Black people revolutionized what we know today as EMTs. Rep. Summer Lee introduces bill to honor their history

Lee’s bill seeks to award the now defunct Freedom House with a Congressional Gold Medal to be displayed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

While the life-saving work of Emergency Medical Technicians, or EMTs, is seen as vital in communities across the country, few Americans likely know it was Black Americans who revolutionized the profession.

A new bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., seeks to shed light on the little-known history of The Freedom House Ambulance Service, America’s first EMT service and the innovative Black leaders who made it happen.

“Black communities were not being served when there was an emergency…there was no one to take care of them, to get them to the hospital. There was no pre-hospital care. People were dying,” Lee told theGrio of the Pittsburgh community in the 1960s.

Lee’s bill seeks to award the now defunct Freedom House with a Congressional Gold Medal to be displayed at the National Museum of African
American History and Culture.

In 1965, the Freedom House Ambulance Service became the first emergency medical service in the United States to be staffed by paramedics with medical training beyond basic first aid, according to the bill’s text. It was originally known as Freedom House Enterprises, which was founded to provide economic stimulation in Pittsburgh, specifically those in the predominantly Black Hill District, where a majority of the residents fell well below the poverty line. The goal of Freedom House Enterprises was to create job training and employment opportunities for residents and to provide training and employment opportunities for those deemed ‘‘unemployable’’ by the city welfare offices.

In 1965, Philip Hallen, who was president of the Maurice Falk Medical Fund and a former ambulance driver, and chairman of the OEO Health Committee, had the idea of creating a transformative model for emergency medical care that combined social justice with medical innovation. Hallen, joined by a group of individuals in medicine, began training medics for what would eventually become a revolutionary service for the Pittsburgh community, and later the entire nation.

“These were not doctors. They were not medical professionals. These are people, particularly men, who were underemployed who were in this job corps kind of program to get them employed,” said Lee. “They became experts through this training, and then they were able to train other people, and it was able to multiply from there.”

She added, “It was the investment in the people first that really was the foundation of the EMS service.”

Ultimately, the Freedom House Ambulance Service was defunded in 1975 amid poliitcal opposition and racial tension.

“They would be disbanded because of how well they ran. The white communities felt like they were now missing out on something and they took the program,” said Lee.

Despite its disbanding, the Freedom House’s training model, clinical data, and innovations directly influenced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s EMS standards and the national adoption of advanced life-support ambulance systems.

Congresswoman Lee, who recently delivered a fiery progressive response to President Trump’s State of the Union address, said the ultimate dismantling of the Freedom House is eerily similar to how President Trump has “attackd” Black history and DEI. She told theGrio, “All that is a reason why this should come back to the forefront.”

“That there is a rich history here at Pittsburgh, That innovation came from here. So many firsts came from here. And that is something that Black Pittsburgh and all of Pittsburgh should be just immensely proud of,” said the Pittsburgh native.

Lee said of the modern-day attempts to rollback progress for Black Americans, “We have to push back at every single level, and it cannot just be marginalized people who are pushing back with us.”

“If Trump can get away with doing this to our community and everyone else turns a blind eye, that’s the beginning, that’s authoritarianism grows. So we need more people to push back at every single level of this,” she added. “If you care anything about the country, you have to recognize that that is an attack on you too.”