Paramedics haven’t always raced to the scene of an emergency. Before 1966, if you called for help to get to the hospital, you might get a police car, or even a hearse. That year, Pittsburgh’s non-profit Freedom House set out to change that for the city’s Hill District, which was predominately Black. Staffed by trained Black men and mentored by the inventor of CPR, the ambulance service served as a model for newly emerging paramedic services around the country.