February is Black History Month, which allows us to take the time to remember and reflect the great deeds and accomplishments of African American leaders throughout history. This isn’t just a month honored in the United States. Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Ireland also celebrate Black History Month.

Throughout American history, there have been several influential people of color who have made a significant difference in the field of nursing. Here are just some of them:

Harriet Tubman

Yes, Harriet Tubman is best known as the woman who led slaves through the Underground Railroad and her efforts in civil rights after the war. But did you know that she was also a nurse, scout, and spy for the Union army? Tubman nursed black soldiers and newly freed slaves in Union camps during the Civil War. Accounts show her treating patients with natural remedies that she learned in Maryland, using roots and herbs. She didn’t just cook and do laundry like most black women. She also became the first woman to have command a military raid, and served as a spy for the Union. Even though she was in poor health herself, Tubman cared for soldiers in Washington D.C. and was eventually named the matron of the Colored Hospital at Fortress Monroe in Virginia.

She worked for the Union with little or no pay, and was also denied a pension for her military career. But, after protests from her supporters, Tubman received a nursing pension instead for her service.

Hazel W. Johnson-Brown

This accomplished nurse earned her nursing degree at the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing, after which she signed up into the army and went to earn her stripes. Johnson-Brown toured in both Japan and Korea, and she helped train nurses that were heading to the frontlines in the Vietnam War. She climbed the ranks through hard work and sheer dedication, and obtained the rank of Brigadier General, as well as obtaining leadership of the United States Army Corps, a group that consisted of over 7,000 nurses at the time. She achieved all of this while being told throughout her entire career that she wouldn’t be able to join the program because she was a woman—and a black one, at that.

Regardless, Hazel spent most of her career dedicated to her studies and went on to finish her education, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degree, as well as her Ph.D in educational administration.

Susie King Taylor

King was a nurse pivotal to the cause of Union Army. During the Civil War, Susie was instrumental in providing all sorts of services to her peers. Whether it was patching people up, helping to lift morale, or even firing a gun (with deadly accuracy), this nurse was definitely a force to be reckoned. At one point in her career, against her superior’s orders, King snuck into the tents of quarantined soldiers who were infected with smallpox, and provided them with treatment.

King often went above and beyond the call of duty, and is recognized today for her kindness and dedication.

Goldie Brangman

Goldie Brangman was an emergency surgical nurse that, in 1958, was working in the Harlem Hospital when Martin Luther King Jr. was victim to a near-fatal assassination attempt in one of his public addresses. After much deliberation, the doctors who received him concluded that he would not survive the transfer to a hospital with a “more capable” staff. Instead, they performed heart-saving surgery on him, in which Brangman operated the breathing bag that kept him alive throughout the entire procedure.

Despite this fascinating story, the success for Goldie didn’t stop there. She was also the first (and only) black woman CRNA to serve as the president of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. When she “retired” in 1985, she also became a full-time volunteer for the American Red Cross and served at one of the few national facilities that educated the public on HIV.

Patricia Bath

Bath was the first African-American woman to complete a residency in ophthalmology, and go on to live out her lifelong dream of aiding and treating the eyesight of her patients. However, she was not only avid about the eye health of her patients, she was also concerned for their rights. She founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness with the goal of advocating for eyesight health as a basic human right. She also served as a faculty member at Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA.

Mary Eliza Mahoney

The first African-American RN who, in 1879, graduated from a program in New England that required laborious 16-hour workdays, 7 days a week. She came out as one of the three graduates of a 40-student program and proved to everyone that colored nurses were, in no way, inferior to their white counterparts. After her achievement, Mahoney helped to establish the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses.

The American Nurses Association created the Mary Mahony award in her name, which is still one of the highest honors a nurse can receive.

Adah Belle Samuel Thoms

In 1905, Samuel received her degree from the Lincoln Hospital and Home School or Nursing. Furthermore, on that same year, in an as-of-yet unheard of act, she was also named the acting director of the institution where she earned her degree. It was her stellar record and knowledge of the field that allowed her to perform admirably in this position, even though she was never “officially” the director due to her skin color.

In order to help African-American nurses to enjoy the same rights as their white counterparts, she helped establish the National Association for Colored Graduate Nurses and fought for black nurses to work in both the American Red Cross and US Army Nurse Corps. In short, she helped pave the way so that nurses that were ready and willing to serve their country, could do so regardless of their skin color.