Atlanta Daily World

Mission Of Mercy

Misses Alice Etheridge and Vivien Landrum, cadet nurses at Piedmont hospital, have written their names in large, capital letters in the hearts of Negroes for the speed and intelligence, coupled with an unsullied devotion to the high mission of their profession, in saving the life of a Negro here this week.

The Negro, Ollie E. Wofford, victim of a streetcar-trackless trolley collision, was saved from bleeding to death by these women until ambulance service, fifteen minutes later, could be secured.

In their own personal account of the accident, the young women said: "We were window shopping across the street from the car stop where the accident occurred. We heard the streetcar side-swipe the trolley, and then heard the Negro man scream. We rushed over to see what happened, told the driver we were cadet nurses, and asked if we could help."

Negroes in Atlanta will not fail of course in conveying to these white women their appreciation for the services they rendered in alleviating suffering and rescuing a Negro, though unrenowned, from the very jaws of death. Amid the vast number of injustices, both personal and social, which white citizens in certain areas of the South have been prone to show in instances like the above, it is encouraging to find white people who forget racial and color lines in human misery and catastrophe. How easy it is to recall the death of a prominent Negro woman leader, who this very day, would have been living, had she not been denied admittance and treatment at a white hospital, following an automobile accident between Nashville and Atlanta some ten years ago. We therefore commend the excellent service and Christian patriotism of these two women and we believe their examples will be emulated more and more by white citizens in what is indicative of a changing South.