Adah Belle Samuels Thoms, 1870- 1943
Adah Belle Samuels Thoms was a nurse who co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. She fought for equal employment opportunities for African Americans in the American Red Cross and U.S. Army Nurse Corps and was one of the first nurses to be inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame for her work with civil rights and Black feminist activism.
Charles R. Drew, 1904-1950
Charles R. Drew was a surgeon and medical researcher that studied blood, blood transfusions, and blood banking. He also developed a method to preserve blood plasma for transfusions that saved countless lives during World War II due to the development of large-scale blood banks. He was the director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank, and he protested against racial segregation in the donation of blood.
Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner, 1912- 2006
Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was an inventor who holds more patents than any other Black woman in history. She is best known for inventing the sanitary pad for menstruation. However, it took 30 years for her invention to be developed and manufactured for mainstream markets due to racial discrimination and sexism.
Joycelyn Elders b. 1933
Joycelyn Elders is a pediatrician and public health administrator. In 1993, she was the first African American to be appointed as the Surgeon General of the United States. Prior to becoming Surgeon General, she worked to reduce the prevalence of teenage pregnancy by promoting birth control, counseling, and sex education at school-based clinics. She also worked on projects to increase child immunization and screening rates, availability of HIV services, and breast cancer screenings.
Marsha P. Johnson, 1945 – 1992
Marsha was one of the most prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. She helped form Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a radical political organization that provided housing and other forms of support to homeless queer youth and sex workers in Manhattan. She also performed with the drag performance troupe Hot Peaches from 1972 through the ‘90s and was an AIDS activist with AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).
Phil Wilson, b. 1956
Phil is a prominent HIV/AIDS activist and founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999. In 2010, he was appointed to President Obama’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. He served as a World AIDS Summit delegate and advocated for the CDC to provide funding to Black groups so they would have the resources to educate and mobilize their community around HIV/AIDS issues. His work resulted in the “Act Against AIDS” campaign, now known as the “Let’s Stop HIV Together” campaign, which promotes HIV testing, prevention, and treatment.
Black History Month Blogs, 2020
For Black History Month 2020, NCSD honored pivotal Black public health leaders and organizations that made major contributions to the mission of health equity. Check out these blogs authored by Desiree Smith, manager, health equity.
