A Nursing Leader’s Living Legacy One of Seattle’s few Black nurses in the 1940s, Rachel Suggs Pitts helped create a network of support for her colleagues and nursing students By Luna Reyna
12
V I E W P O I N T : : U Wa l u m .c o m / v i ew p o i n t
In 1956, Suggs Pitts completed a bachelor's in nursing at the UW. She spent much of her career with the Seattle & King County health department where she worked toward eliminating health disparities. Also, her interest in infectious diseases led her to join a multiyear virus infection surveillance project at the UW.
Rachel Suggs Pitts, one of Seattle’s few Black nurses in the 1940s, played a key role in UW virus research, worked as a public health nurse and provided decades of health service. But perhaps her most profound contribution was to future generations of Black nurses. Pitts died in April, only a few months shy of her 100th birthday. She was the last remaining founder of the Mary Mahoney Professional Nurses Organization (MMPNO). The club for Black nurses started in the 1949 and today provides mentorship, financial aid and scholarships to students of African heritage pursuing careers in nursing. Through the organization and beyond, Pitts nurtured generations of young Black nurses. And they have gone on to advance public health both locally and nationally. Rachel Suggs Pitts “is a model of what it means to be engaged in your profession up until the end of your life,” says Frankie Manning, a former UW faculty member and longtime member of the MMP-
