Frances Reed Elliott Davis (28 April c. 1882 – 11 May 1965), was an American

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

and

community activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

Life

Frances Davis was born on 28 April, about 1882, probably in

Shelby, North Carolina Shelby is a city in and the county seat of Cleveland County, North Carolina, United States. It lies near the western edge of the Charlotte combined statistical area. The population was 20,323 at the 2010 census. History The area was originally i ...

to a mixed-race family. Her mother died when she was five years old and her father abandoned her, so she was raised by a guardian. One of the families for whom she worked as a teenager paid for her to attend a teacher training program at

Knoxville College Knoxville College is a historically black liberal arts college in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, which was founded in 1875 by the United Presbyterian Church of North America. It is a United Negro College Fund member school. A slow peri ...

. Davis graduated, but she had always wanted to be a nurse, so she enrolled in the nursing program there. She was forced to leave by illness, but she enrolled at the Freedmen’s Hospital Training School for Nurses in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in early 1910. After graduation, she worked as a private nurse and then enrolled in the Town and Country Nursing Service Course sponsored by the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

, the first black nurse to take the course. Other graduates of the course were automatically enrolled in the Army Nurse Corps Reserve, but Davis was not because of her race. However, she was enrolled on 2 July 1918, the first black nurse to be allowed to do so. She cared for soldiers in training and victims of the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

, but succumbed herself, permanently damaging her heart. After the war she married William Davis; their only child was

stillborn Stillbirth is typically defined as fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without signs of life. A stillbirth can result in the feeling of guilt or grief in the mother. The term i ...

. She died from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, on 11 May 1965.Ogilvie & Harvey, pp. 669–70

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Frances 1880s births 1965 deaths Year of birth uncertain Columbia University alumni American nurses American women nurses United States Army Nurse Corps officers Female nurses in World War I World War I nurses American Red Cross personnel People from Shelby, North Carolina African-American nurses