier more white neighborhoods were not receiving the same level of expertise; the mayor and white establishment got jealous; and they intentionally pulled funding and support for the program. The city began randomly testing Freedom House medics, ruling out anyone who had been locked up, and using them to train white EMT’s who got better promotions. Eventually everyone was pushed out and only a select few were able to find employment with the city. But their work went on to help save lives nationwide and is still being used today.
Sources: WQED Pittsburg, Film: Heroes on Call, Wikipedia, and Sage Journals
Dig this? Check out my piece about these medical professionals: Dr Muriel Petioni, Dr Dorothy Brown, or Alice Augusta Ball
