IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 42 

Honoring Mary Eliza Mahoney, America’s first professionally trained Black 

nurse. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 11, 2023 

Ms. BUSH (for herself, Ms. UNDERWOOD, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. LEE

of California, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mrs. MCCLELLAN, Ms. BROWN, Mr. BOWMAN, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, 

and Mr. SOTO) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Honoring Mary Eliza Mahoney, America’s first professionally 

trained Black nurse. 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney was born May 7, 1845, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to Charles Mahoney and Mary 

Jane Seward Mahoney-freed, formerly enslaved persons 

who had moved to Boston from North Carolina; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney, at the age of 33, was accepted 

as a student nurse at the hospital-based program of nursing at the New England Hospital for Women and Children; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney was 1 of 4 students, of a class 

of 42, who completed nursing at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1879; 


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Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney devoted her time and efforts 

unselfishly to the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and was installed as the Official Chaplin; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney’s motto was, ‘‘Work more and 

better the coming year than the previous year.’’; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney delivered the first annual keynote speech of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and established the Mary Eliza Award, 

which today continues as the Mary Eliza Mahoney Award 

bestowed biennially by the American Nurses Association; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney supported the suffrage movement and was the first Black professionally trained nurse 

to receive retirement benefits from a fund left by a Boston physician to care for 60 nurses, who received 25 dollars every 3 months as long as they lived; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney served as the director of the 

Howard Orphanage Asylum for Black children in Kings 

Park, Long Island, in New York City from 1911 until 

1912; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney died on January 4, 1926, at 

the age of 80, after 3 years of battling breast cancer; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney’s gravesite is in Woodlawn 

Cemetery, Everett, Massachusetts, and the headstone on 

her grave states, ‘‘The First Professional Negro Nurse in 

the U.S.A.’’; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1976; 

Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney advanced the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice and 

confronting issues affecting professional nurses, such as 

the shortage of nurses; 


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Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic worsened working conditions for nurses, and Forbes estimated in 2022 that 47 

percent of health care workers left or are considering 

leaving the profession; 

Whereas, today only 6.3 percent of the registered nurse workforce identify as Black out of the 4,300,000 registered 

nurses in the country, despite research proving Black 

nurses are critical for providing Black communities better 

health care; and 

Whereas nursing is a critical investment to the delivery of 

high-quality, cost-effective patient care, and the Nation 

should invest in and value nursing care: Now, therefore, 

be it 

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), That Congress— 

3 (1) honors Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first Black 

4 nurse, for an outstanding nursing career, dedication 

5 to the United States nursing profession, and exem6 plary contributions to local and national professional 

7 nursing organizations; 

8 (2) recognizes Mary Eliza Mahoney as the first 

9 professionally trained Black nurse, and honors other 

10 Black nurses who practice nursing with distinction; 

11 (3) honors and supports the goals and activities 

12 of National Nurses Week; 

13 (4) promotes further understanding and public 

14 awareness of the history of American nurses, par15 ticularly Black nurses, who practiced nursing with 


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1 compassion and devotion and transmitted new sci2 entific knowledge using science-based nursing prac3 tice; and 

4 (5) advocates for Black, Latina, and other 

5 women of color to enter nursing and supports strate6 gies to retain and bring back nurses who are consid7 ering leaving or have left the nursing profession. 

Æ 


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