![]() When the NACGN merged with the American Nurses Association in 1951, the ANA continued to bestow the Mary Mahoney award. Because of her contributions and her leadership in fighting for racial integration in the nursing profession, in 1936 the association created an award in her honor. Mahoney, who never married, retired in 1922 but continued to participate in the NACGN’s activities until her death from breast cancer in 1926. Among the association’s goals were to advocate for more opportunities for formal training for African-American nurses and to eventually integrate the nursing profession. Two other important founding members were Martha Franklin and Adah Belle Samuel Thoms. This inspired Mahoney to co-found the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) in 1908. Because of racial discrimination, especially in the South, the organization rarely admitted African-American nurses. ![]() In 1896 Mahoney became a member of the predominately white Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada (later known as the American Nurses Association). She left the New England Hospital for Women and Children and began working as a private duty nurse who traveled and provided medical assistance to patients in the New England area. This acknowledged her as a formally trained nurse. In 1879, out of 42 students who started the program with her, Mahoney was one of only four students who completed the rigorous course.Īfter graduating, Mahoney registered in the Nurses Directory at the Massachusetts Medical Library. During her matriculation, the institution’s policy was that only one African-American student and one Jewish student could be enrolled in each training class. However, in 1878, at the age of 33, Mahoney was admitted as a nursing student in the same hospital where she had devoted almost two decades of service. She eventually gained the respect and confidence of hospital officials and was allowed to work as a nurse’s assistant, even though she did not have formal training. For 15 years she served the hospital in a variety of capacities, including cook, janitor and washerwoman. She also found employment as a teenager at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. She began her interest in nursing as a teenager. Mahoney was born in Dorchester, Mass., in 1845. These women were not afforded the opportunity to receive formal nursing training, but they did open doors for other nurses of color who would follow in their footsteps, including the first African-American woman to graduate from an accredited nursing institution, Mary Eliza Mahoney. As a teenager, King began to teach other “colored” children. It was illegal for slaves to be educated, but she and 30 other children were taught how to read and write by her grandmother’s friend Mrs. She was born in 1848, a slave under Georgia law. In 1856, during the Crimean War, she established a facility called the British Hotel at her own expense to provide caregivers, medical attention, food and comfortable sleeping areas for the sick and wounded.Īnother woman of color who served as a nurse during wartime was the famous Civil War nurse, Susie King Taylor. ![]() ![]() Seacole was forced to go to Europe in order to receive professional training and recognition. ![]() But because of her race, she would never get that opportunity. After a while Seacole extended her caregiving to dogs, cats and other animals.Įventually she felt that she had learned enough and could move on to treating human patients. If there were a disease prevalent in Kingston, her poor doll would “contract” it. As a child, Seacole watched her mother work, took in all the knowledge she could and practiced whatever she learned on her doll. She had no formal training as a nurse but she learned all she knew from her mother, who was a well-known “healer” in the Kingston area. One of the earliest women of color to serve as a caregiver was Mary Seacole, who was born in 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica. In their efforts to obtain appropriate and professional health care education, these women also sought to acquire professional acceptance from their white counterparts. The history of black women in the nursing profession is a story of women of color fighting to overcome racial, social and economic injustice. ![]()
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