From Harlem Hospital To Aragon: The Story Of Salaria Kea
The story of a Black nurse whose dedication to help others volunteered to mend the wounded fighting against fascism in Ethiopia and in the Spanish Civil War.
Since National Nurses Day has passed us by (May 6th for those unfamiliar), it feels like the right time to talk about one of the key figures of the Spanish Civil War — a Black woman who braved racism and the spectre of death to aid in the fight against tyranny and fascism. Her name was Salaria Kea, and her story is a cornerstone of the Black nursing experience.
Salaria was born as one of four children in Milledgeville, Georgia on July 13th, 1917. Her young life was sadly marred by tragedy when she was only six months old. Her father, who at the time was working as an attendant in the Columbus State Hospital, was stabbed to death by a patient — the facility was primarily a hospital for the mentally ill until it was shut down in 1980. There wasn’t much in the way for compensation for the family, and her mother took the four children to Akron, Ohio to stay with friends of her late father. Two years later, her mother went back to Georgia and remarried, leaving Salaria in the care of her older brothers and other family. She would thrive, and learn early on to fight for her rights after a dispute with Akron High School over not being allowed to play on the basketball team led her to transfer to West High
School where there were no restrictions.
Her summer vacations were spent as an assistant in the office of Bedford Riddle, a respected Black physician. As Salaria graduated from high school, Dr. Riddle advised her to take up nursing as a profession seeing her aptitude for it. The racism that was part of the American makeup of the day wouldn’t let her work to become a nurse in Ohio due to segregation policies. Kea soon left for New York City in 1930 and entered into the Harlem Hospital School For Nurses.
Harlem Hospital to this point had already been set as a key staple of the Black community there, but racism still lingered within its walls with policies and a
staff that although was mixed had white doctors and management at the top.
According to Kea’s memoirs, being subject to discrimination in the hospital dining room led her and other offended nurses to initiate a protest that caught
the attention of the mayor. Soon after, the nurses’ demands to integrate the dining room staff and eliminate discriminatory practices against working nurses there were met. It further bolstered Salaria’s spirit in agitating for justice. She would graduate in 1934, and go on to become the head nurse of the tuberculosis ward at Sea View Hospital before returning to work at Harlem Hospital. That year, events halfway across the world would soon see their shock waves hit the streets of Harlem.
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War began on October 3rd, 1935. Italy, who had already begun ramping up forces in what is now Somalia and Eritrea had been desperate to claim the kingdom of Ethiopia as their own. This was no doubt spurred on by their historic defeat by Ethiopia at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 which stunned the Western world and led to the Treaty of Addis Ababa. When news of the conflict broke in the United States, Harlem was in an uproar.
Many signed up to fight in volunteer brigades for Ethiopia. Salaria and other nurses wanted to lend their services to the Ethiopian forces, but Emperor Haile Selassie made the decision to halt accepting more foreign volunteers due to a lack of arms for these willing fighters. These nurses then turned their efforts to raising funds for medical supplies for the forces. There would soon be another conflict, one with the same amount of peril for a world at the threshold of war.
In 1936, Salaria tried to volunteer for the American Red Cross to help flood victims in the Midwest but because she was Black, she was denied. It was at this point where she allegedly became a member of the Communist Party. At
least, that was their claim — Kea herself denied it in a playful manner, stating
“ I thought [Communism] was for white people only, just like the mafia.” She
did have concerns about the allegation after her time in Spain, as expressed
in a letter to a former colleague where she asked, “Do you think I might be on
Nixon’s Enemies List?”
The following year, after discussions with the former dean of Howard University Medical School Arnold Donawa, Kea joined the American Medical Bureau in support of the Abraham Lincoln International Brigade and set sail for Port Bou on March 27th. According to her memoirs, she dealt with racial
indignities while aboard ship but this hasn’t been fully verified. Once she arrived, she got right to work and fit in well while attending to the wounded soldiers and civilians. Her work brought her to Villa Paz, where she was part
of the care team in the first established field hospital. The impact of her work
wasn’t lost on her; while there were other African-American nurses there, she gained prominence for her efforts in making sure there was proper guidelines and care for all. Salaria’s keen observations allowed her to see how racism and fascism intertwined while in Spain, especially when treating Black American volunteers, Spanish peasants injured in battles and even those Black soldiers that were fighting for Franco who were injured during capture.
It was also during this time at Villa Paz that she met & fell in love with John Patrick O’Reilly, an Irishman who volunteered to fight for the International Brigades. It was a reluctant love — she had doubts about their relationship lasting and being an interracial couple in that era posed many problems. But he won her over and they soon married. Soon after, Salaria was assigned to different units in Aragon, Lerida and Barcelona. But injuries she suffered in a bombing had her transferred to the rear in France, where she recuperated until she left for home in May 1938.
Salaria found herself in demand due to her experience, and soon she was touring the United States as a guest lecturer for groups that were raising funds for the American Medical Bureau and the International Brigades. She was even the subject of a pamphlet that described her work there, with some heavy modifications. Kea also lobbied the American government to allow her
husband to come over — no mean feat given the laws of segregation that still were in play. But the O’Reillys were reunited in 1940. Both went on to military service as the United States entered World War II, although Salaria would serve later on due to racial policies in the U.S. Army Nurses Corp. As the war
ended, the couple moved to New York as Salaria assisted in the coordinating process of removing segregation from the city’s hospitals. They retired to Akron in 1973, and still found themselves beset by bigotry to the point where their property was damaged and they received threats. Historians have taken pains to ensure that her views on racism and fascism wouldn’t be shunted aside, and there may be even more that’s due to be uncovered with more research.
Salaria Kea O’Reilly passed away in Akron, Ohio on May 18th, 1990. She lived a full life that was all about helping those in need, whether in the hospital ward or on the battlefield. She never stopped fighting for justice, and that caring is what makes her legacy a rich one.
