A Stony Path

A Timeline of African Americans in Nursing

1879	Mary Mahoney, America's first black trained nurse, graduated from New England Hospital for Women & Children in Boston, Massachusetts.
1886	Spelman Seminary (renamed Spelman College) in Atlanta, Georgia, started the first nursing program for blacks. It led to a nursing diploma.
1893	A diploma nursing program is established at Howard University in Washington, DC, the first at a university setting.
1908	National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) was founded by Martha Fanklin.
1909	Ludie Andrews sued the Georgia State Board of Examiners to secure black nurses the right to take the state board examination an become licensed. She succeeded in 1920.
1912	NACGN sent a representative to the International Congress of Nurses in Cologne, Germany at the invitation of the current president of the American Nurses Association, Lavinia Dock. Adah B. Thoms represented Linclon Hospital of New York City.
1920	National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses incorporated in the state of New York
1926	Mary Mahoney, America's first trained black nurse, died on January 4. She was buried in Everett, Massachusetts.
1928	NACGN began publishing National News Bulletin, as its official journal.
1929	Adah B. Thoms published Pathfinders, the first historical account of black nurses.
1931	Estelle M. Riddle Osborne became the first black nurse in the United States to earn a master's degree. She graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.
1934	The first regional conference for NACGN was convened at Lincoln School for Nurses, New York. NACGN headquarters were established in the same building with the three major nursing organizations: American Nurses Association, National League for Nursing Education, and National Organization for Public Health Nursing.
1940	NACGN was invited to participate in the Nursing Council on National Defense, which in 1942 became the National Nursing Council for War Service (NNCWS).
1943	Estelle M. Riddle Osborne was appointed consultant to the NNCWS. Susan E. Freeman was assigned as chief of the first black overseas nursing unit.
1944	The United States War Department officially ended its quota limit for black nurses in the Army Nurse Corps.
1945	The United States Navy dropped its color bar against black nurses and Phyllis Daley became the first black nurse commissioned as an ensign.
1946	Mabel K. Staupers, NACGN Executive Secretary, was elected to the board of directors of the National Nursing Council.
1948	Estelle M. Riddle Osborne was the first black to be elected to the American Nurses Association Board of Directors. Individual ANA membership was awarded to all black nurses excluded from any state association
1949	Mary Elizabeth Carnegie became the first black nurse elected to the board of directors of a state nursing association. She served on the Florida Nursing Association's board for six years.
1949	NACGN membership voted to dissolve. The functions and responsibilities of the organization were absorbed by the American Nurses Association (ANA) after a transition period.
1950	ANA adopted an intergroup relations program to work for full integration of nurses of all racial groups in all aspects of nursing.
1951	NACGN was dissolved.
1952	ANA assumed from NACGN the presentation of the Mary Mahoney Award.