| 1783 |
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James Derham, a slave from New Orleans, bought his freedom while working as a nurse. He later became the first black physician in America.
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| 1820 |
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Jensey Snow of Petersburg, Virginia, opened a hospital and continued for 30 years to provide health care services for the community.
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| 1854 |
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Mary Grant Seacole nursed alongside Florence Nightingale as a volunteer saving the lives of countless soldiers during the Crimean War.
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| 1861-1865 |
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Harriet Tubman served as an unpaid nurse to wounded civilians and soldiers in the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina during the Civil War.
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| 1865 |
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Sojourner Truth served as a nurse for the Freedman's Relief Association during Reconstruction in Washington, D.C. She was recognized by President Abraham Lincoln for her work.
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| 1879 |
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Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first black to graduate from an American nursing school. She is known as the first professional black nurse in America.
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| 1886 |
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Spelman Seminary (renamed Spelman College) in Atlanta, Georgia, established the first nursing program for African Americans.
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| 1892 |
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Nursing schools were established on the campuses of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and Hampton Institute in Virginia.
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| 1890-1920s |
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African Americans established a network of approximately 200 black hospitals and nurse training schools.
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| 1893 |
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Howard University, Washington, D.C., established nursing program leading to a diploma.
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| 1896 |
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American Nurses Association founded.
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| 1900 |
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Jessie Sleet Scales became the first black public health nurse in U.S.
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| 1908 |
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Martha Minerva Franklin founded and became the first president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses.
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| 1918 |
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Eighteen black nurses admitted to the Army Nurse Corps after the armistice of WWI and assigned to Camp Sherman, Ohio, and Camp Grant, Illinois.
Frances Reed Elliott Davis became the first black nurse accepted in the American Red Cross nursing service.
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| 1931 |
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Estelle Massey Osborne became the first black nurse in the U.S. to earn a master's degree. She also was the first black nurse to be elected to the board of directors of the American Nurses Association in 1948.
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| 1936 |
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The National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses created the Mary Eliza Mahoney Award. The first recipient was Adah B. Thoms, who devoted her time and energies to gaining admittance for black nurses to the American Red Cross.
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| 1941 |
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Lt. Della Raney Jackson became the first black nurse to enter military service during WWII.
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| 1951 |
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Mabel K. Staupers received Spingarn Medal for leadership in the movement to integrate black nurses as equals in the nursing profession.
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| 1952 |
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National League for Nursing, the leading professional association for nursing education, formed.
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| 1955 |
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Elizabeth Lipford Kent became the first black nurse to earn a Ph.D.
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| 1961 |
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Mabel K. Stauper's book No Time for Prejudice: A Story of the Integration of Negroes in Nursing in the United States published.
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| 1967 |
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Lawrence Washington became the first male, black or white, to receive a regular commission in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.
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| 1971 |
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Dr. Lauranne Sams, former dean and professor of nursing at Tuskegee University, became a founder and first president of the National Black Nurses Association.
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| 1976 |
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Mary Eliza Mahoney, Martha Minerva Franklin and Adah B. Thoms inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame.
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| 1978 |
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Estelle Massey Osborne became the first black nurse to be inducted as honorary fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.
Barbara Nichols became the first black nurse to be elected president of the American Nurses Association. She was reelected in 1980.
M. Elizabeth Carnegie became the first black to be elected president of the American Academy of Nursing.
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| 1979 |
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Brig. Gen. Hazel W. Johnson-Brown became the first black woman in the Department of Defense to become a brigadier general and the first black to be chief of the Army Nurse Corps.
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| 1982 |
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Fostine Riddick became the first black nurse appointed to the board of trustees of a major academic institution, Tuskegee University, Alabama.
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| 1991 |
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Brig. Gen. Clara Adams-Ender became the first black woman and nurse to be appointed commander general of an Army post. As the highest-ranking woman in the Army, she commanded more than 20,000 nurses serving in the Persian Gulf War.
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| 1992 |
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State Senator Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) elected to the U.S. House of Representatives -- the first nurse, black or white, elected to Congress.
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| 1999 |
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Elnora Daniel became the first black nurse elected president of a major university, Chicago State University.
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