Hazel Johnson-Brown
Brigadier General
Army Nurse Corps
October 10, 1927 – August 5, 2011
Nurse, educator, and Army leader
The first Black female general and first Black chief of the United States Army Nurse Corps
Hazel Johnson-Brown overcame adversity to become the first Black female general and first Black chief of the United States Army Nurse Corps. She served in many leadership roles throughout her accomplished career. Her love of medicine and education helped diversify the Army Nurse Corps and created enduring nursing education practices.
First African-American Chief of the Army Nurse Corps (1927 to Present) Named as the first African-American Brigadier General of the Army Nurse Corps in 1979, Hazel W. Johnson-Brown apparently reached the most honorable rank when she was appointed as the chief of the ANC. She then commanded 7,000 men and women in the Army National Guard and Army Reserves and oversaw numerous medical centers, free-standing clinics, and community hospitals in Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Panama, and the United States.
Brig. Gen. Hazel W. Johnson-Brown’s military success started with apparent prejudice when she was rejected of enrollment at the West Chester School of Nursing. This was the obstacle that she wanted to overcome. Hence, she went off to New York City in 1947 and was admitted in the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing. Her first professional work was at the Philadelphia Veteran’s Hospital but enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps in 1955 with the encouragement of colleagues. Hazel swiftly rose from the ranks, accumulating impressive credentials from different positions she held, and finally got to the pinnacle of her career as Chief of ANC, with the rank of Brigadier General.
After enjoying success in the military service, Brig. Gen. Johnson-Brown retired from the army in 1983. She journeyed to her second career in academia as professor of nursing in Washington D.C.’s Georgetown University, and in Virginia’s George Mason University as an instrument to founding Center for Health Policy.
ohnson served in several leadership roles in the Army Nurse Corps. She transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where she worked from 1960 to 1962. Having discovered a love of education, she attended Columbia University Teachers College. There, she earned her Master of Science in Nursing Education. Johnson’s passion for teaching continued for the rest of her career. She trained nurses for service both in the operating room and in combat medical tents in Vietnam. The Army sponsored Johnson’s Doctor of Philosophy in Education Administration degree from Catholic University in 1973. While earning her degree, Johnson became director and assistant dean of Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing. After a tour as chief nurse in Seoul, South Korea, she earned a historic promotion in 1979. The Army nominated her to serve as the Chief of the Army Nurse Corps. Brig. Gen. Johnson was the third female general and the first Black female general in the Army, at a time when white nurses outnumbered Black nurses 12 to 1 in the United States. This indicated a continuation of the racial discrimination Johnson-Brown experienced while applying for nursing school 30 years earlier.
Aware of this imbalance and its consequences, Johnson used her role and influence to improve equality in the Army Nurse Corps. She developed scholarships for Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) nurses and encouraged enlistment by offering summer nursing clinical camps for ROTC cadets to increase diversified enrollment. She also drafted the first Army Nurse Corps Standards of Practice, a standardization of procedures for Army nurses. Later, Johnson established Army nursing conferences to facilitate sharing nursing research, promoting and publicizing the work of nurses.
She was briefly married to David Brown in the early 1980s. Johnson-Brown retired in 1983 but continued to set standards in the nursing field. She taught at the nursing schools of Georgetown University and George Mason University throughout the 1980s. During her time teaching at George Mason, she helped found the Center for Health Policy, Research, and Ethics, an institution that continues to promote independent research. The veteran served the Army yet again in 1990. While many of its employees were deployed to Iraq, she volunteered at the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital.
Johnson-Brown’s legacy in nursing education was well-rewarded and continues to live on. Among the many awards she received are the Distinguished Service Medal and Army Commendation Medal. She earned the title “Army Nurse of the Year” twice. In the words of her West Chester peers, she “[rose] above the many barriers facing African American women and men in the last century.” Johnson-Brown spent the last years of her life living with her sister, Gloria, in Wilmington, Delaware. She passed away in 2011. Upon her death, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Joint Resolution in her honor commending her “significant contributions to the nursing profession and her dedication to the U.S Army.” She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.