Freedom House Ambulance Service & Bessie Coleman

Freedom House Ambulance Service was the first emergency medical service in the United States to be staffed by paramedics with medical training beyond basic first aid. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Founded in 1967 to serve the predominantly Black Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , it was staffed entirely by African Americans. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Freedom House Ambulance Service broke medical ground by training its personnel to previously unheard-of standards of emergency medical care for patients en route to hospitals. [ 3 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] The paramedic training and ambulance design standards pioneered in the Freedom House Ambulance Service would set the standard for emergency care nationally and even internationally. [ 2 ] [ 5 ] Despite its successes, the ambulance service was closed eight years after it began operating. [ 5 ] Elizabeth Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) [ 2 ] was an early American civil aviator . She was the first African-American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license, [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] and is the earliest known Black person to earn an international pilot's license . [ 10 ] She earned her license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 11 ]

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Freedom House Ambulance Service & Bessie Coleman is an episode from Citation Needed by Citation Needed Media.

This episode is 33:46 long.

This episode was published on Feb 18, 2026.

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