Adah Belle Samuels Thoms
Nursing Pioneer, Activist, Co founder of NACGN
Acting director of the Lincoln School for Nurses (New York). She was among the first nurses inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame when it was established in 1976. Co-founder of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) to organize and develop the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), and to provide equal employment opportunities in the Red Cross and the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1908.
Adah Belle Samuels was born in Richmond, Virginia on January 12, about 1870, to Harry and Melvina Samuels. In 1908, fifty-two nurses, including Martha Minerva Franklin and Adah Belle Samuels Thoms, met in New York City and decided to start the NACGN. Franklin was elected president at the first meeting. Adah served as the first treasurer of the NACGN before taking over the presidency of the organization in 1916.
Adah Thoms, as president of the NACGN (the American Nursing Association denied membership to African Americans) was instrumental in the acceptance of the Army Nursing Corps and the Red Cross’ acceptance of black nurses during World War I. Adah assisted in the establishment of the Blue Circle Nurses which is black nurses whom the Circle for Negro War Relief paid “to work in local communities, instructing poor rural black people on the importance of sanitation, proper diet and appropriate clothing.” In 1921 she raised the prestige of all black nurses when the assistant surgeon general of the army appointed her to the Woman’s Advisory Council of Venereal Disesase of the United States Public Health Service. She a feminist activist for women voting rights which she organized a campaign to encourage her group NACGN to vote. In 1923, she remarried, to Henry Smith, who died within the year.
Adah Belle Samuels Thoms died in Harlem, New York on February 21, 1943 at the age of 73. She is an icon in the civil rights. Her passion and vision led her to open the doorway of a new chapter for black female nurses’ equality in the field. Her Legacy lives on and in 1976 she was inducted into nursing’s Hall of Fame for her achievements in advancements in training, organizing and enhancing employment opportunities for black nurses of America