# Freedom House Ambulance Service & Bessie Coleman

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/citation-needed-8016/freedom-house-ambulance-service-bessie-coleman
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/citation-needed-8016/freedom-house-ambulance-service-bessie-coleman.md
Podcast: [Citation Needed](https://stenobird.com/podcast/citation-needed-8016)
Published: 2026-02-18T17:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://citationpod.libsyn.com/freedom-house-ambulance-service-bessie-coleman
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/35/clrtpod.com/m/arttrk.com/p/ARTS0/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/citationpod/cn462-WIDE.mp3?dest-id=518557
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/citation-needed-8016/episodes/freedom-house-ambulance-service-bessie-coleman
Duration seconds: 2026

## Resource

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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## Transcript

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