Martha Minerva Franklin
First president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses
Martha Minerva Franklin graduated as the only Black student in her Connecticut high school. Unable to attend nursing school in the state, she moved to attend Woman’s Hospital Training School for Nurses of Philadelphia and graduated as the only Black student in 1897. Upon graduation, she found her employment options limited to private duty nursing, as only 4% of hospitals hired Black nurses at that time.
She also found her membership to Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada (NAAUSC, now the ANA) restricted due to state-level discrimination and thus set into motion the co-founding of National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) in 1908 for which she was the first president and adopted the motto: “Not for ourselves, but for humanity” to serve as a coalition to help break down discrimination faced by Black nurses at that time. By 1951, the organization dissolved after achieving their goals and members fully merged with American Nurses Association.
Sources
- Information for the biography was sourced from the American Nurse Association Hall of Fame, Where I Live Connecticut, and the Connecticut Historical Society.
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Know Your History
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Examine Bias
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- Breaking Bias in Healthcare, an online course created by scientist Anu Gupta, to learn how bias is related to our brain’s neurobiology and can be mitigated with mindfulness.
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- National Coalition for Ethnic Minority Nurse Association to stay engaged with topics relevant to nurses of color.
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