Estelle Massey Osborne

Estelle Massey Osborne (1901 to 1981) was an African American nurse and nursing educator who spent her career opening the profession to Black nurses. Born in Palestine, Texas, she trained at St. Louis City Hospital #2, later Homer G. Phillips Hospital, and in 1931 earned a master's degree in nursing education at Teachers College, Columbia University, the first African American to do so. She became the first Black director of nursing at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, served as president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses from 1934 to 1939, and as a consultant to the National Nursing Council for War Service worked to change discriminatory policies in nursing schools, the Army and the Navy. She later taught at New York University and the University of Maryland and was the first Black elected member of the American Nurses Association board. She received the Mary Mahoney Award in 1946.