San Juan Hill and the Black Nurses of the Stillman Settlement
San Juan Hill y las enfermeras negras del asentamiento de Stillman
January 30, 2023
by Rhonda Evans, Assistant Chief Librarian at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Black New York: In 1625, eleven enslaved Africans arrived in New Amsterdam to physically clear the land for what we now know as New York City. Some parts of New York, such as Harlem, are well-known black neighborhoods, but black people have lived in and impacted all parts of New York City for centuries. Let us take some time to explore the many areas of New York City where African Americans have lived and thrived, starting circa 1900 in an area then known as San Juan Hill…
Nurses without Patients
It was the early 1900s, Elizabeth Tyler, R.N. had the credentials, she just didn’t have any patients. Black women had long been the designated caretakers for both black and white communities, but it was only in the late 19th century when black women could actually study and earn their titles as registered nurses. Tyler, recently graduated from Freedmen’s Hospital Training School for Nurses and having completed an advanced course in nursing at the Lincoln School for Nurses, found that she was not allowed to treat white patients, and that the black patients didn’t trust her.
