Esther McCready

Esther McCready (10 January 1931 to 2 September 2020) was an American nurse and teacher who desegregated the University of Maryland School of Nursing in 1950. Born and raised in East Baltimore, she had been an honor student at the segregated Dunbar High School and worked as a nurses' aide at Sinai Hospital. Her case, McCready v. Byrd, was filed in Baltimore City Court in 1949 by lawyers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; the court sided with the university, but the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned that ruling and she began classes on 5 September 1950. After graduating in 1953 she worked at the Druid Health Center, as head nurse at Morgan State University, and at Cornell Medical Center, Harlem Hospital and New York University, and she also taught in New York public schools. She earned a master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music and sang with touring opera groups. She is in the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame.