Civil rights and black feminist activism A year later, she was promoted to superintendent of nurses and acting director and kept the positions until she retired in 1923. In 1905, Thoms was hired as the head nurse at the Lincoln Hospital and Home. In 1903, Thoms entered the program and was offered the position as head nurse of one of the surgical wards in 1904. Thoms enrolled in a nursing course at the Women's Infirmary and School of Therapeutic Massage as a start to nursing. This was mainly because African Americans had a better opportunity for advancement up North. Thoms moved to Harlem, New York in 1893 to pursue her aspirations to become a nurse. Īdah Belle Samuels Thoms died in New York City, February 21, 1943. In 1923, she remarried, to Henry Smith, who died within the year. Harding in 1921, during the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurse Convention in Washington, D.C. Thoms was received at the White House by President and Mrs. Enrollments started during the flu epidemic in December 1918. The Surgeon General agreed to limited enrollment of African American nurses in the Army Nurse Corps in July 1918. Thoms served as president of the NACGN from 1916–1923, and played a critical role in lobbying the American Red Cross to permit black nurses to enroll during World War I, in order to lead to service in the U.S. Focused on the American Nurses' Association, nursing education programs, employment opportunities, and equal pay, the organization was ultimately dissolved by president Mabel Keaton Staupers in 1950, after successfully integrating the US Armed Forces (WWII) and the American Nurses' Association (1948). The organization, founded in 1908 by a group of 52 black nurses, aimed to secure the full integration of black women nurses into the nursing profession. The organizing meeting was held at Lincoln Home and Hospital, and hosted by Thoms, in 1907. In the first part of the 20th century, Thoms worked with Martha Minerva Franklin and Mary Mahoney to organize the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. Thoms became involved in international efforts to advance the nursing profession, attending the International Council of Nurses in 1912. Although she served as acting director between 19, racist policies prevented her receiving the official title of director. Thoms continued her education at the Lincoln Hospital and Home School of Nursing, a school for black women, graduating in 1905. She then studied nursing at the Women's Infirmary and School of Therapeutic Massage, graduating in 1900 as the only black woman in a class of thirty. Before she became a nurse, she was a school teacher in Richmond, Virginia, and then in the 1890s, she went to New York, to study elocution and speech at Cooper Union. Īs a young woman, she married briefly, and kept the surname Thoms. Thoms was born Adah Belle Samuels in Richmond, Virginia, to Harry and Melvina Samuels. She was among the first nurses inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame when it was established in 1976. Army Nurse Corps nurses starting with the flu epidemic in December 1918. Adah Belle Samuels Thoms (Janu– February 21, 1943) was an African American nurse who cofounded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (serving as President from 1916-1923), was acting director of the Lincoln School for Nurses (New York), and fought for African Americans to serve as American Red Cross nurses during World War I and eventually as U.S.
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