Virginia Allen, one of the last surviving “Black Angels”, is Graduation Keynote Speaker

Dr. Virginia Allen, LPN, DHL, who was among a group of 300 Black nurses who cared for tuberculosis patients in New York when few nurses would, will deliver the keynote address at the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing graduation and receive the Helen Manzer Award. 

Allen, 92, is a nurse, labor relations advocate and social activist, is one of the last living members of the group that became known as the “Black Angels”. The Black Angels were recruited from all over the country to avert a public health crisis when white nurses quit rather than treat tuberculosis patients.

They worked at Sea View Hospital in Staten Island from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, risking their lives to care for some of the city’s poorest and sickest patients. The efforts, largely unrecognized for decades, were instrumental in the development of a cure. Their work also played a major role in the desegregation of New York City hospitals, as well as nursing practice, education and professional associations.

Allen will receive the Helen Manzer Award, which is given "in recognition of outstanding humanitarian efforts on behalf of professional nursing” is one of the highest honors bestowed by NYU Meyers. Previous recipients of the Helen Manzer Award include Donna Shalala, PhD, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Claire Mintzer Fagin, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean emerita of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and an NYU Meyers alumna (’64).

The NYU Meyers graduation will be held at New York City Center theater at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 20, 2024. It will also be livestreamed.

“Dr. Allen and the intrepid women known as the Black Angels continue to inspire and inform our work around public health and equity today,” said Dean Angela F. Amar. “It’s an honor to have her share her story and experience with our graduates.”

Dr. Allen came to New York City at 16, urged by her aunt, who was also a nurse at Sea View Hospital, one of the few municipal hospitals that didn’t discriminate against Black nurses. She lived and worked at Sea View from 1947-57.

“I found it a challenge, not a chore,” Allen told Nurse.org about her decade working at Sea View. "This world is all we have, and it is our duty to care for one another with love.”