Nonfiction Book Club: American Sirens

About this event

American Sirensby Kevin Hazzard Up until 1968, if you suffered a medical crisis, your chances of survival were minimal. That all changed with the 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 legacy erased—until now. In American Sirens, acclaimed journalist and paramedic Kevin Hazzard tells a dramatic story of heroes and villains, of brutal attempts to stifle hope, and the resilience of a community that fought back. 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