Adah Belle Thoms

Life & Legacy

Adah Belle Samuels Thoms (January 12, 1870 – February 21, 1943) was an African American nurse who cofounded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (serving as President from 1916 to 1923), was acting director of the Lincoln School for Nurses (New York), and fought for African Americans to serve as American Red Cross nurses during World War I and eventually as U.S. Army Nurse Corps nurses starting with the flu epidemic in December 1918. She was among the first nurses inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame when it was established in 1976.