Faculty, students, and staff at the School of Nursing and Health Studies enjoyed food, music, and a photographic journey through time at the Black History Month Celebration presented February 17 by the Multicultural Nursing Student Association (MNSA).
During the afternoon festivities, pictures of prominent figures in health care graced the patio of the M. Christine Schwartz Center for Nursing and Health Studies. There were photos of Brig. Gen. Hazel Johnson-Brown, the U.S. Army’s first black female general; Caribbean-American Mabel Keaton Staupers, director of nursing at Harlem’s first hospital dedicated to treating black Americans with tuberculosis; and Regina Benjamin, the first African-American woman elected to the American Medical Association board of trustees and the former U.S. Surgeon General; among others.
“We wanted to create a museum-esque experience,” said Nyota Edjidjimo, president of MNSA, one of several active student organizations at the School of Nursing and Health Studies.
One pioneering health professional who particularly inspired Edjidjimo while researching who to include in the image gallery was nurse anesthetist Goldie Brangman. Brangman was a member of the lifesaving surgical team at Harlem Hospital on September 20, 1958, when rising civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was rushed into the operating room, the victim of an assassination attempt that left a letter opener lodged in his sternum, between a major artery and his aorta. Brangman, responsible for manually ventilating, or “bagging,” King during the delicate procedure, went on to become the first and only African-American president of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.
“It is important to show the strides African Americans have made in advancing the health field, where black people are a minority,” Edjidjimo said. “We want to celebrate and bring to light all of their accomplishments.”
Besides getting a chance to learn about historic contributors to the health professions, attendees of the Black History Month Celebration enjoyed home-cooked food and live music performed by Justice Michael from the Frost School of Music. “We had a very big turnout,” added Edjidjimo, who organized the event with her MNSA leadership team and faculty advisor Dr. Brenda Owusu.
In addition to hosting public events like the Black History Month Celebration and October’s Hispanic Heritage Month multicultural celebration, MNSA schedules featured speakers for its general body meetings. For more information, contact umiami.mnsa@gmail.com.
