Congress Honors African American Nursing Pioneer Mary Mahoney

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Congresswoman
Eddie Bernice Johnson, RN

What better way to celebrate National Nurses Week than by paying tribute to Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926), America’s first professionally trained black nurse? During Nurses Week 2006 (May 6-12), the health care community and the public had the opportunity to do just that, thanks to legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress by Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas)—who happens to be a nurse herself.

In April, Congresswoman Johnson, who entered the political arena in 1972 after a successful 15-year nursing career, introduced a resolution calling for Congress to honor Mahoney "for an outstanding nursing career, dedication to the U.S. nursing profession and exemplary contributions to local and national professional nursing organizations." The bill also proposed that Congress officially recognize Mahoney as the first professionally trained African American nurse, "honor other African American nurses who practice with distinction, promote public awareness of the history of American nurses and advocate for women of color to enter nursing."

"I am a nurse by profession and understand the insurmountable obstacles that African Americans faced when entering and graduating from professional nursing schools in the pre-Civil Rights Era," commented Johnson, who is now in her seventh term representing the citizens of the 30th Congressional District of Texas. "I am pleased to have been a part of paying tribute to a woman who paved my way in making nursing an equal opportunity profession."

The Mary Mahoney resolution was introduced into the 109th Congress backed with strong support: 39 original Congressional signatures, plus endorsements from the Congressional Black Caucus, the American Nurses Association, the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations and the Congressional Nurses Caucus. The House of Representatives unanimously approved Congresswoman Johnson’s bill on May 4—just in time for National Nurses Week.

—compiled by the editors of Minority Nurse magazine