American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics
The book draws you in with Chapter One's first sentence:
On a night like any other, pinned somewhere along the dreary timeline of another cold, endless Pittsburgh winter, two men entered Montefiore Hospital and changed the trajectory of John Moon's life.
John Moon came from pretty much nothing. As a child, he slept in one bed with his family. Food was scarce. His mother died early. His father worked and was rarely at home, eventually leaving John and his sister to be raised in an orphanage.
On the night when Chapter One begins, 22-year-old John was working as an orderly at Montefiore Hospital. The two men he saw were paramedics, a new role about which he knew little. Observing them only briefly, John knew immediately he wanted that job. They too were Black, but they were treated with a respect he had never experienced.
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