James Marion Sims was an American physician and a pioneer in surgery. He was known as the father of modern gynecology. His most significant work was the development of a surgical technique for the repair of vesicovaginal fistula, a severe complication of obstructed childbirth. He is also remembered for inventing Sims speculum, Sims sigmoid catheter, […]
African American history
Revisiting the Buffalo Soldiers
The Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the all black 10th Calvary Regiment of the United States Army. They were called Buffalo Soldiers out of respect from the Native Americans. The Native Americans called them this because of their fierce fighting style, the color of their skin, and mainly because of the way their hair […]
Freedom House Ambulance Service v. The City of Pittsburgh
Before the mid-1960’s, ambulance service in the U.S. was typically provided by either the fire department, the police, or a local funeral home. In police-operated ambulances, the ambulance crew would typically load the patient into the back of of a police van, while the police ambulance crew rode in the front. In Pittsburgh, the […]
Black Codes
The Black Codes were laws governing the conduct of free African Americans. Black Codes existed before the Civil War, in fact many northern states had them. In 1832, James Kent wrote that “in most of the United States, there is a distinction in respect to political privileges, between free white persons and free coloured persons […]
