Mary Eliza Mahoney

Mary Eliza Mahoney (May 7, 1845 – January 4, 1926) was the first African American to study and work as a professionally trained nurse in the United States. In 1879, Mahoney was the first African American to graduate from an American school of nursing.

In 1908, Martha Minerva Franklin and Adah B. Thoms, two of Mahoney's colleagues, met in New York City to found the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN). Mahoney, Franklin, and Thoms worked to improve access to educational and nursing practices and to raise standards of living for African American registered nurses.

Mahoney was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1976 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.

Early life and education Mary Eliza Mahoney was born on May 7, 1845, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the daughter of freeborn parents, Charles Mahoney, Sr. of Maryland and Mary Jane (Stewart) Mahoney of Nova Scotia. Mahoney was the second of four children.

From an early age, Mahoney was a devout Baptist and churchgoer and attended the People's Baptist Church in Roxbury. At the age of 10, Mahoney was admitted into the Phillips School, Mahoney was admitted into a sixteen-month program at the New England Hospital for Women and Children (now the Dimock Community Health Center) in 1878 at the age of thirty-three, alongside thirty-nine other students. Her sister, Ellen Mahoney, attended the same nursing program for a time but did nor receive a degree. Outside the lectures, students were taught bedside procedures, such as taking vital signs and bandaging. In addition, Mahoney worked for several months as a private-duty nurse. The nursing program allowed students to earn a weekly wage, ranging from 1 to 4 dollars, after their first two weeks of work. For many of the nurses these wages were insufficient, as they struggling financially and giving back 25% of their wages for financial assistance to the hospital. Three quarters of the program consisted of the nurses working within a surgical, maternity or medical ward with six patients they were responsible caring for. The last two months of the extensive 16-month long program required the nurses to use their newfound knowledge and skills in environments they were not accustomed to; such as hospitals or private family homes. After completing these requirements, Mahoney graduated in 1879 as a registered nurse alongside two colleagues — the first Black person to do so in the United States. Mahoney was the first Black person to register with the Nurses Directory at the Massachusetts Medical Library.

Career After receiving her nursing diploma, Mahoney worked for many years as a private care nurse, earning a distinguished reputation. She worked for predominantly white, wealthy families. The majority of her work was with new mothers and newborns, in New Jersey, with occasional travel to other states. During the early years of her employment, African American nurses were often treated as household servants rather than professionals. Mahoney emphasized her preference to eating dinner alone in the kitchen, distancing herself from eating with household help, to further distinguish the relation between the professions. Mahoney also lived alone in an apartment in Roxbury where she spent time reading and relaxing, while also attending church activities with her sister. Families who employed Mahoney praised her efficiency in her nursing profession. In an article in the American Journal of Nursing in 1954, one patient was quoted as saying, "I owe my life to that dear soul." She believed that all people should have the opportunity to pursue their dreams without racial discrimination. It is said that Frederick Douglass, a prominent African American abolitionist and formerly enslaved person of the time, was distantly related to Mahoney, which became one of the influences in her active participation against the repercussions of slavery and racial discrimination against minorities in the United States.

In 1954, a former Professor of Nursing at Teachers College at Columbia University, Mary Ella Chayer, wrote of Mahoney:

This nurse was an outstanding student of her time, an expert and tender practitioner, an exemplary citizen, and an untiring worker in both local and national organizations. She was a sound builder for the future, a builder of foundations on which others to follow may safely depend. Her grave is located in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts. In 1968 Helen Sullivan Miller, a recipient of the Mary E. Mahoney Medal, spearheaded a drive to establish a proper monument, with the support of the American Nurses Association and Chi Eta Phi, an American sorority for registered professional nurses and student nurses. Mabel Staupers, another Mahoney Medal recipient, designed the stone.

Awards and honors In recognition of her outstanding example to nurses of all races, the NACGN established the Mary Mahoney Award in 1936. is bestowed biennially by the ANA in recognition of significant contributions in advancing equal opportunities in nursing for members of minority groups.

Mahoney was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1976. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. Mary Mahoney Lecture Series, Indiana University Northwest Honoring Mary Eliza Mahoney, America's first professionally trained African American nurse. House of Representatives resolution, US Congress, April 2006 H.CON.RES.386 The Mary Eliza Mahoney Dialysis Center is a stop on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.