Viola Pettus was a self-trained black nurse who, with the help of her husband, Ben, set up an encampment/tent hospital in the West Texas outback not far from the Mexican border, to treat victims of the Spanish flu epidemic that was raging through the region in 1918. Among her challenges was treating anybody in need: These included Mexican wayfarers who had crossed the border illegally, fever-plagued soldiers from Pancho Villa’s band and Ku Klux Klanners... More >>>