Black History Month 2023 is themed "Black Resistance." Designating one month of the year to celebrate Black history is diminutive. History is the study of past events, people, and culture to understand the who, what, when, where, and why so that historical events of injustice are not repeated. Maya Angelou stated, "We want to reach a time when there won't be Black History Month, when Black history will be so integrated into American history that we study it along with every other history."1 I learned little about Black history during my early education, and adults in my life likewise were not informed, except through community storytellers and personal experiences. In the Black Baptist church, I was exposed to limited Black religious history. My college years shed almost no light on the history of Black nurses.
Systemic racism
Racial discrimination, entrenched segregation, and denied opportunities forced Black people to find a way to survive and thrive when seemingly there was no pathway. Black students traditionally were not permitted entry into White medical or nursing schools and affiliated training sites in the US. Therefore, Black medical professionals worked with others, mainly White philanthropists, to establish nursing schools, hospitals, and clinics that provided spaces for Black people to access quality healthcare not available to them at mainstream medical institutions. During a recent visit to the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C., I spent time in the Making A Way Out of No Way exhibition halls. I focused on the history of the Black experience in medicine and nursing. The exhibition overwhelmingly confirmed the resilience of Black people in times of highly systematized oppression. A prominent display about the Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. particularly caught my interest.2 A beacon of hope for the Black community, the institution was opened in 1919 as City Hospital No. 2 and renamed in 1937 after Phillips, the main advocate. Its school of nursing also opened in 1919, with only 10 nurses on staff. The program grew, and in 1940, Estelle Massey Riddle, a 1923 graduate, became the first "colored" superintendent of nurses. Until 1955, the hospital was the only facility that provided quality healthcare to Black St. Louisans. By 1961, it was renowned, and its medical and nursing schools had trained the highest number of Black doctors and nurses in the world. Although the hospital closed in 1979, the entire campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, honoring the legacy.
Estelle Osborne, nurse activist
I was pleased to discover that I have a remote link to the hospital. Estelle Massey Riddle Osborne was the first Black person to earn a master's in nursing education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1931, the president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in 1934, and the first Black faculty member of the now New York University (NYU) Rory Meyers College of Nursing in 1946.3 In 2017, I was named an Estelle Osborne Legacy awardee by NYU Meyers. The award is given to distinguished alumni or faculty members whose careers embody the true spirit of Osborne's legacy. To have my name mentioned in the same breath as Estelle Osborne's is such an honor. As a Black nurse, I have with purpose educated myself about Black people in medicine through reading and professional connections. However, there is so much more to learn about the history of Black people in this country. Unfortunately, efforts to modify, lessen, or erase Black history in the US continue.
Resist, we must!
Jamesetta A. Newland, PhD, FNP-BC, FAANP, DPNAP, FAAN
Editor-in-Chief mailto:[email protected]
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