Civil Rights Activist and Nurse who was awarded the 2011 Presidential Medal of Freedom — Sylvia Mendez was born in 1936 in Santa Ana, California to Gonzalo Mendez, a Mexican activist and agricultural business owner, and Felicitas Gómez Martínez de Mendez, a Puerto Rican farmer and activist. Shortly after Mendez’ birth they moved to Westminster, California, where her parents leased farmland from a Japanese-American family…

Nurse Leader and Public Health Organizer — Mary Yone Akita was born presumably in Los Angeles, California in 1898. She is widely known for opening her personal home in the 1910’s into a maternity hospital for issei (first generation Japanese) women. Akita as one of the earliest Japanese American nurses in the United Stated, provided a well…

Social Worker, Nurse, and founder of the Phillis Wheatley Association — Jane Edna Hunter was born in Pendleton, South Carolina and grew up in a tenant house on the Woodburn Plantation. She attended Ferguson and Williams Academy in Abbeville, South Carolina. In order to support herself after the passing of her father at 10 years old, Jane completed domestic work for…

Public Health Nurse, Diplomat, and General-Governor of Barbados — Ruth Nita Barrow was born in Barbados to Reverend Reginald Grant Barrow and Ruth Alberta Barrow in 1916. Barrow grew up in a family of activist and politically active individuals. She attended St. Michael’s Girls’ School and later enrolled as a nursing student at Barbados General Hospital. she went on…

Nursing Trailblazer and first African American admitted to the University of Maryland School of Nursing — Esther McCready was born on January 10, 1931 to John and Elizabeth McCready in Baltimore, Maryland. As a child, McCready knew she wanted to be a nurse. She worked as a nurses’ aid at Sinai Hospital in East Baltimore while in high school in the maternity ward. Upon graduation she…

First African American Chief Nurse in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps — Della Hayden Raney Jackson was born in Suffolk, Virginia on January 10 as the 4th of 12 children. She attended Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing in Durham, North Carolina graduating in 1937. Lincoln was one of the earliest Black nurse training programs to provide educational and employment opportunities for Black…

What We Have Learned Along the Way — For those joining us for the first time — welcome! To those who’ve joined us since day one, thank you for your commitment to diversifying our nursing history. May this overview serve as a helpful guide and provide context to the forthcoming stories of Black nurses. Most importantly, may this…

Nurse Leader, Entrepreneur, & CEO — Charlene Platon was born in Los Angeles, California, at the hospital where her mother currently works as an intensive care unit registered nurse. As an individual born into a family of nurses, the hospital and healthcare environment were a familiar setting; Charlene would frequently visit her mother during her hospital…

Nurse Educator and Researcher — Dr. Misty Wilkie grew up on multiple reservations in North and South Dakota and Minnesota. She earned her Associate Degree in Nursing in 1997 (Hibbing Community College), Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2001 (Bemidji State University), and her Master of Science in Nursing in 2005 (University of North Dakota)…