Nursing is a challenging profession that requires expertise, dedication, and compassion. Black nurses have made significant contributions to the field, yet their stories often go untold. In this second post in a four-part series for this Nurses Month (here’s the first post), I continue to highlight the achievements of Black nurses who have worked to provide quality care despite discrimination and prejudice. This post will focus on Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926), Adah Belle Samuels Thoms (1870-1943), and Martha Minerva Franklin (1870-1968) as well as on the collaboration among them.

Mary Eliza Mahoney

One of the most prominent Black nurses in history, Mary Eliza Mahoney, was born in 1845 to parents free from slavery. She became the first Black registered nurse in the United States in 1879 after completing a rigorous training program at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. She was the only Black student in her class and one of only four out of 41 who completed the rigorous program.

Hospitals did not hire Black nurses, nor did public health agencies, forcing her to work as a private duty nurse for mostly wealthy white families. Mahoney spent the next 40 years in clinical practice while fighting for acceptance of Black nurses into the larger nursing community. Her advocacy inspired many other Black women to enter the field.

Adah Belle Samuels Thoms

Adah Belle Samuels Thoms was born in 1870. During reconstruction, the Jim Crow laws motivated her to leave the South. She attended the Women’s Infirmary and School of Massage in New York, and in 1905, like Mahoney, graduated as the only Black woman in her class. With only about four percent of hospitals hiring Black nurses, Thoms also worked as a private duty nurse. In 1906, she was named acting director of Lincoln Hospital and Home School of Nursing in New York City. Although she remained in that position for 17 years, racism prevented her from being given the title of director.

Martha Minerva Franklin

Martha Minerva Franklin was born the same year as Thoms. Like Mahoney and Thoms in nursing school, Franklin graduated in 1897 as the only Black student in her class at the Women’s Hospital Training School for Nurses in Philadelphia. And like both of them, because of restrictions on hiring Black nurses at hospitals, she too worked as a private duty nurse.

Establishing a professional organization for Black nurses.

The year Thoms became the acting director at Lincoln, Franklin surveyed Black nurses on issues they were facing and then sent 1,500 handwritten letters to Black nursing graduates and professionals across the country inviting them to establish an organization to be called the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN).

Mahoney, Thoms, and Franklin worked together to make this a reality, and in 1908, 52 nurses came to New York City for their first meeting. Thoms hosted the meeting and Franklin was elected as its first president. The goals of the organization were:

  1. To advance the standards and best interests of trained nurses.
  2. To break down discrimination in the nursing profession.
  3. To develop leadership within the ranks of Black nurses.

Mahoney delivered the opening speech at the organization’s first convention. In 1912, Franklin represented the NACGN at the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in Cologne, Germany. It was the first integration of ICN. By 1940, membership had grown to 12,000. Thoms served as the NACGN president for seven years. During World War I, Thoms met with President Warren G. Harding and First Lady Florence Kling Harding to address the exclusion of Black nurses from the Red Cross and the Army Nurse Corps. In 1916, she joined the National Urban League and the NAACP to confront health care injustice she saw in the Black community. In addition, these three women fought for women’s suffrage, and Mahoney was one of the first women registered to vote in 1920.

Joining the ANA.

In 1951, the NACGN was dissolved as its members were accepted into the American Nurses Association. In 1976, the ANA inducted Mary Eliza Mahoney, Adah Belle Samuels Thoms, and Martha Minerva into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame.

Despite these women’s efforts, there remains a significant underrepresentation of black nurses in the profession. According to the National Council of States Boards of Nursing, only 6.7% of registered nurses in the United States are Black, compared to 13.4% of the general population. Despite the contributions of Black nurses, they continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles and often face discrimination in the workplace. Additionally, there is a lack of diversity in nursing education programs and a shortage of Black nursing faculty. It’s essential to recognize the contributions of Black nurses past and present and continue to work to address the challenges they face.

Edie Brous, JD, MPH, MS, RN, is a lawyer and nurse in New York City and Pennsylvania.