This Sat., June 13, Rachael Suggs Pitts, an early pioneer in virus surveillance in the field or nursing and founding member of the Mary Mahoney Professional Nurses Association (MMPNO), will celebrate her 99th birthday.
Pitts — who received her nurse training at Brewster Hospital Nursing Program for colored girls in Jacksonville, Florida, which was one of the few nursing schools for African American girls in the United States – says that she was fortunate to have a nursing school director who had links to Harborview Hospital in Seattle, Washington (one of the first Seattle Hospitals to hire African American nurses at that time). Her Director was able to help her transition from a student to being immediately employed, upon graduation as a Registered Nurse.
Shortly after her employment began, Pitts contracted tuberculosis and spent time in rehab at Firland Hospital. This experience heightened her interest in infectious diseases.
Pitts is no novice to virus infections and in public health efforts to change health outcomes for communities of color in Seattle’s Central Area; especially African American. In 1956, she was a nurse for the Seattle Department of Public Health when she was loaned, based on her interest and expertise in infectious diseases, to the University of Washington Department of Epidemiology and International Health, where she worked closely with Dr. John P. Fox in implementing a multi-year virus infection surveillance research project entitled “The Virus Watch Program.” The project involved a continuous surveillance of viral infections in Metropolitan families in states as far away as New York and New Orleans.
Pitts is one who is strong in her faith in God and in caring for others. As a Founder of one of the oldest professional organizations for Black nurses, her legacy is an inspiration to other nurses to focus on pursuit of academic excellence and public health service focus. Her influences in erasing the disparities in health status of our community is evidenced by the increasing number of African American nurses in our community with advanced degrees, involvement with higher education and the increased number of members of MMPNO involved in outreach activities in the community which improved the lives and hope of African heritage people.
Extensions of this legacy include:
• Antwinett Lee has a doctorate in Nursing and is Assoc. Dean, Undergraduate Nursing, and Asst. Professor of Nursing at Seattle Pacific University.
• Joycelyn Thomas at CHI Franciscan has a Doctorate as a Family Nurse Practitioner and is the Medical Director of the Franciscan Medical Clinic, Federal Way CHI where she is in family practice, taking care of all ages with a special interest in HIV and Global Health.
• Gayle Robinson, an Assistant Professor at Seattle University, has a doctorate degree and serves with a very special interest and experience in African American health, HIV Prevention, and Intergenerational Dialogues on family health.
One MMPNO member remembered one of Pitts inspirational moments directed towards the membership as follows:
“The sun was shining brightly through the meeting room one Saturday morning June of 2018. The room was warm, and many black nurses were gathering for our once a month meeting. On this day, we were honored with the presence of one or our living founders Ms. Rachel Pitts. She had decided to come to share with us an important message. Before the meeting started, members were greeting each other and catching up on how life had been going with our work and our families. As the meeting started, Ms. Manning welcomed our Founder and let her know that we were proud to have her with us and were grateful for her legacy of dedicated contributions to MMPNO and for her years of nursing service as a midwife, and public health nurse. Yet today was her time to talk to us. What she shared was a message she did not want us to ever forget. Rachael Suggs Pitts simply asked that we “never stop serving OUR community.”
Happy 99th Birthday, Nurse Rachael Suggs Pitts. Your life has been an example of extra-ordinary dedication to our Seattle community and to nurses in service throughout the United States.
