THE CHALLENGERS OF RACIAL PREJUDICE 7. MARY ELIZA MAHONEY , First Registered African American Nurse – (1845 to 1926) – At her teens, Mary Eliza Mahoney began having interest in nursing. That interest led her to New England Hospital for women and children, working as cook, janitress, and laundry woman for 15 years. She also served as an unofficial nursing aid, which became a very significant step in her journey of becoming a professional nurse. In 1879, she was finally admitted into the hospital’s nursing school, and was one of the only 3 nursing students who made it through the rigorous study and training. From then on, black students were accepted for professional training, a notable change of blacks’ status in the nursing field. Mahoney officially registered in the Nurses Directory at the Massachusetts Medical Library after graduating. She then embarked in private practice, providing care for patients in the New England area. But becoming a nurse and being able to practice were just parts of Mahoney’s journey against racial discrimination. Mary Eliza Mahoney joined the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada, which is now known as American Nurses Association. The discrimination in the association moved Mahoney to co-find the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in 1908. The NACGN became Mahoney’s instrument in improving status of black nurses in the profession nationwide. She also devoted her life to the Howard Orphan Asylum for Black Children as director and national chaplain. In 1922, Mahoney retired from NACGN, but continued to be active in its activities until she succumbed to breast cancer on January 4, 1926. The NACGN created Mary Mahoney Award in 1936. Until now, the award is given to black nurses who showed similar achievements as Mahoney with regards to intergroup relations and contributions to improving African-American nurses’ status in the profession. Mahoney was inducted into ANA’s Hall of Fame as well as into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1976 and 1993, respectively. 8. MARY SEACOLE , Unofficial Nurse to Crimean War Soldiers – (1805 to 1881) – Mary Seacole was a free black Jamaican who was, at least 4 times, rejected from providing nursing aide to the British soldiers during the Crimean war because of her color. This was despite Florence Nightingale’s call for support of nursing. Rejections were the least thing that could stand against Mary Seacole from tending to the wounded British and Jamaican soldiers. Seacole funded herself and headed for Crimea. Unlike Nightingale, whose hospitals were far from the battlefields, Mary Seacole did her work right where war was taking place. Equipped with no formal nursing training, and only with the healing practice that she learned from her mother and with herbal medicines, she tended to the British soldiers. She also established a facility that provided caregivers, medical attention, food as well as comfortable place for the sick and wounded, all at her expense. For these loving provision and care, she was loved by the soldiers despite her race. When the Crimean War ended, Seacole was broke and ill. Well wishers rallied to her aid, through which she was able to live the rest of her life prosperous. Mary Seacole was awarded medals for her bravery and unselfish acts. And in 1881, the brave Jamaican nurse passed away. 9. SUSIE KING TAYLOR , First African-American U.S. Army Nurse in Civil War - (1848 to 1912) – Susie Baker King Taylor, daughter of slaves, was freed by their owner Mr. Grest by sending her to her grandmother Dolly Reed in Savannah. While with her grandmother, Susie learned how to read and write with the help of some friends. When Civil War broke, Susie, who was then 14 years old, fled to St. Simons Island with her uncle. They were taken under the custody of Union Forces that was then enlisting black soldiers for a new regiment. She was assigned as laundrywoman, but within days became teacher to freed African-American students through the help of some soldiers as well. From being a laundrywoman and teacher, King also became a nurse, tending to the colored soldiers that have been fighting for freedom along their side. The memoirs of her life can be read in the Reminiscences, the story of her experiences in camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops, which she wrote and published in 1902. Ten years after publishing her memoirs, Susie King Taylor died at the age of 64. 10. MABEL KEATON STAUPERS , Led Battle to End Racial Prejudice in Nursing – (1890 to 1989) – Color was the greatest obstacle that had to be faced by every black aspiring to become nurse in the early years. Like Mary Eliza Mahony, Mary Seacole, and Susie King Taylor, Mabel Staupers had to win over her skin color. Mabel Staupers fought hard to finally and fully integrate black nurses into the nursing profession in the U.S., at the time wherein every available medical aid was badly needed, during the Great Depression and World War II. Mabel Staupers started nursing with noteworthy qualifications as she graduated with honors from the Freedmen’s Hospital School of Nursing in Washington D.C. in 1917. Staupers became surveyor of health needs before she was given a significant position as executive secretary for the Harlem Tuberculosis Committee, a Tuberculosis and Health Association unit in New York, in 1922. As surveyor, she saw more clearly the wide disparity between black and white, with regards to both access to equitable healthcare services and treatment of black nurses in her profession’s organizations such as the American Nurses Association and National League of Nursing Education. When she became executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses for 12 years, Staupers built a more stable platform for black nurses in the profession by forming coalitions both in nursing and non-nursing communities. Her efforts to bring end to racial discrimination among nurses paid off when the government integrated black nursing in the U.S. Army Nurses Corps after Pearl Harbor. Staupers continued her fight to liberate colored nurses even after war, successfully gaining full membership for black nurses in the ANA, only 2 years after her resignation from the NACGN, which was also dissolved in 1949. Like Mahoney, Mabel Keaton Staupers also became ANA Hall of Fame inductee, 7 years after her death on November 29, 1989. 11. ISABELLA BAUMFREE , The Soujourner Truth – (1797 to 1883) – Born a slave, Isabella Baumfree paddled the cruel truth of black enslavement in the land of white people, and fighting for freedom became the very essence of her journey. Isabella Baumfree, renamed herself as Soujourner Truth, literally travelled across the country, speaking before crowds speeches that have so much to do with abolishing slavery and the advocacy for women’s rights. Backed with religious faith and belief of equality in the creator’s eyes, Isabella fought alongside groups of abolitionists for freedom from slavery. Her first success was regaining custody of her son Peter through the court of New York. Through her efforts, many Africans were freed from their masters. Aside from advocating equality in race and in gender, Soujourner Truth also served as nurse in the Union Party in the Civil War for the hopes of liberation. First, her task was to enlist black soldiers. In 1864, Truth went to a government refugee camp in an Island of Virginia. She was also employed at the National Freedman’s Relief Association, in Washington D.C., wherein she met President Abraham Lincoln. Truth continued to work for the association to be able to extend hand to her fellow former slaves. After the Civil War, Soujourner went back to fighting for the rights of black people, this time campaigning land ownership for the former slaves. In November 26, 1883, Isabella Baumfree died at the age of 86. 12. HAZEL W. JOHNSON-BROWN , First African-American Chief of the Army Nurse Corps – (1927 to Present) – Named as the first African-American Brigadier General of the Army Nurse Corps in 1979, Hazel W. Johnson-Brown apparently reached the most honorable rank when she was appointed as the chief of the ANC. She then commanded 7,000 men and women in the Army National Guard and Army Reserves, and overseeing numerous medical centers, free-standing clinics, and community hospitals in Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Panama, and the United States. Brig. Gen. Hazel W. Johnson-Brown’s military success started with apparent prejudice, when she was rejected of enrollment at the West Chester School of Nursing. This was the obstacle that she wanted to overcome. Hence, she went off for New York City in 1947, and was admitted in the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing. Her first professional work was at the Philadelphia Veteran’s Hospital, but enlisted into the Army Nurse Corps in 1955 with the encouragement of colleagues. Hazel swiftly rose from the ranks, accumulating impressive credentials from different positions she held, and finally got to the pinnacle of her career as Chief of ANC, with the rank of Brigadier General. After enjoying success in the military service, Brig. Gen. Johnson-Brown retired from the army in 1983. She journeyed to her second career in academia as professor of nursing in Washington D.C.’s Georgetown University, and in Virginia’s George Mason University as instrument to founding Center for Health Policy. When she retired from teaching in 1997, Brig. Gen. Johnson-Brown serves different health administration boards in the Washington area.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 20:56:36 +0000
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