10 African-American Nurses Who Changed the Course of History
Share on LinkedIn BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Camp Fletcher was founded in 1926 by Pauline Bray Fletcher, the first African-American registered nurse in Alabama. She, with other supporters, recognized a lack of opportunities for inner-city children to explore nature and the outdoors.
The Nurses In. American Horror Story. Are Based On A True Story. Photo: FX. In one of the most striking scenes in episode 2 of American Horror Story: Roanoke, two nurses stand over an elderly ...
Provident Hospital, now a public hospital, was the first African-American owned and operated hospital in America. Provident was established in Chicago in 1891 by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, an African-American surgeon during the time in American history where few public or private medical facilities were open to black Americans. It was founded to provide health care and medical training.
S. Mary Eliza MahoneyMiller, Helen S. Mary Eliza Mahoney 1845-1926- America's First Black Professional Nurse.
Florence Nightingale certainly holds the honor of being the most famous nurse on our list. She became a nurse in 1851 and traveled to Turkey to aid British soldiers during the Crimean War.
Estelle Massey OsborneEstelle Massey Osborne. Osborne holds the distinction of being the first Black woman to earn a Masters Degree in Nursing. From that point on, her mission was to make sure that other Black nurses had better access to higher education.
Florence Nightingale, the First Professional Nurse.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was born into elite social circles and was instrumental in advancing the nursing profession. She founded the first science-based nursing school in the world, was one of the first to carry out diligent handwashing, and developed the Royal Commission for the Health of the Army.
1. Florence Nightingale. Founder of Modern Nursing (1820 to 1920) The history of modern nursing started in 1849, when Florence Nightingale began her first formal nursing training at the Institute of St.
Goldie D. Brangman, CRNA, MEd, MBA, the first and only African American president of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) once cared for one of the most influential men of our time. On September 20, 1958, Dr.
Dr. James Durham, born into slavery in 1762, buys his freedom and begins his own medical practice in New Orleans, becoming the first African-American doctor in the United States.
Lieutenant Edward T. LyonIt took more than five decades—and many letters to Congress—but by 1955, the Army Nurse Corps commissioned its first male officer. Lieutenant Edward T. Lyon became the ANC's first male nurse.
Contents. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), known as “The Lady With the Lamp,” was a British nurse, social reformer and statistician best known as the founder of modern nursing.
PhoebeNursing in the Bible and Middle Ages Phoebe was the first nurse mentioned in the Holy Bible. Commissioned by St. Paul as a deaconess serving the church, Phoebe is said to have exemplified early Christian ideals of charity and selflessness. She gave care to sick strangers, orphans and travelers under her own roof.
Although the origins of nursing predate the mid-19th century, the history of professional nursing traditionally begins with Florence Nightingale. Nightingale, the well-educated daughter of wealthy British parents, defied social conventions and decided to become a nurse.
Born in 1901, Estelle Massey Osborne became the first black woman to earn a master’s degree in nursing. But this isn’t the only fact that distinguishes her. Throughout her career, Osborne dedicated herself to improving the options available to black nurses across the country. Her goal was to ensure that black nurses received just as high-caliber an education as their white counterparts.
Betty Smith Williams grew up in South Bend, Indiana and says that she “saw very early on how activism and collectivism could impact change.” Williams took this philosophy with her into the nursing world and became the first black individual to wear the cap of Cleveland, Ohio’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. She also went on to become the first black person to teach at either a college or university in the entire state of California.
She was a pioneer who refused to succumb to the restrictions imposed by racial prejudice.
Adah Belle Samuel Thoms was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1870. In 1905, she graduated from the Lincoln Hospital and Home School of Nursing, where the following year she became acting director – a position she held for nearly two decades. During this period, it was extremely rare for black people to hold such high-level roles, but Thoms handled it with excellence. Even so, racial prejudice stopped her from officially being named director.
During the American Civil War, she worked as a volunteer for the Union Army, handling diverse tasks such as laundering clothes, teaching soldiers how to read and write, and making custard using turtle eggs. She also knew how to handle a musket and was a pretty good shot.
Betty Smith Williams was the first African-American graduate of the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and went on to become the first African-American college-level teacher in the state of California.
Hazel Johnson Brown was denied admission to the Chester School of Nursing, but her unwavering determination led to the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing, beginning a long and illustrious career.
While she never received formal training, she used her knowledge of herbal medicine to treat injured soldiers during the Civil War.
The profession began to change when Mary Eliza Mahoney, often noted as the first black nurse in history, graduated from nursing school and was the first African American nurse to be licensed. Since that day in 1869, African American nurses have continued to strive for equality in the profession.
Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845 – 1926) First Black woman to earn a professional nursing license in the U.S. While many African Americans served as nurses before her, Mary Ezra Mahoney often carries the distinction of the first Black nurse in history, as she was the first to earn a professional nursing license in the U.S.
A famed conductor of the Underground Railroad, the former slave also acted as a nurse during the Civil War, tending to Black soldiers and liberated slaves. Perhaps best known as an abolitionist and conductor of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman also made significant contributions in nursing.
Bernadine Lacey chose her nursing school because it was the only one in the state that would accept black students into a registered nursing program.
Racism is a longstanding public health crisis that impacts both mental and physical health.”. Today, African American nurses have representative bodies like the National Black Nurses Association and Black Nurses Rock to help support, develop and advocate for Black nurse leaders.
Adah Belle Thoms (1870-1943) National Association of Colored Graduate Nurse cofounders, fought for Blacks to serve as American Red Cross nurses in WWI. In 1906, Adah Belle Thoms was named assistant superintendent of nurses at Lincoln Hospital in New York.
In 1979 , she was nominated as the 16th chief of the Army Nurse Corps and promoted to brigadier general, becoming the first African American woman to earn the rank. Following her retirement, she entered academia, serving as a professor of nursing at Georgetown University and George Mason University.
Jessie Sleet Scales. Another pioneering African-American nurse was Jessie Sleet Scales, who in 1900 became America’s first black public health nurse. Trained in Chicago, Scales moved to New York and, after trying unsuccessfully for months to find a job, became a district nurse for the Charity Organization Society.
Born in 1901, Estelle Massey Osborne became the first black woman to earn a master’s degree in nursing. But this isn’t the only fact that distinguishes her. Throughout her career, Osborne dedicated herself to improving the options available to black nurses across the country.
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery therefore no records of her birth were kept. Luckily, she managed to escape and changed her name from Araminta to Harriet.
Mabel was a Caribbean-American nurse and an organisation executive. She became a U.S citizen in 1917 and was studying nursing at Freedmen’s Hospital School of Nursing in Washington, D.C.
Lillian was an African American nurse leader who transformed nursing education. In 1966, she received a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degree in nursing.
Hazel was a nurse educator who served in the United States Army from 1955 – 1983. She was the first African American female general in the Army and the first Black chief of the Army Nurse Corps.
Estelle Massey Osborne was the first African-American nurse to earn a master’s degree and, in 1945, she became the first African-American professor at New York University. Throughout her career, Osborne fought to make sure that other African-American nurses had access to higher education. She was able to expand the acceptance rate for African Americans at a number of nursing schools and worked tirelessly to help lift the color ban in the U.S. Navy and Army.
While other African-Americans had worked as nurses before, Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first to become a registered nurse, graduating from a New England professional nurse-training program in 1879. Because discrimination limited her options, Mahoney worked as a private nurse for wealthy families and dedicated her efforts to ending the inequalities that had impacted her career.
Betty Smith Williams was the first African-American graduate of the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing , a prestigious institution at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She later became the first African-American college-level teacher in the state of California. And she’s served as Assistant Dean of the UCLA School of Nursing, Dean of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center’s School of Nursing and Dean of the American University of Health Sciences’ School of Nursing.
Hazel Johnson-Brown earned a nursing bachelor’s degree from the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing, and entered the U.S. Army in 1955, shortly after the segregation ban was removed. In 1979, she became the first female African-American brigadier general and also became head of the Army Nurse Corps.