Danielle A. Newman, MSN, RN

NOVA Chapter 226 President Elect

VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA

Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, is an annual observance in the United States. It has received official recognition from both the United States and Canadian governments, and more recently has been observed in Ireland and the United Kingdom.Black History Month is an opportunity to understand Black history by going beyond stories of racism and slavery to spotlight Black achievement. This year's theme is Black Health and Wellness.

To kick off Black History Month, NOVA Chapter 226 would like to introduce you to Susie Baker King Taylor, the first African American US Army Nurse. Susie King Taylor was born as Susan Ann Baker, a slave at a plantation in Liberty County, Georgia, on August 6, 1848 . She became the first Black US Army nurse. She tended to an all-black army troop named the 1st South Carolina. Volunteers (Union) later redesignated them as the 33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment, where her first husband, Edward King, served as a noncommissioned officer. For three years, she moved with her husband's and brothers’ regiment, serving as nurse and laundress while teaching many black soldiers to read and write during their off-duty hours. Like many African American nurses, she was never paid for her work. As the author of Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers, she was the only African American woman to publish a memoir of her wartime experiences.

Susie Baker King Taylor was also the first African American to teach openly in a school for former slaves. At this school in Savannah, Georgia, she taught children during the day and adults at night. Edward King, died in September 1866, a few months before the birth of their first child. In the 1870s, Susie Baker King traveled to Boston as a domestic servant of a wealthy white family where she met and married her second husband Russell L. Taylor. She remained in Boston for the rest of her life, returning to the South only occasionally. Taylor kept in contact with her fellow veterans' group, the Grand Army of the Republic and she founded (or helped found) Corps 67 of the Women’s Relief Corps. After a trip to Louisiana in the 1890s to care for her dying son, she wrote her book Reminiscences, which was  privately published in 1902. She died 10 years later.

We would like to encourage other members to highlight and share stories that represent this year’s theme: Black Health and Wellness.

On Saturday October 2, 2021 NOVA Nurses had the honor to be present at Mount Hope Cemetery in Boston, MA where a Memorial was dedicated to the life of Susie King Taylor.

Left to Right: Katie Judd, Kelly D. Skinner, Linda Costello, Acting Mayor Kim Janey, Linda Costello, Samentha St Pierre, Kattie Davis, Nacha Pierre, Danielle Newman, Robert Leaston, Jr. and Billie Jo Watson.