Graduating class from the Grady Muncipal Training School for Colored Nurses (1933)
June 2, 1892: Grady Hospital opens in downtown Atlanta at Jesse Hill Jr. Drive and Coca-Cola Place.
March 24, 1898: Grady Hospital Training School for Nurses receives charter from the state of Georgia, Fulton County Superior Court.
May 1900: The first class graduates from Grady School of Nursing.
1914: Mrs. Ludie Clay Andrews organizes the Grady Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses in Atlanta, Georgia.
1915: The Department of Nursing at Spelman College closes; students transfer to the Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses.
1917: The Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses receives accreditation and charter from the state of Georgia, Fulton County Superior Court.
1920: First students graduate from the Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses.
1920: Black students win the right to take the same examination as white students for Certification by the Nurse Examining Board of the State of Georgia. This comes as a result of Ludie Andrews suing the Georgia State Board of Nurse Examiners to secure black nurses the right to take the state board examination and become licensed.
1929: The Grady Memorial Hospital Education Department is established as a separate but integrated part of Nursing Services. A director of nursing education position is created.
January 26, 1944: Dedication of the Grady Nurses’ Service Flag, a tribute to the 103 Grady nurses serving in the military forces during World War II.
1946: Grady Hospital becomes part of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority. The school is renamed Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, but the programs for black and white students remain separate.
1952: The Grady School of Nursing is accredited by the National Nursing Accrediting Service.
March 18, 1954: Construction begins on the new Grady Memorial Hospital consisting of 21 floors with 1,100 beds and 17 operating rooms.
Construction of Grady Memorial Hospital building from the Gray-Dee yearbook (1956)
1958: New Grady Memorial Hospital building opens. The new location of the hospital moves from 36 Butler Street, S.E. to its current location on Pratt Street.
1960: Questions and issues of desegregation of Grady Hospital are raised by Dr. R.C. Bell, an African American dentist from Atlanta, and Dr. George C. Lawrence, past president of the Atlanta Medical Association for Negro Physicians.
1961: Black students picket for the integration of Grady Memorial Hospital.
June 1962: A lawsuit is filed against Grady Memorial Hospital in an effort to guarantee equal opportunity for black health care professionals and patients. The plaintiffs include Dr. Bell and seven other African American medical professionals. applicants denied admission to the Grady School of Nursing, and three African American citizens denied emergency treatment at Grady. Known as Bell vs. Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, the federal case leads to the desegregation of hospitals in Georgia and across the country.
Last graduating class of Grady Hospital School of Nursing. This Photo was taken from the 1982 Grady School of Nursing White Caps yearbook.
September 1963: Grady School of Nursing reaches peak enrollment of 614 students. The school had the fourth largest enrollment in the nation. 222 students were admitted. 109 students graduated.
February 1964: Horace Ward and Donald Hollowell, two prominent Atlanta lawyers, challenge segregation at Atlanta’s Grady Hospital, and the second-class treatment of black doctors, nurses, and dentists.
September 1964: The Grady Schools of Nursing are integrated. The two schools, which shared a curriculum, began teaching black and white students together. The schools’ separate uniforms, caps, and pins are redesigned and all students wear the same uniform.
1965: The first male student is accepted to Grady Hospital School of Nursing.
1971: Nursing School curriculum changes from 144-week program to 134 weeks in an effort to increase enrollment.
1978: the 80th-anniversary celebration of the Grady Hospital School of Nursing.
January 1980: The long-range planning committee of Grady Memorial Hospital recommends that the School of Nursing close following graduation in 1982 due to declining enrollment and increasing cost of maintaining the program.
1982: Grady Hospital School of Nursing graduates its last class.
