Adah Belle Thoms

Adah Belle Samuels Thoms (January 12, 1870 – February 21, 1943) was an African American nurse who cofounded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, was acting director of the Lincoln School for Nurses (New York), and fought for African Americans to serve as army nurses during World War I. She was among the first nurses inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame when it was established in 1976.Charlotte Danforth, "American Heirloom Baby Names : Classic Names to Choose with Pride", New York : New American Library, c2006, p.4] [http://www.nursingworld.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/AboutANA/WhereWeComeFrom_1/HallofFame.aspx About the American Nursing Association Hall of Fame] ] [http://www.nursingworld.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/AboutANA/WhereWeComeFrom_1/HallofFame/19761982/thomab5590.aspx Biography, Adah Belle Samuel Thoms (1870-1943)] , American Nursing Association, Hall of Fame (last visited Feb. 11, 2008).]

Biography

Thoms was born Adah Belle Samuels in Richmond, Virginia, to Harry and Melvina Samuels. [http://www.library.vcu.edu/tml/speccoll/vnfame/thomsbio.html Adah Belle Samuels Thoms biography] , Virginia Nursing Hall of Fame.]

As a young woman, she married briefly, and kept the surname Thoms. She taught in Virginia, and then in the 1890s, she went to New York, to study elocution and speech at Cooper Union.Sandra Beth Lewenson, "Taking Charge: Nursing, Suffrage, and Feminism in America, 1873-1920" (1996), p.53.] 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.

Thoms continued her education at the Lincoln Hospital and Home School of Nursing, a school for black women, graduating in 1905. Although she served as acting director between 1906 and 1923, racist policies prevented her receiving the official title of director.

Thoms became involved in international efforts to advance the nursing profession, attending the International Council of Nurses in 1912.

In the first part of the twentieth century, Thoms worked with Martha Franklin and Mary Mahoney to organize the National Association of Colored Nurses. The organizing meeting was held at Lincoln Home and Hospital, and hosted by Thoms, in 1907. [Linda C. Andrist, "The History of the Relationship Between Feminism and Nursing", "Nursing Ideas", ed. by Linda C. Andrist, Patrice K. Nicholas, Karen, Jones & Bartlett (2005), p.11.] 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. 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).

Thoms served as president of the NACGN from 1916-1923, and played a critical role in lobbying for the rights of African American women to serve in the United States military during World War I. During World War I, Thoms campaigned the American Red Cross to permit black nurses to enroll. Introduced to President Warren G. Harding and First Lady Florence Kling Harding, she presented them with a basket of roses, and told them that 2000 black nurses were ready to serve their country. [Nevada Nurses Association, "Nevada RNformation", v.14, n.1, February 2005.] These efforts ultimately led to the creation of the United States Army Nurse Corps. [Kristin Rothwell, [http://www.nursezone.com/include/PrintArticle.asp?articleid=10020&Profile=Spotlight%20on%20nurses "Black History Month: Nurses Honor the Past, Celebrate the Future"] , 2003.]

In 1923, she remarried, to Henry Smith, who died within the year.

Adah Belle Samuels Thoms died in New York City, February 21, 1943.

Recognitions

* American Nursing Association, Hall of Fame - Original inductee, in 1976
* Mary Mahoney Medal, 1936, the first recipient of the award from the National Association of Colored Graduate NursesDavis, 1999, p.227]

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* Mary Elizabeth Carnegie, "The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing Worldwide,1854-1994" (Second Eition, National League for Nursing Press)
* Althea T. Davis, "Early Black American Leaders in Nursing: Architects for Integration and Equality", Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 1999 (ISBN 0763710091 (study of Mary Eliza Mahoney, Martha Minerva Franklin, and Adah Belle Samuels Thoms)
* Darlene Clark Hine, "Black Women in White: Racial Conflict and Cooperation in the Nursing Profession, 1890-1950" (Indiana University Press, 1989)
* Mabel Keaton Staupers, "No Time for Prejudice: A Story of the Integration of Negroes in Nursing in the United States", Macmillan, 1961
* Adah Belle Samuels Thoms, "The Pathfinders: A History of the Progress of Colored Graduate Nurses" (1929) (first history of African American nurses)
* "Thoms, Adah Belle Samuels", "Black Women in America", 2d edition (Oxford University Press)

ee also

* National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses
* Harlem Hospital School of Nursing