The woman who defied the odds as the first Black nurse in the U.S.
At a time when Black women were largely excluded from formal training, Mary Eliza Mahoney set a new standard for who could serve in American hospitals.
Despite how limited her options were, Mahoney dreamed of being at the forefront of patient care. In 1878, a 33-year-old Mahoney applied to nursing school at the hospital where she worked. Although she was two years older than the program permitted, the administrators waived the age requirement, as they'd seen years of her work.
Mahoney became the first Black professionally trained nurse in the United States and also went on to raise nursing’s standards and open its doors to other Black women, insisting that professional excellence and racial justice were inseparable.
There are so MANY areas of our modern life which have happened as a direct result of the efforts and brains of black individuals. ALL in places where they were not supposed to have had any perceived capabilities to do what they did.
ReplyDeleteOne observation I made decades ago was that although many black people might not have had a higher-level education, THEY sure could see things directly as they were. Unafraid to admit what they had or were seeing, but respectfully keeping their mouth shut. When something was not right, THEY KNEW! As "whites" looked the other way.
Whether it was "cowboys" (the "boy" part left over from the slave days) in the old west, manual laborers, or other educated blacks, BLACK people are as much of a part of our modern world as any other group of people. Black lives matter. Black History Month should be celebrated and understood. Although SOME might not desire to recognize or admit these things.