In honor of Black History Month we celebrate Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first Black woman who graduated with a nursing degree. While many African Americans served as nurses before her, Mary Ezra Mahoney often carries the distinction of the first Black nurse in history, as she was the first to earn a professional nursing license in the U.S. and the first to graduate from an American nursing school. Born to freed slaves, she worked as a janitor, cook, washer woman and nurse’s aide over the course of 15 years at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, according to the National Women’s History Museum. At the age of 33, she entered the hospital’s nursing program and graduated 16 months later. (source: Chamberlain.com) Learn more about other groundbreaking Black women in the nursing field here: https://rb.gy/huns5s