Eager to encourage greater equality for African Americans, and women, Mary Eliza Mahoney pursued a nursing career that supported these aims.
She is noted for becoming the first African American licensed nurse. Mary Eliza Mahoney was born in the spring of 1845 in Boston, Massachusetts.
When she was in her teens, Mahoney knew that she wanted to become a nurse, so she began working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children.
Mary Eliza Mahoney was born on May 7, 1845 (some sources say April 16, 1845), in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. After working for several years as a private-duty nurse at Boston’s New England Hospital for Women and Children, in 1878, Mahoney was admitted to the hospital’s nursing program.