Black History Month Feature: Mary Eliza Mahoney

February is Black History Month! This year’s theme is “Black Health and Wellness” and the Hudson College of Public Health Sovereignty, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council is offering a three-week feature highlighting the many ways in which the Black community has contributed to healthcare!

Mary Eliza Mahoney was born in Boston in 1885. She knew she wanted to be a nurse form a young age, and gained experience as a nursing aide at the New England Hospital for Women and  Children, where she went on to attend the hospital’s professional graduate school for nursing.  In 1879, she was one of only 4 students to complete the program, and was the first African American to graduate from a professional  nursing school and receive a nursing license.

She worked as a private nurse for most of her career. In 1908, co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, and she also directed an orphanage from 1911 to 1912. She died from breast cancer in 1926 at the age of 80. A community health center is named in her honor here in Oklahoma City.