Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926) was the first African American to complete a professional training program and work as a nurse in the United States.
Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926) was the first African American to complete a professional training program and work as a nurse in the United States.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. This is Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about the women who’ve made important contributions to the world of health and wellness.
Today, we’re talking about a nurse celebrated as a pioneer in her field. She was the first African American to complete a professional training program as a nurse in the United States, and she spent her career dedicated to her community. Please welcome Mary Eliza Mahoney.
Mary Eliza Mahoney was born in the spring of 1845 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents, Charles and Mary Jane Stewart Mahoney, were formerly enslaved in North Carolina before moving to Boston just before the Civil War. Mary was the eldest of three children. At age 10, Mary attended the Phillips School in Boston. After 1855, the Phillips school became one of the first integrated schools in the country.
At the time, Black women were not permitted to attend university. But, Mary knew early on that she wanted to be a nurse. She started working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children when she was a teenager.
For the next 15 years Mary worked in many capacities at the hospital. She washed clothes, cleaned rooms, and worked in the kitchen before she was offered the opportunity to be a nurse’s aide. This new role gave her the chance to learn the ins and outs of the nursing profession.
The New England Hospital for Women and Children also operated one of the first nursing schools in the United States. In 1878, at the age of 33, Mary was admitted to the hospital’s professional graduate school for nursing. For each class, only one Black woman and one Jewish woman were permitted to attend.
The nursing program was intensive and lasted 16 months. And during that time, the nursing students were in charge of wards of patients, worked in private homes, and attended day-long lectures. They made morning rounds with doctors at the hospital, who demanded the highest standards of care from the nursing students. By one description, students worked 16-hour days, seven days a week.
Of the 42 students that entered the program in 1878, only four completed it in 1879. Mary was one of the four to reach that finish line and became the first African American to earn a professional nursing degree.
As she began her career Mary didn’t end up getting a job at a hospital. The discrimination toward Black nurses made that nearly impossible. So, instead she became a private nurse. She focused on the needs of individual clients, many of whom were from wealthy white families. And she became well known for her patient and caring bedside manner. Up and down the east coast, this 90-pound ball of energy was praised for her work.
Mary was also interested in organizing. She understood the need for nurses to work together to improve their situation. And so, in the 1890s, Mary joined what would eventually become the American Nurses Association, or ANA. But, as one of the only black members, Mahoney faced discrimination again, and she felt the group wasn’t meeting the needs of the Black community.
In 1908, she helped found what was then known as the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. Her goal was to break down the barriers Black nurses faced due to their race. And the organization continued its work until 1951, just a few years after Black nurses were finally more openly permitted to join the ANA.
Mary retired after 40 years in nursing. In 1923, she became ill with breast cancer. After three years of living with the disease, she died on January 4, 1926. She was 80 years oldMary was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.
In 1936, the NACGN founded the Mary Mahoney Award to honor her legacy as a nurse dedicated to others, who opened doors for other Black women in nursing. The award is still given out today by the ANA. It's reserved for providers who, like Mary, advocate for more integration in the field of medicine.
All month, we’re honoring women who changed the landscape of health and wellness.
For more information and pictures of some of the work we’re talking about, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!