Governors nationwide are considering how to reopen their states even as the coronavirus crisis continues to grow. This impulse has a precedent: it’s what many towns did during the flu pandemic of 1918 — a global health crisis that killed more than 50 million people worldwide, and more Americans than all 20th- and 21st-century wars combined.
In this special report, Ed Ayers, host of the VPM series “The Future of America’s Past,” offers a snapshot view of Richmond’s experience with the 1918 flu:
- a 24 year-old soldier, a budding playwright who supported women's suffrage, dies just days after getting a promotion;
- an African American leader demands that the governor provide resources to care for black patients, who were being treated in a windowless basement;
- and a city health official who wavered over when to re-open the city, and, under pressure, did so too soon.
Listen here, and watch a video version of the story at futureofamericaspast.com.
