February 1: Freedom House Ambulance Services

Did you know the first medical emergency paramedics were Black men in Pittsburgh?

Let me tell you the story of Freedom House Ambulance Service.

In the early 1960s, emergency medical transportation was provided by the police or a funeral home and often did not include any treatment. Naturally, this led to many preventable deaths, including the death of a former Governor of Pennsylvania in 1966.

The governor’s doctor, Peter Safer, knew there had to be a better way. He also lost a daughter due to poor pre-hospital care and had recently invented CPR to help address emergency medical concerns. He had a ton of ideas on how to prevent pre-hospital deaths, so he called his friend, Phil Hallen.

Phil Hallen was a former ambulance driver who now led the Maurice Faulk Fund – and he loved the idea! The fund he managed was focused on improving emergency medical services AND employing Black men in Pittsburgh. It felt like a perfect partnership. So, he hit up Freedom House Enterprises.

Freedom House Enterprises was a job-based program in Pittsburgh led by James McCoy Jr. and heavily-funded by the federal government. One of their primary goals was to address the underemployment of Black men in the Black Hill District of Pittsburgh, especially Vietnam vets and the formerly incarcerated. In 1967, the group agreed to help Peter & Phil find recruits for their new dream: an emergency paramedics service in Pittsburgh.

The new paramedics had to complete a 32-week, 300-hour course schedule that included lessons in anatomy, first aid, and defensive driving. Recruits that hadn't graduated high school also worked to earn their GEDs as part of their training. The first class included 25 Black men, many of whom had been previously unemployed for an extended period of time.

And these men were amazing! They primarily served their own neighborhoods, which were underserved by the local police (big surprise!).

Black patients in need of emergency care asked for Freedom House by name, while some white patients refused to be picked up by the Freedom House Paramedics team – even though the Freedom House paramedics were better trained than the other emergency response teams in the city at the time.

They typically arrived in less than 10 minutes and saved 200 lives in their first year of operation.

"We were considered the least likely to succeed by society's standards [...] But one problem I noticed is, no one told us that!" - James Moon, former paramedic

After eight years, the Freedom House Ambulance Service revolutionized emergency care around the world. The former medical director, Dr. Nancy Caroline, documented and improved the training process for new paramedics at Freedom House. And her work laid the foundation for the first curriculum for paramedics, everywhere. Their souped-up ambulances served as the basis for improved ambulances across the country and the world. They were (mostly) respected in the city for their high-quality, personalized care and for treating Black patients, especially, like ya know, humans.

In 1970, Pittsburgh got a pissy new mayor who did not like Freedom House paramedics outperforming his city-funded police department. He made it difficult for the group to expand to other non-Black neighborhoods, cut their funding, and eventually launched a new citywide ambulance service, effectively ending Freedom House Ambulance Service by 1975.

The new citywide service agreed to hire the highly-trained and well-liked Freedom House paramedics after Dr. Nancy Caroline made the demand as part of her agreement to oversee the city operations. The Black paramedics were hired but demoted, disrespected, or fired after their criminal records were pulled.

A majority of the Black paramedics from Freedom House were more experienced than their white counterparts who replaced them. Within a year or two, only a handful of the original paramedics remained.

The legacy of the first fully-trained paramedics lives on. The Freedom House Ambulance Service serves as the framework for emergency paramedics today. After eight years, the Freedom House Ambulance Service revolutionized emergency care around the world.

You can also visit the original location of the Freedom House Enterprises & the Freedom House Ambulance Services. And a privately-released documentary, Freedom House: Street Saviors, has been screened but not yet made publically available.

Sources

• NPR

• University of Pittsburgh

• WSFU

• Unique Coloring

• EMS World

• LATimes

• Bloomberg