Hunton Life Saving Crew

Members of the Hunton Life Saving and First Aid Crew, an early emergency medical team based in Roanoke, pose in uniform for a group photograph. The crew formed in December of 1941, making it one of the first Black rescue squads in the United States. Doctors and nurses from Gainsboro’s Burrell Memorial Hospital, the only hospital for Black Virginians in the region, led the training of the squad. Members of the crew were on call twenty-four hours a day. Before they could afford ambulances, the Hunton Life Saving Crew responded to emergencies using their own vehicles.