True Story Book Club: American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics by Kevin Hazzard
American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics by Kevin
Hazzard (336 pages)
The extraordinary story of an unjustly forgotten group of Black men in Pittsburgh who became the first paramedics in
America, saving lives and changing the course of emergency medicine around the world
Until the 1970s, if you suffered a medical crisis, your chances of survival were minimal. A 9-1-1 call might bring police or
even the local funeral home. But that all changed with Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh, a group of Black men who
became America’s first paramedics and set the gold standard for emergency medicine around the world, only to have
their story and their legacy erased—until now.
In American Sirens, acclaimed journalist and paramedic Kevin Hazzard tells the dramatic story of how a group of young,
undereducated Black men forged a new frontier of healthcare. He follows a rich cast of characters that includes John
Moon, an orphan who found his calling as a paramedic; Peter Safar, the Nobel Prize-nominated physician who invented
CPR and realized his vision for a trained ambulance service; and Nancy Caroline, the idealistic young doctor who turned
a scrappy team into an international leader. At every turn, Freedom House battled racism—from the community, the
police, and the government. Their job was grueling, the rules made up as they went along, their mandate nearly
impossible—and yet despite the long odds and fierce opposition, they succeeded spectacularly. Never-before revealed in
full, this is a rich and troubling hidden history of the Black origins of America’s paramedics, a special band of dedicated
essential workers, who stand ready to serve day and night on the line between life and death for every one of us.
