Who was the first black nurse

Notable African-American Nurse Pioneers

The profession of nursing shares a long and prestigious history of African-American nurses who dared to break through cultural norms to offer care to their communities. Black nurses such as Harriet Tubman, Mary Eliza Mahoney and Lillian Holland Harvey did not let the sentiments of their time prevent them from improving not only the lives of those around them, but the profession of nursing as a whole.

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Notable African-American Nurse Pioneers
Harriet Tubman
Mary Eliza Mahoney
Lillian Holland Harvey
African-American Nurses Improve Healthcare
Featured Nursing Programs
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Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman (1820-1913), the American Abolitionist, is famously known from her work helping slaves travel the Underground Railroad to seek freedom. As a Civil War nurse, Ms. Tubman was essential to the troops who were infected with dysentery and smallpox, using natural and herbal remedies for treatment and healing. She was also essential to the Union military commanders as a spy with her knowledge of the surrounding areas and her ability to blend into Confederate-controlled areas. After the war, Harriet Tubman continued her nursing work and started a home for the elderly. She was eventually awarded a military pension for her service during the Civil War and was buried with military honors upon her death.

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Mary Eliza Mahoney

Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926) is noted for becoming the first licensed African American nurse. In 1878, at 33 years of age and 10 years after beginning her employment with The New England Hospital for Women and Children, Mary Eliza was admitted to one of the first integrated nursing schools in the United States. Out of 42 students that entered the program, Mary Eliza was one of 4 who completed the year-long intensive program, and the only African American. Ms. Mahoney spent many years as a private nurse, where she continued to advocate for the profession of nursing and integration of black nurses to the institutions. She joined the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada, which later would become the American Nurses Association (ANA), but found the institution to be uninviting toward the black nurses. In 1908, Mary Eliza co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) and was a lifetime member. Prior to her death, Mary Eliza championed women's rights and was among the first women to register to vote in Boston in 1920. To this day, the ANA (who incorporated the NACGN in 1949) honor the Mary Mahoney award to those nurses who exemplify integration in their field.

Lillian Holland Harvey

Lillian Holland Harvey (1912-1994) received her diploma in nursing in 1939, her first stop in a long journey of education. Her bachelor's degree in 1944 led to a master's in 1948 and eventually her doctorate from Columbia University in 1966. Dr. Harvey's intensity toward education and learning landed her first the director of nurse training at the Tuskegee School for Nurses, a historically black nursing school that offered only 3-year degree programs. Once she became Dean, Dr. Harvey initiated the process to turn the diploma-program school into a full baccalaureate nursing program – becoming the first in the state of Alabama. During WWII, she used her position as Dean to create training programs and opportunities for black nurses to join the Army Nurse Corps. Dr. Harvey served as the Dean of Nursing at Tuskegee Institute for 25 years until her retirement in 1973. During her reign, she strove to improve integration on many levels in the state of Alabama, including attending the Alabama Nurse's Association where she was required to sit in a separate section. A recipient of the Mary Mahoney Award from the ANA, Dr. Harvey also has an award in her name by the Alabama Nurse's Association, among many of her legacy achievements.

RELATED: A History of Nurses in the Military

African-American Nurses Improve Healthcare

Throughout American history, African American nurses have shown grit, integrity, and perseverance to earn the same qualifications and positions as their non-black colleagues. Institutions such as the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) strive to "improve the health of African Americans through the provisions of culturally competent health care services in community-based health programs." Resources such as the Journal of the NBNA detail how African American healthcare issues are studied, discussed, and published.

While there are still many lengths to go to improve underlying prejudices and micro-aggressions faced today by black nurses in the U.S., the fortitude and grit proven by so many incredible African-American nurses in the past is more than a glimmer of what is to come. The profession of nursing is stronger, wiser, and more powerful because of our black heritage.

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Amanda Bucceri Androus, RN, BSN

Amanda Bucceri Androus is a Registered Nurse from Sacramento, California. She graduated from California State University, Sacramento in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in nursing. She began her career working night shifts on a pediatric/ med-surg unit for six years, later transferring to a telemetry unit where she worked for four more years. She currently works as a charge nurse in a busy outpatient primary care department. In her spare time she likes to read, travel, write, and spend time with her husband and two children.

Mary Eliza Mahoney was one of only four students to complete the rigorous graduate nursing program at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, making her the first Black licensed nurse.

By Breanna Edwards · Updated October 23, 2020

If you are a medical professional (particularly a Black medical professional), or just an overall Black-history buff, you likely have heard of Mary Eliza Mahoney. For those who have been denied tales of Mahoney’s excellence, she is heralded as the first African-American licensed nurse. Mahoney worked in nursing for almost 40 years before retiring, but during her time as a medical professional, as well as long after, she was a champion of women’s rights. A trailblazer, not just as a Black person, but also as a woman. Mahoney’s story starts in 1845 in Boston, where she was born to freed slaves. Her exact date of birth is unknown, but she is believed to have been born in the spring, the National Women’s History Museum notes. Even as a teenager, Mahoney knew she wanted to become a nurse, and she began working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, which, as its name suggests, provided health care exclusively to women and their children. At the time, the hospital was also known for its all-women staff of doctors. There, Mahoney worked from the ground up over the next 15 years, in jobs such as janitor, cook and washerwoman, while also seizing the opportunity to work as a nurse’s aide. The hospital operated one of the first nursing schools in the United States, and as you can probably guess, in 1878 a then 33-year-old Mahoney was allowed to enter the hospital’s professional graduate school for nursing. During the intensive 16-month training program, students attended lectures and got hands-on experience in the hospital. The program was rigorous, and according to the Women’s History Museum, of the 42 students who entered the program, only four, including Mahoney, completed the requirements in 1879. In the same breath, she became the first Black person in the U.S. to earn a professional nursing license. Mahoney would go on to serve as a private-duty nurse for the remainder of her impeccable career (she decided against public nursing because of the rampant discrimination there) and became known across the East Coast for her “efficiency, patience and caring bedside manner,” according to the Women’s History Museum. A staunch advocate of those within the profession, Mahoney became a member of the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada (NAAUSC, later known as the American Nurses Association) in 1896. But she faced discrimination at NAAUSC, which had a predominantly white membership, so Mahoney took it upon herself to co-found the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) in 1908. Within the next year, Mahoney would give the opening speech at NACGN’s first national conference. At the convention, members selected Mahoney to be the national chaplain and presented her with life membership. Mahoney eventually became director of the Howard Orphanage Asylum for Black Children in 1911. Even after her work as a nurse came to an end and she retired, she never stopped fighting for justice. After the 19th Amendment was ratified in August 1920, the Women’s History Museum notes, she was among the first women who registered to vote in Boston. After a lifetime of giving medical care to others, Mahoney ended up with her own medical struggles and died on Jan. 4, 1926, at the age of 80 after a three-year battle with breast cancer. Her grave is located at Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts. Even if Mahoney’s contributions sometimes go unnoticed, there are many ways that those within the medical profession have tried to keep her legacy alive. In 1936 the NACGN, which ultimately merged with the American Nurses Association, founded the Mary Mahoney Award, which is given to nurses or groups of nurses for their efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in the nursing world. In 1976 the American Nurses Association posthumously inducted Mahoney into the Nursing Hall of Fame, noting that she “inspired both nurses and patients with her calm, quiet efficiency and untiring compassion.” In 1993 Mahoney was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the nation’s oldest membership organization dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the achievements of American women in areas including the arts, athletics, business, education, government, humanities, philanthropy and science.