NSNA Celebrates Black History Month
February is Black History Month . For the entire month , NSNA highlighted a Black nurse on social media . Here are a few extraordinary Black nurses :
Betty Smith Williams was the first African American nurse to graduate from the nursing school at Case Western Reserve University . She later became the first black person to teach at a higher education institution in California . Williams was also a co-founder of the National Black Nurses Association ( NBNA ), founded in 1971 , an association still working to improve healthcare for African Americans across the country today .
Estelle Massey Osborne was the first black nurse in the U . S . to earn a master ’ s degree . ⠀ ⠀ In 1943 , Osborne became a consultant for the National Nursing Council for War Services and helped to get the color ban lifted from nursing in the US Army and Navy . She also assisted in almost doubling , within two years , the number of training schools that would accept black students . ⠀ ⠀ Then in 1945 she became the first black member of New York University ’ s teaching faculty and used her position to continue to fight for black nurses ’ rights . Osborne ’ s legacy lives on in the form of the Estelle Massey Osborne Scholarship for registered black nurses interested in studying a nursing master ’ s degree full time .
Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first registered black nurse when she graduated from a training program in New England in 1879 .
Mahoney co-established the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in 1908 . In recognition of her contribution to the nursing profession , in 1936 the American Nurses Association instituted the Mary Mahoney Award , to be awarded to nurses who go above and beyond when it comes to integration and equal opportunities for minorities in the field of nursing . n
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