CON to honor black health care pioneersA ceremony to celebrate National Nurses Week and to honor black health care pioneers in Charleston will be held from 10 a.m. to noon, Thursday, May 12, at MUSC’s College of Nursing (CON).Honorees include Rosslee Douglas, R.N., Melvena Gadsden (deceased), Catherine McCottry, M.D., and Dorothy Chaplin. These four women changed health care not only in South Carolina, but throughout the nation. “The accomplishments of these women are impressive because they reflect their courage, strong sense of identity and commitment to stand strong and tall in their mission of improving health care” said Gail Stuart, Ph.D., CON dean. “We are delighted to celebrate their life’s work and to proudly display their portraits in our college as role models of exceptional health care leaders.” Each pioneer will be honored with a commissioned portrait by artist John G. Croom, on permanent display in the CON. The Hon. Rosslee G. Douglas, R.N. Born in Florence but raised in Charleston, Rosslee Tenetha Green Douglas’ professional path began with her graduation from the high school division of Avery Institute. She continued her education at Dillard University and graduated from the Lincoln School for Nurses in Bronx, N.Y., where she received her nursing diploma. She then continued her education at New York University. In May of 1969 the Douglas family returned to Charleston and resided in Mount Pleasant. She was employed by Franklin C. Fetter Family Health Center as an administrative supervisor for Home Health Services in October 1969. While performing her professional nursing responsibilities, she continued her nursing education. In 1970, with the hospital workers strike still on the social consciousness, she enrolled in the baccalaureate nursing degree program at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina. Her diligence paid off, as she became the first black student to graduate from the institution with honors. She then became the first nurse to serve of the Board of Directors of the Palmetto Lowcountry Health Systems Agency. In 1978 she received a gubernatorial appointment to serve on the South Carolina Industrial Commission as an administrative law judge, where she adjudicated worker’s compensation cases in the six congressional districts, becoming the first black and first nurse to do so. In 1981 she was appointed the director of the Office of Minority Impact in the Department of Energy (DOE). As the highest-ranking black female in the executive branch of the federal government, she created many federal programs and initiatives to ensure that ethnic minorities and women were included in DOE programs. She later received a second presidential appointment as Secretary of the Martin Luther King Federal Holiday Commission. On May 17, 1985, Rosslee Tenetha Green Douglas was rewarded for her local, state and national contributions to health care with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from MUSC. Melvena H. Gadsden, R.N. (deceased) Melvena Gadsden was born May 28, 1914, in Charleston. She attended Wallingford Academy and the Avery Institute in Charleston. Upon graduation from the Avery Institute, she enrolled at Charity Hospital in Savannah where she received her nursing degree in 1937. Gadsden’s tenacity was evident during her education. While attending Charity Hospital, white students were required to take a psychiatry course while the same course was not required of black students. Gadsden convinced her fellow classmates that if the course was required for white nurses, then it should be for black nurses. That year she was the only nurse, white or black, to pass the psychiatry course. Returning to Charleston, Gadsden worked at Dorchester County Hospital for four years, and then served 22 years as head nurse for the Hospital and Training School for Nurses and McClennan-Banks Hospital. During the Civil rights movement she trained volunteers, primarily physicians’ wives, to take care of the McClennan-Banks patients while the nurses and hospital workers were on strike. While she worked at McClennan- Banks Hospital, it became the first hospital in Charleston to receive the AAA rating from the American Hospital Association. The evaluators said it was due to the superior quality of nursing service. Impressed with this accomplishment, the MUSC Hospital offered Gadsden double her salary and half the workload to work for them. Because of her dedication to her patients and nurses, she declined. Gadsden completed the last 11 years of her nursing career as the director of nursing at the Franklin C. Fetter Clinic. She received awards from Omega Psi Phi, the NAACP, and the American Red Cross, all for her dedication to community service and outstanding achievements in nursing. Gadsden passed away in March 1998. Her daughter Genevieve and other family members will attend the ceremony to receive the honor on her behalf. Dr. Catherine M. McCottry Born in Charlotte, N.C., Catherine McCottry, M.D., grew up watching her grandmother deliver babies as a mid-wife. At a young age, McCottry told her family she would deliver babies one day, but as a doctor. She attended Johnson C. Smith University and Howard University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. She finished residencies at hospitals throughout the U.S. including Harlem Hospital in New York and Mercy Douglas Hospital in Philadelphia. She finally settled in Charleston where she practiced for 35 years. During those years, McCottry served as chairperson of obstetrics and gynecology for the McClennan-Banks Hospital and on staff at St. Francis and Roper Hospital. McCottry distinguished herself as a physician by her deep commitment to preventing, treating and eradicating cancer. She conducted self-breast exam clinics for high school mothers and women throughout the Lowcountry. She also planned and conducted a project entitled “Cancer among Black Americans.” She received national and local awards from the American Cancer Society for her work with “On Meeting the Challenge of Cancer among Black Americans,” as well as an award from the South Carolina Federation of Colored Women and Girls. It was said that “though she is often out-spoken, she exudes a certain good natured warmth that is both inviting and calming. To know her is to love her and her patients love her.” Dorothy E. Chaplin, LPN Dorothy E. Chaplin was born on Seabrook Island in Colleton County on June 19, 1920. Raised by a single mother, she attended Buist Elementary School, and graduated from Burke Industrial High School in 1938. She was inspired to become a nurse by her grandmother, Colleton County midwife Elizabeth Frazier, and enrolled in The Hospital and Training School in Charleston in 1939. She was lovingly nicknamed “Chappie” by her classmates while there. She graduated alone, walking down the isle of Zion Olivette Church to receive her diploma in July 1942. Due to the social forces impacting hospital accreditation and licensure of minorities, Chaplin was deemed ineligible to receive a nursing license in South Carolina but was awarded an licensed practical nurse license by the state of New York. During World War II, she became the first black nurse from Charleston to cross the color line into the newly desegregated Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Out of compassion for distraught family members of deceased patients, she obtained a funeral directors license in 1955 from the State of New York to insure a more dignified death experience for community members. She is active in her church and the community, and still provides support and mentorship to nursing students today. Friday, May 6, 2005
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