"Adah Belle Samuels Thoms"(January 12,1870-February 21,1943)

Was an American nurse who co founded the National Association of Colored Nurses,was acting director of the Lincoln School for Nurses (New York),and fought for African Americans to serve as army nurses during World War 1.She was among the first nurses inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame when it was established in 1976.She was born Adah Belle Samuel's in Richmond Virginia,to Harry and Melvina Samuel's.As a young woman,she married briefly,and kept the the surnameThoms.She taught in Virginia,and then in the 1890s,she went to New York,to study elocution and speech at Cooper Union.Adah then studied nursing at the Women's infirmary and School of Therapeutic Massage,graduating in 1900 as the only black woman in a class of thirty.Adah continued her education at the Lincoln Hospital and Home School of Nursing,a School for black women,graduating in 1905.She served as acting director between 1906 and 1923,racist,policies prevented her receiving the official title of director.Adah became involved in international efforts to advance the nursing profession,attending the international Council of nurses in  in 1912.In the first part of  the twentieth century,Adah worked with Martha Franks and Mary Mahoney to organize the National Association of Colored Nurses.The organizing meeting was held at Lincoln Home and Hospital,and hosted by Adah,in 1907.The organization founded in 1908 by a group of black nurses,aimed to secure the full integration of black women nurses into the nursing profession.Focused on the American Nurses'Association,nursing education programs,employments opportunities and equal pay,the organization was ultimately dissolved by president Mabel Keaton Staupers in 1950,after successfully integrating the US Armed Forces (WW2) and the American Nurses'Association (1948)Adah served as president of the NACGN from 1916-1923,and played a critical role in lobbying for the rights of African American women to serve in the United States military during World War 1,Adah campaigned the American Red Cross to permit black nurses to enroll.Introduced to President Warren G. Harding and First Lady Florence King Harding,she presented them with a basket of roses, and told them that 2000 black nurses were ready to serve there country.These efforts ultimately led to the creation of the United States Army Nurses Corps.In 1923 she remarried,to Henry Smith within the year.