Honoring America’s first Black paramedics from Pittsburgh

Commemorate Black History Month with a visit to the Freedom House Ambulance Service exhibit at Pittsburgh’s City-County Building. Running throughout February, the collection of photos and memorabilia documents the first emergency medical service in the U.S. staffed by paramedics with medical training (as opposed to basic first aid).

“We were considered the least likely to succeed by society’s standards,” recalls John Moon, one of the early trainees. Comprised mostly of Black men, many of whom were back from Vietnam or fresh out of prison, these pioneers revolutionized emergency medicine on the same blocks where they were once considered unemployable.

– Eve Lederman, The 100 Companies