The Black Angels

How much did you know about tuberculosis before reading The Black Angels? Were you surprised to learn that it’s still the number-one global infectious disease killer in the world?

Although the tuberculosis epidemic occurred in the United States almost a hundred years ago, the world has faced another disease-related threat since then—COVID-19. Discuss the similarities and differences in how society and the medical field responded to these pandemics. How did people treat “essential workers” then versus now? How do you think the Black Angels would have been treated if the tuberculosis epidemic occurred in America today?

What do you think makes the Black Angels’ story so powerful? Was there a fact you learned about these courageous women that particularly resonated with you? Without the Black Angels, what do you think the health-care system, and world, would look like today?

Maria Smilios crafted the story of the Black Angels and their experiences using a narrative, almost novelistic approach. How do you think this style of writing aided in painting the picture of these women’s lives, this time in history, and life at Sea View Hospital?

What was your favorite chapter in The Black Angels and why?

Although this is a book about the Black Angels’ fight to help cure tuberculosis, this is also very much a story about the racism and segregation that plagued the nation. Were you surprised to learn how integral the Black Angels were in the fight for equality in health care, given that their stories were hidden until now? How did the unjust political and social climate shape each of these women’s lives day to day, and in their ongoing fight for a cure?

If you could cast each of the Black Angels in a movie, who would you choose to play each person and why?

In what ways do you think society has progressed in the fight for equality in the workplace, and in what ways do you think we still have a long way to go? If you were one of the Black Angels during their time, how do you think you would have handled the obstacles they faced?

If you could take away one life lesson from the Black Angels and their journeys, what would it be and why?

Upon establishing the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, the fifty-two nurses who formed the national organization to ensure equality in health care came up with a motto: “Not for ourselves, but for humanity.” What does this saying mean to you, and how do you think each of the Black Angels embodied this idea?