The University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Nursing, the Midwest Nursing History Research Center, and the editorial team would like to express its sincerest gratitude to the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation for its support of this project to recover Black nurses' narratives with a publicly accessible, Black-centered history of nursing in Chicago. We are very humbled and extremely privileged to have been one of the ten projects funded by their groundbreaking "Broadening Narratives" grant initiative to illuminate underrepresented stories in Chicago and the lowcountry of South Carolina.

"This project marks a pivotal moment as we work to recognize and celebrate Black nursing history, revealing narratives of Chicago's Black nurses . . . The Donnelley Foundation is helping us remake history, and for that, we are forever grateful." -Gwyneth R. Franck, Director, Midwest Nursing History Research Center

We are also extremely grateful for the financial backing of the University of Illinois System's Presidential Initiative: Expanding the Impact of the Arts and Humanities for supporting Dr. Franck (UIC) and Dr. Flynn's (UIUC) collaborative project "Remembering Black Life in Color: Care, Memory, Community and COVID-19." The UIC College of Nursing's Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations also provided crucial assistance in establishing connections to their alums many of whom graciously participated in this project.

Finally, this project would not have been possible without the courageous and informative narratives provided by the following twenty-one heroic Black nurses. Their willingness to share their stories of hardship and triumph not only informed the project but served as its very foundation.
 

Tamara Bland
Fred Brown
Deborah Bump
Joan Bundley
Berlean Burris
Celestine Corrigan
Jo Ann Dean
Askale Facey-Phillips
Janice Phillips
Annie Lawrence
Mary Maryland
Barbara Norman
Margaret Okodua
Pamela Pearson
Phyllis Pelt
Angelique Richard
Titola Turton
Ethel Walton
Karelle Webb
Sandra Webb-Booker
June Young

Key and background image: Rebecca Snyder. "Taking a medical history." Images from the History of Medicine, Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine Digital Collections.
https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101448712-img

Title page Image: Jack Delano. "Chicago, Illinois, Provident Hospital, A preliminary student nurses' class in bacteriology." Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USW3-000306-D (b&w film neg.).