Beginning at the beginning: a history of the professionalization of Black nurses in America, 1908-1951

The purpose of this historical study was to document the contributions of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, the first Black professional nursing organization recognized by the American Nurses Association and other White professional nursing organizations. The significance of this investigation was based on a search for a more complete and unbiased historiography of a Black professional organization serving a national Black nursing community. Historically, the investigation of Black leadership as portrayed in general nursing history textbooks and nursing journal is a recent phenomenon, possibility because too few records documenting their work had been preserved. However, much of what survived which depicts Black nursing leaders and organizations as contributors to professional nursing's rich and prestigious history has largely gone unpublished. Additionally, the observed disparity between what has been presented about minority participation in the professional nursing literature and general history textbooks begged to be recorded. Therefore, it was significant to a more complete professional nursing historiography to research the contributions of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses to the professionalization of Black nurses throughout the United States.