NYsNA Honors Black History Month

Public sector Nurses Honor Dr. king’s Legacy

black History Month is an opportunity to recognize and honor the contributions of Black people while being inspired to follow in their footsteps or create one’s own unique path. NYSNA nurses from New York City Health + Hospitals (H+H)/ Mayorals held “I am a Nurse” signs honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy when they engaged in non-violent direct action on Jan. 18.

Backlash

Although the U.S. has observed Black History Month for 53 years, in the past several years, we have books being banned, affecting 1,648 unique book titles. Florida alone has banned between 501 and 750 books during that period.

Floridians are also witnessing a campaign to block Advanced Placement courses in African American Studies.

We Resist

In the face of these attacks, we must follow the example of those who came before us and resist. The Black experience in the U.S. has been characterized by resistance and progress; resisting injustice, and charting a course for collective progress. In this moment, people of conscious must resist by engaging content and authors who challenge and inspire us to see beyond the current reality. We must also remember that Black history is American history it is all our heritage. And there are several examples of leaders who’ve come before us who envisioned and created lives and work worthy of emulation. Here are several important figures who have made Black history and contributed to the world as we know it today.

Legacy and Leadership of Black Nurses

Estelle Massey Osborne paved the way for African American nurses to enter education and leadership roles in nursing. At the time she began nursing school in St. Louis, only 14 of 1,300 American nursing schools were open to Black students. She went on to Columbia University, where she became the first Black nurse in history to earn a master’s degree, and then was accepted to a position as assistant professor at New York University in 1946, becoming the school’s first Black faculty member. According to the American Nurses Association (ANA), she stepped into numerous leadership roles acting as president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, a member of the ANA board of directors and a delegate to the International Council of Nurses.

Honoring our Heroes

seen an onslaught of attacks on the very mention of Black history, let alone systemic racism. Some scholars theorize that the assault on Black history and discussions on race arose after coast to coast, multiracial protests over the killing of George Floyd. Since Floyd’s murder, we’ve seen widespread backlash on the teaching of race and history. But there have also been widespread book bans targeting Black authors; LGBTQIA+ authors; and those who seek to tell the truth about racism, sexism, homophobia and other societal harms. Renowned and prolific writers have had their work banned. For instance, from July 2021 to June 2022, PEN America listed 2,532 instances of individual

Adah Belle Thoms was named assistant superintendent of nurses at Lincoln Hospital in New York in 1906. While she spent the next 18 years acting as director, her race precluded her from being given the title, according to the National Museum of African American History & Culture Thoms cofounded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and served as the organization’s president from 1916 to 1923, and she later successfully lobbied for Black nurses to serve in the American Red Cross Nursing and Army Nurse Corps during World War I. Thoms published the first chronicle of the history of Black nurses in America with her book “Pathfinders: A History of the Progress of Colored Graduate Nurses.” She was one the original inductees to the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1976.

Bernadine Lacey chose her nursing school because it was the only one in the state that would accept Black students into the registered nursing (RN) program. According to the American Journal of Nursing, she and the other Black students were forced to sit in the back row, and a white instructor once told her, “You don’t have any business being this good” when she received high marks. That experience fueled her ambitions in nursing and led her to become an educator, political advocate and researcher. She became one of the first Black nurses in history to be admitted to Georgetown University, when she enrolled in its RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, and she went on to become the founding director of the Western Michigan University Bronson School of Nursing. She received the American Academy of Nursing’s highest honor in 2014, when she was inducted as a “Living Legend.”

As you chart your own course, remember that you fly on the wings of monumental leaders like the individuals mentioned above. They are our history. And you are making our future.