Title: East Texas daughter
Description: "Helen Harris Green was the first black woman admitted into a Dallas school of professional nursing, the first black to be a nurse-manager at the Harris Methodist Hospital in Euless, the first black department director at Timberlawn Psychiatric Center, the first black president of the Texas Society of Healthcare Educators, the first black to be on the board of directors for the TSHE division of the Texas Hospital Association, and the first black chairperson of the board of directors of TSHE." "Raised in poverty in East Texas, Helen Green was blessed with an educated mother who was determined to help her daughter rise beyond the circumstances of her childhood and who emphasized that education was the key. Her father, less well educated, believed in ruling the roost with an iron fist, and her brother ran away from home in rebellion. Willie Raye Harris protected her daughter from the same fate.

Green's vivid description of her childhood in segregated East Texas is riveting, giving a clear picture of the place and the time." "Married and a mother at an early age, Green never lost her ambition. She studied, in a segregated class, for her certificate as a Licensed Vocational Nurse. While working as an LVN, she applied for admission to professional nursing schools and was consistently turned down for seven years. Finally, she was accepted into the Methodist Hospital of Dallas School of Nursing, where she was clearly an experiment. Green met encouragement and support from the dean and faculty and most of her classmates, but she also endured curiosity, scorn, and rudeness from some professional healthcare workers, some students, and patients.

On graduation, she received the Florence Nightingale Award for academic and clinical excellence." "Helen Green's story, told frankly and honestly, reflects the experiences of many black citizens, no matter their profession, during the fifties and sixties and on into the twenty-first century. Her determination and courage are to be admired, her humor and insight to be shared with the world. This is the story of one East Texas Daughter who learned that sticks and stones might break her bones and even slow her progress, but never end it."--Jacket.
Subjects: African American nurses, African American women, African Americans, Biography, Childhood and youth, Race relations, Texas, biography, African americans, biography, Nurses, Personal Narratives, History, Prejudice
Places: Dallas, Dallas (Tex.), East Texas, Texas, Tyler (Tex.)
People: Helen G. Green (1937-)