National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses

Foundation

In the 20th century, hospitals were segregated, with stark disparities such as in North Carolina, where there were 110 hospital beds per 1,000 white Americans and 1 bed per 1,000 African Americans. African American nurses faced difficulty entering the field alongside limited access for Black citizens. Before the NACGN, the American Nurses Association's predecessor, the AAUSC, was founded in 1897 and included 4 African American alumni, but membership requirements became increasingly unattainable for Black nurses.

In 1906, Connecticut nurse Martha Minerva Franklin surveyed African American nurses about their challenges and found that while the American Nurses Association was technically open to Black members, many state nurses associations refused to admit them, barring qualified Black nurses from full national membership. In 1908, fifty-two nurses, including Franklin and Adah Belle Thoms, met in New York City and decided to start the NACGN. Charlotte Rhone, the first registered Black nurse in the U.S., attended.

A central headquarters was established with a grant from the Rosenwald Fund and office space from Miss Belle Davis, Director of the National Health Circle for Colored People. Franklin was elected president, and Rhone was elected national secretary.

World War II

Initially, the War Department announced no Black nurses would serve in the Army Nurse Corps. Mabel K. Staupers and other activists petitioned for their rights through the NACGN Special Defense Committee. In January 1941, the Surgeon General of the Army announced a quota of fifty-six Black nurses for Camp Livingston and Fort Bragg, but then disregarded this promise. Staupers campaigned for greater inclusion, meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt, white nursing groups, military leaders, and Black advocates, with Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune as a firm supporter.

By 1943, the number of Black nurses in the armed forces increased from 56 to 160. By the end of the war, the War Department drafted all qualified nurses regardless of race, and around 400 African American nurses served in the Army Nurse Corps, deployed in the European theatre, Burma-India theatre, and the South Pacific. Black nurses were also accepted into the Navy Nurse Corps. In 1943, Congresswoman Frances P. Bolton introduced the Bolton Act, which created government grants for nursing programs and forbade discrimination, increasing the number of Black nursing students.

In 1942, the National League of Nursing Education changed its by-laws to allow applicants barred from state leagues to join directly, and several state leagues began admitting Black members. By the end of World War II, there were only 2.9 percent Black nurses (eight thousand registered) in the United States.

Integration with the American Nurses Association

During the civil rights movement in the late 1940s and 1950s, more nursing schools accepted Black applicants. Estelle Osborne wrote that in 1941, 29 U.S. nursing schools had a nondiscrimination policy, and by 1949 that number was 354. In 1949, NACGN members unanimously voted to accept a proposed merger with the American Nurses Association. The NACGN membership voted the organization out of existence in 1951.

Did You Know?

• By its tenth anniversary in 1944, the NACGN headquarters served nearly 11,000 graduate nurses and students with around 220 affiliated organizations.
• The National Medical Association acknowledged NACGN as a vital ally in improving the status of African American medical workers.