AFRICAN AMERICAN NURSES, HEALING ON ALL FRONTS

 

The profession of nursing has a long history of African American nurses who worked tirelessly to care for others while facing prejudices and barriers along the way. The American Civil War marked the first widespread use of African-American women and men as nurses in a medical setting, where they worked in Union Army hospitals and on the nation's battlefields. In the decades following the Civil War and emancipation, opportunities for black nurses slowly expanded, and as a field dominated by women nursing emerged as an important occupation for black women. At the end of World War I, with an influenza pandemic raging, 18 black women became the first African Americans enlisted in the United States Army nursing corps. However, by World War II, African American women were once again excluded from the army nurse corps. In response, a variety of organizations pressured the government to integrate including the National Association of colored graduate nurses led by Mabel Keaton Stoppers.

​

By the end of the war, African-American nurses had been accepted into both the Army and Navy. Among this number was native Washingtonian and Prince George’s County resident Edith Devoe. Following the war, Devoe became the first black nurse in the regular Navy when she was assigned to the Navy communication annex dispensary in Washington D.C. Devoe achieved another first in 1950, when she became the first African-American nurse to be assigned to a duty station outside the mainland United States. In subsequent decades, opportunities for black nurses in the military continued to expand. These advancements during the 20th century were made possible by expanding educational opportunities for black nurses that began in the closing decades of the 19th century.

​

In 1879, Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first African American in the U.S. to earn a professional nursing license when she graduated from Boston’s New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School. However, Mahoney’s achievement did not immediately result in expanded educational opportunities for black nursing students. White nursing schools often instituted quota systems for black students, set up segregated accommodations or completely banned them from attending. In 1950, nineteen-year-old Esther Mcready, made history in the state of Maryland when she became the first African-American admitted to the University Of Maryland School Of Nursing. Her admission to the school was the result of a legal battle waged by the NAACP, led by civil rights legends Thurgood Marshall, Donald Gaines Murray, and Charles Hamilton Houston. But Mcready’s struggle for equality did not end with her admission. She faced numerous acts of discrimination during her time at the school.

​

Barbara Starks Jackson, a longtime resident of Prince George’s County, who worked as a nurse at George Washington University Hospital felt the effects of discrimination during her training at the University of Virginia hospital. She quotes by saying that started nursing in 1960 ‘we didn't even know where the school of nursing was because all of us were black and we were not able to go into the white classrooms at all. The patients themselves were very mean to the black nurses there. You were called all kinds of names and they call themselves ordering us round just like you were their maid or their slave. During the era of Jim Crow, black schools and hospitals filled the void for black nurses by creating their training programs which provided a rigorous education in a welcoming environment.

​

Among the earliest programs established for black nurses was the Freedmen's Hospital School of Nursing in Washington D.C., a predecessor of Howard University School of Nursing. Established in 1893, the school would train some of the nation's leading black nurses of the 20th century. Among its graduates was Bessie Crocker, a pioneer in the field of nursing in Prince George’s County. In 1939 Crocker became the first black woman appointed to serve at Glendale Hospital. Despite protests from white government officials and health care workers, local black organizations succeeded in having Crocker placed on the hospital staff.

​

Today a variety of institutions across the nation are training the next generation of black nurses including our own Bowie State University and Prince George’s Community College. They’re helping to fill gaps in a field where African Americans are still woefully underrepresented. There just aren't a lot of black nurses and I want the next generation to have representation in all of our communities and I think that's important. Why it's important is because there have been times where I’ve wanted to leave my job because I’ve been isolated or alienated or felt prejudiced however those moments where I walk into a room and I see that black family meets eyes with me like, whoa I was not expecting you I am excited to see you today those are the moments where I know that we are supposed to be in every kind of pocket of healthcare because they haven't seen anybody that looks like me.

​

Baby boomers are rapidly going into retirement, and we are going to have a lot of gaps that need to be filled by making the nursing workforce more than 8% black and 10% Hispanic nurses, and we need their additional representation. There remains a great deal more to be done to ensure equal opportunities for African Americans in nursing, but the profession has been greatly improved over time and today's black nurses are continually pushing boundaries and reaching new levels of achievement.