February is African American History Month, also referred to as Black History Month. It is a time to recognize the struggles and successes of African Americans who fought for full and equal citizenship and respect in the United States.
According to the Library of Congress, African American History Month traces its beginnings to the work of African American historian Carter G. Woodson who sought to raise awareness of African Americans' contributions to U.S. civilization. He announced Negro History week in 1925, and it was first celebrated in February 1926. By the 1950s, mayors in cities across the country began issuing proclamations recognizing this week. In 1976, President Gerald Ford extended the recognition to the entire month of February, and that year marks the first African American History Month.
Photo courtesy of Pixaby,
Every racial and ethnic group has different health concerns. Some of those differences are due to genetics while others are due to socioeconomic factors.
According to Carratala and Maxwell (2020), in 2017:
These authors also tell us that African Americans have the highest mortality rate for all cancers combined compared to ay other ethnic group in the U.S.
The CDC (2020) points out that while the death rate for African Americans has declined, younger African Americans are living with or dying from conditions typically seen in white Americans at older ages. Also, younger African Americans (aged 18-49) are two times as likely to die from heart disease as white Americans, and African Americans aged 35-64 are 50% more likely to have high blood pressure than white Americans.
Finally, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (2020) points out that in 2017:
In July 2017, 14.4 million people in the United States (12.7% of the population) identified as black alone. African Americans are the second largest minority group following Hispanics/Latinos, and 58% of the U.S. African American population lives in southern states (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, 2020).
18.7% of the population of the city of Lancaster identifies as African American alone (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019, July 1).
The National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health's exhibit Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine highlights the achievements and contributions of African American physicians, surgeons, and nurses during the Civil War. The exhibit can be viewed online free of charge. PA College proudly hosted the exhibit on campus and offered an accompanying PSNA credit and course extra credit activity in 2019.
Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926) was the first licensed African American nurse in the U.S. She was the daughter of freed slaves who moved to Boston. According to Spring (2017), Mahoney was educated at Phillips School in Boston which after 1855 became one of the first racially integrated schools in the country. Mahoney worked at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in a variety of roles before attending its nursing program. She graduated from the nursing program in 1879, however she practiced nursing as a private nurse rather than a public health nurse due to discrimination (Spring, 2017). According to USF Health (2020), Mahoney was one of the first African American members of the American Nurses Association (ANA), and she was a member of the inaugural class of the Nursing Hall of Fame in 1976.
Learn more about Mary Eliza Mahoney at:
Mary Eliza Mahoney. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
Learn more about African American History Month.
Learn more about African American health.