Mary Eliza Mahoney was an American nurse who in 1879 became the first African American to complete professional nursing training in the United States, graduating from the New England Hospital for Women and Children. She worked for decades as a private-duty nurse, largely for families who sought her out for her skill in maternal and newborn care, in a profession that excluded Black nurses from most training programs of her era. In 1908 she co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses to challenge that exclusion, and she remained active in civil rights and women's suffrage work, becoming one of the first women to register to vote in Boston in 1920.
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1. Wikidata: Mary Eliza Mahoney
- Wikidata Q6779398, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata P569 (w-bbfill-medicine3-0926)
View the Source2. Wikipedia: Mary Eliza Mahoney
Early life and education
Mary Eliza Mahoney was born on May 7, 1845, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the daughter of freeborn parents, Charles Mahoney, Sr. of Maryland and Mary Jane (Stewart) Mahoney of Nova Scotia.
Later life and death
In 1923, Mahoney was diagnosed with breast cancer and battled the illness for 3 years until she died on January 4, 1926, at the age of 80 at New England Hospital for Women and Children, where she had trained.
View the SourceFrequently Asked Questions
Who was the first African American to complete professional nursing training in the United States?
Mary Eliza Mahoney, who graduated in 1879.
Mary Eliza Mahoney, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on May 7, 1845, to freeborn parents, completed professional nursing training in 1879 and is recorded as the first African American to do so. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1923 and died on January 4, 1926, at the New England Hospital for Women and Children.
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