Adah Belle Samuels Thoms

1870-1943
Lincoln Hospital Training School,
New York, New York, 1900

• Charter member and later President of the National Association for Colored Graduate Nurses
• First recipient of the Mary Mahoney Award
• Original inductee of the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame
• Author of The Pathfinders, the first history of African American nurses

Born and educated in Richmond, Virginia, Adah Belle Samuels Thoms championed equal opportunity for African-American women first as a teacher in Virginia and later during her professional nursing career. As President of the Lincoln Hospital Alumnae Association, she hosted the organizational meeting of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in New York City. Thoms campaigned for the enrollment of black nurses by the American Red Cross during World War I and was influential in increasing the number of African-American nurses in public health nursing positions.

Biography

Bibliography

"Mrs. Thoms' leadership is significant not only for her own race but for those socially minded person of every race who cherish high purposes and unselfish accomplishments that bring promise of better relationships between people."

Lillian Wald, Henry Street Settlement, 1929