Mary Mahoney, First African-American Nurse

Mary Mahoney was born in 1845 in North Carolina, a slave state at that time. Her family moved to Massachusetts, a free state.

As a teenager, Mahoney began working as a maid, washerwoman and cook at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, developing an interest in nursing. Founded by women doctors, the New England Hospital for Women and Children is now known as the Dimock Community Health Center.

Mahoney began her nurses' training at the New England Hospital when she was 33 years old. She was one of four students out of forty who completed the nursing program. When she received her nursing diploma in 1879, Mahoney was the first African-American graduate nurse.

After registering with the Nurses Directory in Boston, Mahoney spent the next thirty years working as a private nurse, traveling to many Eastern Seaboard states to work. She established a reputation for professionalism as well as for exemplary nursing care.

Her motto was "Work more and better the coming year than the previous year." [1]

In 1896, Mahoney broke racial barriers by becoming one of the first African-American nurses registered with the American Nurses Association (ANA). Less than ten years later, Mahoney co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN). She gave the welcoming address at the inaugural conference of the NACGN and was the organization's Official Chaplain.

Mahoney served as director of the Howard Orphan Asylum for black children in Kings Park, Long Island, New York from 1911 to 1912.

Mahoney was also a strong supporter of women's equality and suffrage and was among the first women in Boston to register to vote once the 19th amendment had passed.

But in 1923, Mahoney was diagnosed with breast cancer and died three years later. Her headstone reads "The First Professional Negro Nurse in the U.S.A."[1]

In 1936, the NACGN established the Mary Mahoney Award. It recognizes significant contributions by an individual nurse or group of nurses to integration within the nursing profession. Some of the criteria to be nominated for the Mary Mahoney Medal include: the contributions of the nominees include opening and advancing opportunities in nursing to members of minority groups and the contribution must reflect the outcome had an influence on nursing and on the advancement of intergroup relations.

When the NACGN merged with the ANA in 1951, the Mary Mahoney Award was continued under the auspices of the ANA.

Mahoney was inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame in 1978 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.

Sources:

[1] H. Con. Res. 386
American Nurses Association
Nursing World