National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses

[1] In 1908, fifty-two nurses, including Martha Minerva Franklin and Adah Belle Samuels Thoms, met in New York City and decided to start the NACGN.

To do this, the acting presidents of the NACGN not only actively fought for integration by other means but also attended the annual ANA conference to bring awareness to the topic.

This was important because the American Red Cross was the only avenue into the United States Army Nurse Corps.

[3] Mabel Keaton Staupers became the first paid executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in 1934.

Staupers and other activists petitioned for the rights of black nurses and served on the NACGN Special Defense Committee.

Staupers continued to campaign for greater inclusion, meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt, white nursing groups, military leaders, and black advocates.

[10] The Bolton Act (1943) forbid discrimination and brought about an increase in the number of black nursing students in the country.

Follow the national change, several state Leagues of Nursing Education began admitting black members.

Estelle Osborne wrote in the Journal of Negro Education that in 1941, 29 United States nursing schools had a nondiscrimination policy and by 1949 that number was up to 354.