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They don’t want to talk about it. The paramedic as we know it today — the training, the equipment, the life-saving response — was pioneered by Black men. And most people have never heard their names. In 1967, a group of Black men in Pittsburgh became the first people in the world to complete a comprehensive paramedic training course. They were part of Freedom House Ambulance Service, founded in a predominantly Black neighborhood and staffed entirely by Black paramedics. Before Freedom House, ambulances didn’t provide emergency care on the way to the hospital. In some cases, ambulances were hearses driven by undertakers from the same funeral home that would later plan the patient’s funeral. In their first year alone, Freedom House paramedics responded to nearly 5,800 calls and saved 200 lives, documented by data. One of their own, John Moon, performed the first ever out-of-hospital endotracheal intubation in American history. They set the gold standard for emergency medicine around the world. Then their story was erased. In 1975, just eight years after it was created, Freedom House was shut down by Pittsburgh’s mayor. It’s widely believed racial prejudice drove that decision. Every time a paramedic saves a life today, they’re building on a foundation Black men laid. Remember that.