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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLORED GRADUATE NURSES
Early in its history, professional nursing was fraught with persistent racial discrimination; and the need to organize ‘colored nurses’ was recognized. In 1908, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) was established to address the needs of disenfranchised black nurses. The NACGN successfully developed a registry of black nurses who were not allowed participation in the American Nurses Association (ANA).

RNs were required to first be affiliated with a State Association in order to meet eligibility for the ANA. By 1934, there were sixteen southern states and Washington, D.C. that still did not allow black members. One of the greatest achievements of the NACGN was its successful lobbying for an integrated Cadet Nurse Corps during World War II. By the end of the war, most states admitted black nurses into their Nurses Associations; and the ANA expanded to include integration of Negro nurses.

In 1951, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses voted itself out of business and its members merged with the American Nurses Association.

NATIONAL NURSES WEEK
The field of professional nursing for women was unknown until the 1850s. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), a British aristocratic woman who founded the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in London in 1860, is credited with founding the profession of nursing, as we understand it today. In 1873, the first professional nursing schools in the United States of America were established. The American Nurses Association was organized in 1896 for Registered Nurses; and National Nurses Week, first observed in 1954, honored Nightingale’s work.