African American Nursing History

Throughout centuries we as a country have gone through all sorts of changes and developed laws and acts that have now to this day benefited one another in a sense of equality for receiving the same amount of chance as the next individual. The history of nursing dates back as far as the early 1700’s, when the first general hospital opened. The African American history of nursing started in 1793 when the “Free African Society” was founded, they recruited free African American volunteers to care for the citizens when a shortage of nurses occurred due to the outbreak of yellow fever. During this time instead of being rewarded for their help, a publisher named Matthew Carey bashed the volunteers and perceived them as drunks and cheats in his 1794 pamphlet, “A Short Account of the Malignant Fever Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia with a Statement of the Proceedings that Took Place on the Subject in the Different Parts of the United States”. The Free African society was not damaged but rather gave a positive outlook on protestant nurses and was later then acknowledge for civil equality and citizenship, all thanks to their leaders Absalom Jones and Richard Allen for taking a stand and defending them in their

Congress then expanded the act and brought equality to African Americans by passing the Voting Rights Acts of 1965 for them. And as history progressed the nursing field did too, giving more than one race and gender an opportunity to enter this profession. Mrs. Ludie Andrews was an advocate for equality and because of her perseverance she had made it possible for African Americans to achieve the same level of rights to be licensed in the state of Georgia. Many African American women have made history and opened doors of hope for future African American nursing