From Truth First, the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project newsletter, April 2020 “Renewed interest in the history of racial terror in the US is reflected in the quickening pace of scholarship on the subject, included here in Maryland. Recently, two independent researchers have made significant contributions to the body of knowledge about racial terror lynchings in…
Month: April 2020
Wilmington Needed Ambulances When the Spanish Influenza Struck
As the City of Wilmington marshaled its resources for the deadly struggle to alleviate suffering during the pandemic of 1918, branches of local government rendered unwavering service combating the so-called Spanish Influenza. One of the most challenged governmental operations, the ambulances, toiled under great strain. The division’s never-ending, tough work made even tougher by unprecedented…
Wilmington Nurses Paid a Heavy Price Fighting the Pandemic of 1918
When the Spanish Influenza hit Delaware in 1918, the surge devastated Wilmington and overwhelmed city hospitals. With sickness everywhere that October, doctors and ambulances could not keep up. Gongs rang continuously on the streets day and night as the emergency vehicles rushed the most critical cases to Homeopathic, Delaware, and Physicians’ and Surgeons’ hospitals. This…
Telephone Operators Were Essential Workers in 1918
When the Spanish Influenza struck in 1918, Delmarva’s essential workers paid a heavy toll serving on the front line of the struggle during the weeks the illness ripped across the Peninsula. That autumn the nation already grappled with the burden of World War I, when the first contagious cases broke out here. As the virus…