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. MCCLEL-
LAN, 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 Dor-
chester, 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 nurs-
ing at the New England Hospital for Women and Chil-
dren; 
Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney was 1 of 4 students, of a class 
of 42, who completed nursing at the New England Hos-
pital 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 Grad-
uate 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 key-
note speech of the National Association of Colored Grad-
uate 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 move-
ment and was the first Black professionally trained nurse 
to receive retirement benefits from a fund left by a Bos-
ton physician to care for 60 nurses, who received 25 dol-
lars 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 Amer-
ican Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 1976; 
Whereas Mary Eliza Mahoney advanced the nursing profes-
sion by fostering high standards of nursing practice and 
confronting issues affecting professional nurses, such as 
the shortage of nurses; 
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•HCON 42 IH 
Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic worsened working condi-
tions 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 work-
force 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 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress— 
(1) honors Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first Black 
nurse, for an outstanding nursing career, dedication 
to the United States nursing profession, and exem-
plary contributions to local and national professional 
nursing organizations; 
(2) recognizes Mary Eliza Mahoney as the first 
professionally trained Black nurse, and honors other 
Black nurses who practice nursing with distinction; 
(3) honors and supports the goals and activities 
of National Nurses Week; 
(4) promotes further understanding and public 
awareness of the history of American nurses, par-
ticularly Black nurses, who practiced nursing with 
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compassion and devotion and transmitted new sci-
entific knowledge using science-based nursing prac-
tice; and 
(5) advocates for Black, Latina, and other 
women of color to enter nursing and supports strate-
gies to retain and bring back nurses who are consid-
ering leaving or have left the nursing profession. 
Æ 
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