10 nurses honored for Black History Month

The history of nursing is fascinating. There are many nurses who’ve influenced our occupation and paved the best way for us. This Black History Month, we’re spotlighting 10 nurses whose stories are critical to the past and way forward for nursing.

The Stranger’s Truth (1797-1883)

Sojourner Truth, born into slavery, served as a nurse to the Dumont family. After escaping from slavery, she was an advocate for girls’s rights and later became a member of the National Freedmen’s Aid Society, which aimed to enhance the lives of black people. Truth also promoted nurse education and training programs before Congress. Learn more.

Harriet Tubman (1820-1913)

Harriet Tubman, well-known for her role on the Underground Railroad through the Civil War, also used home remedies to take care of soldiers in hospitals without pay or pension. Learn more.

Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926)

Mary Eliza Mahoney was the primary black RN within the United States. In 1908, she helped found the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN). Learn more.

Jesse Sleet’s scales (1865-1956)

Jesse Sleet Scales was a pioneering black public health nurse who helped develop the practice of public health nursing in New York City within the early Nineteen Twenties.^vol age. Scales underpin the work of Black nurses in community and public health nursing. Learn more.

Martha Minerva Franklin (1870-1968)

A graduate of nursing school in 1897 – which she needed to attend out of state because black nursing students weren’t allowed in Connecticut on the time – Martha Minerva Franklin was one among the primary to campaign for racial equality in nursing. Franklin later founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) and served as its first president. Learn more.

Mabel Keaton Staupers (1890-1989)

Mabel Keaton Staupers was a supporter of racial equality within the nursing occupation. She actively worked to finish the U.S. Army’s policy of excluding black nurses from its ranks during World War II and successfully lobbied for full integration of the American Nurses Association in 1948. Learn more.

Lillian Holland Harvey (1912-1994)

Lillian Holland Harvey was director of nursing education on the Tuskegee School for Nurses in 1945 and have become dean of the college in 1948, later transforming this system right into a baccalaureate program. Harvey is credited with “a crusade for unfettered professional recognition in a time of racial discrimination and segregation.” Learn more.

Hazel W. Johnson-Brown (1927-2011)

Hazel W. Johnson-Brown also faced racial discrimination and had to go away home to attend nursing school. She later became the primary black female general within the US Army and the primary black head of the US Army Nurse Corps. Learn more.

Goldie D. Brangman (born 1920)

Goldie D. Brangman was co-founder and later director of the Harlem Hospital School of Nurse Anesthesia, which opened in 1951. In addition to her many achievements in the sphere, Brangman was the primary Black CRNA to change into a nationally recognized leader in the sphere; in 1959, she was elected president of the New York Association of Nurse Anesthetists and later served as treasurer and president of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. Learn more.

Betty Smith Williams (born 1929)

An advocate for diversity, Dr. Williams led a black nurse steering committee in 1968 to prepare the Los Angeles Black Nurses Council. She is the founder and leader of the National Association of Black Nurses and co-founder and first president of the National Coalition of the Ethnic Minority Nurses Association. Learn more.

AND