Esther McCready (January 10, 1931 – September 2, 2020) was a nurse and teacher who desegregated the

University of Maryland School of Nursing The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1807, it comprises some of the oldest professional schools of dentistry, law, medicine, pharmacy, social work and nursing in the United States ...

in 1950. The case was filed in 1949 in Baltimore City Court by

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

lawyers

Charles Hamilton Houston Charles Hamilton Houston (September 3, 1895 – April 22, 1950) was a prominent African-American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School, and NAACP first special counsel, or Litigation Director. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard La ...

and

Donald Gaines Murray Donald Gaines Murray (May 24, 1914 – April 7, 1986 in Baltimore, Maryland) was an American attorney, the first African-American to enter the University of Maryland School of Law since 1890 as a result of winning the landmark civil rights case ' ...

(McCready v. Byrd, 1949). After the court sided with the university, the case went to the

Maryland Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Maryland is the highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. Its name was changed on December 14, 2022, from the Maryland Court of Appeals, after a voter-approved change to the state constitution. The court, which is compose ...

, where it was argued by Houston, Murray, and

Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...

. The lower court's ruling was overturned by the Maryland Court of Appeals, and McCready began classes on September 5, 1950. She is in the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame. After she graduated in 1953, McCready continued her career working for Druid Health Center, Morgan State University as head nurse, Cornell Medical Center in post-operative recovery, Harlem Hospital in the emergency room, and at New York University. Her career also included years as a general education teacher in public school in New York. In addition to nursing, McCready attended the Manhattan School of Music, where she earned a master's degree. She participated in traveling opera groups who toured around United States and Europe.

Early life

Esther McCready was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in East Baltimore. Her parents, John and Elizabeth McCready, both were not involved in medicine or politics. She grew up with three other siblings in a loving household. She attended the segregated Dunbar High School in Baltimore, earning acclaim as an honor student. She also worked as a nurses' aide at Sinai Hospital. From a young age, Esther always knew she wanted to be in the nursing field from watching the way nurses worked during her visits to the hospital for routine check-ups.

References

External links

Esther McCready, Maryland Women's Hall of Fame
1931 births 2020 deaths African-American nurses American women nurses African-American history in Baltimore History of civil rights in the United States 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people History of racial segregation in the United States Legal history of the United States People from Baltimore University of Maryland, Baltimore alumni 20th-century American people 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women {{med-bio-stub