Happy Certified Nurses Day! 14 Iconic Black Nurses Who Changed The Medical Game - Page 3

2. Adah Belle Thoms

According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Adah Belle Samuels Thoms graduated from the Lincoln School for Nursing in New York in 1905 and began working full-time at Lincoln Hospital as the head nurse of the surgical ward. In 1906, she was appointed assistant superintendent of nurses. Although Thoms effectively served as the acting director of the nursing department until her retirement in 1924, she was never formally given the title due to racial discrimination.

In response to the challenges faced by nurses of color, Thoms played a key role in founding the National Association for Colored Graduate Nurses, where she served as president from 1916 to 1923. During World War I, Thoms successfully campaigned for the inclusion of Black nurses in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. In 1929, she published Pathfinders: A History of the Progress of Colored Graduate Nurses, the first book to document the experiences of Black nurses in America. 

Thoms also fought for equal employment opportunities for African Americans within the American Red Cross. Notably, she was one of the first nurses inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame for her advocacy work in civil rights and in Black feminist activism, as reported by New York University School of Global Public Health.