Women’s History Month: A Tribute to the Professions

Sojourner’s Truth Staff

March is Women’s History Month and this year The Truth would like to take an opportunity to recognize the contributions of women in three professions – nursing, teaching and industry. In addition to the decades, sometimes centuries-long, contributions of women, particularly African-American women, the traditions continue today here in Toledo n each of these professions.

Nursing

African-American nurses have served throughout this nation’s history. During the Civil War, for example, Sojourner Truth, an emancipated slave worked in Union hospitals. Harriet Tubman, who served as a cook, scout, spy and guide for the Union Army, also nursed soldiers. As many as 181 black nurses, female and male, worked in U.S. government hospitals in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina during the war.

During the Spanish-American Was, many black nurses served under contract but, later, during World War I, black nurses were initially barred from service. Political and public pressure finally led the government to allow African Americans to apply to the Army Nurse Corps during the last months of the war.

In 1941, the Army Nurse Corps began accepting black nurses for service as WWII approached. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was influential in pressuring the Army surgeon general to recruit African Americans.

Here are a few notable nurses of the past.

Mary Jane Grant Seacole was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1805 and learned her nursing skills from her mother, a native Jamaican. Seacole traveled extensively during her lifetime visiting other parts of the Caribbean, as well as Central America and Britain. She added to her knowledge of nursing with European medical ideas.

In 1854, after the British War Office refused to fund her trip to the Crimea, where war was afoot, Seacole paid her own way to the area in order to work in the medical facilities for wounded soldiers. She set up medical facilities in the British Hotel near Balaclava and often visited the battlefield, sometimes under fire, the nurse the wounde. She became known as Mother Seacole, with a reputation rivaling that of Florence Nightingale.

She later published her memoirs – The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands.

Susie King Taylor, born in 1848, was the first black Army nurse, tending to an all-black army troop during the Civil War – the 1^st South Carolina Volunteers (a Union unit). She was never paid for her service. She later published her memoirs, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33^rd United Colored Troops, Late 1^st Volunteers.

America’s first professional black nurse, Mary Eliza Mahoney, graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses in 1879, one of only three persons in her class to complete the rigorous 16-month program.

Mahoney became well known for her outstanding career and her contributions to numerous local and professional organizations. In 1909, she gave the welcome address at the first conference of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurse and in 1936 that organization established the Mary Mahoney Award in recognition of her service. The award is still bestowed today by the American Nurses Association.

Adah Belle Samuels Thoms, born in 1870, was an African-American nurse who co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and was acting director of the Lincoln School for Nurses in New York. She worked for black nurses to be able to serve as army nurses in World War I and was later one of the first nurses to be inducted into the American Nurses Association’s Hall of Fame when it was established in 1976.

Mabel Keaton Staupers, born in 1890 in the West Indies, came to the United States at the age of 13 with her parents and graduated from the Freedmen’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1917. From 1922 to 1934, she worked first as a surveyor of health needs and later as executive secretary for th Harlem Tuberculosis Committee.

In 1934, she accepted the position as the first paid executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, and during her 12-year term, increased membership, established a citizens’ advisory committee, built coalitions with other nursing groups and tore down racial barriers had had kept African-American nurses out of the military.

Her book, No Time for Prejudice, tells of the many obstacles she overcame in her fight for equal treatment.

Toledo – Up to the Here and Now

Daisy Smith, Donna Todd and Mary Gregory founded the Toledo Council of Black Nurses in 1980, envisioning a future in which they could positively impact the health and wellness through collaborative efforts with other community groups. They have done that.
 

Mabel Keaton Staupers

Mary Eliza Mahoney

Mary Seacole

Adah Belle Samuel Thoms

Michelle McCaster

Susie King Taylor

Tamara Bumpus
 

Over the past several decades, the Council has worked in partnership with groups such as the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., the Committee of the Whole, the Greater Toledo Urban League, Mercy Health Partners, the Alpha Phi Alpha Sorority, Inc, the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the NAACP and the Toledo Club of the National Association of Negro Women’s Business and Professional Clubs, Inc to host health fairs for those in underserved communities

Smith, who became a registered nurse in 1963 when she graduated from the Medical College of Ohio with honors, retired first from Mercy Health Partners in 1975 and then from Cordelia Martin Health Center in 2000.

 “During those years there were very few black nurses,” said Smith of the reason for founding the group. “I was one of the first and there was a need for more black nurses. There was also a need in the black community for preventive health education … black nurses could fill that need.”

Michelle McCaster, a nurse anesthetist, took a traditional route into the health care profession due largely to the successful efforts of those in the far past such as Staupers and Thoms and the more recent efforts of predecessors such as Smith, Gregory and Todd. A Toledo native and graduate of Rogers High School, McCaster earned her nursing degree from the University of Toledo as one of only three black students in a class of 200.

As a nurse anesthetist, McCaster assesses patients prior to surgery and creates a plan, in consult with the surgeon, for anesthesia – whether local or general – and monitors the patient’s progress during surgery.

“This is something I love to do, “says McCaster. “I love my job – taking care of patients. I like to be able to sit down with patients to ease their anxiety – I take it personally.

McCaster was inspired at an early age – watching the television show “Julia” starring Diahann Carroll (in the first starring television role for a black actress) – to become a nurse. The profession has  more than fulfilled her expectations.

“When the doctor sleeps, who’s at your bedside,” she asks. “We are there 24/7 at their bedside and providing the best care for patients.

On the other hand, Tamara Bumpus arrived at her profession in a decidedly non-traditional manner. A nurse practitioner, Bumpus manages the care of patients at the Neighborhood Health Association’s Mildred Bayer Clinic for the Homeless.

Bumpus’ professional career began at General Mills as a quality engineer before joining the U.S. Air Force and becoming a Russian linguist.

She then earned an undergraduate degree from UT and joined Daimler-Chrsyler for several years before joining her father in the general contracting business.

Then it was back to school for Bumpus in the mid 2000’s to earn a nursing degree and ultimately her certification as a nurse practitioner. She has been at Mildred Bayer since 2010. The contact with patients has been a singular source of inspiration for her. “Ninety percent of my job is listening to patients,” she says.

“If you look at them and listen to them, that will tell you everything you need to know.”

Copyright © 2015 by [The Sojourner's Truth]. All rights reserved.
Revised: 08/16/18 14:12:44 -0700.

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