AJN Articles from 1910 to 2020 for Inspiration and Perspective During Black History Month

Bernardine Lacey (middle) and classmates in 1961 at Gilfoy School of Nursing, Jackson, MI. Photo courtesy of Bernardine Lacey.

February is the month designated for remembering the contributions of Black people to our nation and our culture. It’s a good reminder that in nursing, too, we have benefited from many strong Black women (and at least a few men), who often persevered in the face of discrimination in obtaining education and jobs.

The AJN archives have many articles worth revisiting.

This article from 1976, “Black Nurses : Their Service and Their Struggle” (to read, click on the pdf), describes the struggles of several of our profession’s notable Black nurses, including Mary Mahoney (the first Black nurse to be licensed).

This article from our August 2020 issue, ‘You Don’t Have Any Business Being This Good’: An Oral History Interview with Bernardine Lacey,” shares Black nursing leader Bernardine Lacey’s experiences with racism in her education and career and explores some of the difficult truths about racism and the culpable role of nursing in this history:

Building on this perspective, read a conversation from our September issue with nurse, […]

2021-02-03T09:54:28-05:00February 3rd, 2021|Nursing|1 Comment
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On Nursing Identity: What We Can Learn from African Nurses’ Oral Histories

 By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Port of Mauritius by Iqbal Osman, via Flickr Port of Mauritius by Iqbal Osman, via Flickr

“I have chosen this profession and nobody can take it away from me.”—Sophie Makwangwala, study participant

In the summer of 2009, at the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Quadren­nial Congress in Durban, South Africa, a small group met to discuss collaborating on joint history projects. At that meeting, several African leaders of pro­fessional nursing associations reported that their expertise had long gone unrecognized. Seeking to have the stories of African nursing history told, they pro­posed interviews with other retired nurse leaders. Barbara Mann Wall, an American nurse researcher who was in the room that day, found herself intrigued.

The study. In keeping with Braun’s tenet that “indigenous research should be led, de­signed, controlled, and reported by indigenous peo­ple,” Wall first trained three of the African nurse leaders in the oral history method, aided by a grant from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Then the team embarked on the study reported on in this month’s original research CE, “ ‘I Am A Nurse’: Oral Histories of African Nurses.” Here’s an overview: […]

2017-07-27T14:39:53-04:00August 17th, 2015|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|2 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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