Mary Eliza Mahoney Biography

Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African-American nurse to work in the hospitals of the United States. Despite coming from a poor black American family she was determined to become a nurse and joined a hospital which had the only nursing school in the whole country. She toiled as a cook, janitor, washerwoman and a nursing aide for fifteen years before she was finally allowed to study nursing. She joined the sixteen-month nursing course and graduated the next year as one of the only four students out of forty-three who could make it finally. During this course she had to provide nursing care, attend lectures, and study the different aspects of surgical, medical and maternity wards. She also had to work as a private duty nurse during the four months of training. Her reputation as a fine nurse grew more and more across the state of Massachusetts and requests for her nursing help started pouring in from adjoining states and from all over America. Her determination to provide the best nursing care and her grit to overcome all obstacles helped her become the only African American nurse at that time to get a diploma as a registered graduate nurse.