Hazel Johnson-Brown

Who was Hazel Johnson-Brown?

Hazel Winifred Johnson-Brown is a retired nurse and educator, who served with the U.S. Army from 1955-1983. In 1979 she became the first black female general in the United States Army and the first black chief of the Army Nurse Corps. She was also the Director of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing.

Hazel Johnson was born in 1927 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, one of seven children. She grew up on her father’s farm in Chester County, near the town of Malvern. When she was twelve, she was inspired to become a nurse by a local white public health nurse. Her application to the West Chester School of Nursing was rejected because she was black. She moved to New York City, and enrolled in the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in 1947.

Johnson-Brown joined the Army in 1955, shortly after President Harry Truman banned segregation and discrimination in the armed services. She was a staff nurse in Japan and Chief nurse in Korea. "While in the Army, Gen. Johnson-Brown earned a master's degree in nursing education from Columbia University and a doctorate in education administration from Catholic University of America."

Johnson-Brown was Assistant Dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing from 1976 to 1978.