Mabel Keaton Staupers

Mabel Keaton Staupers (February 27 1890 - November 29 1989) was a pioneer in the American nursing profession. Faced with racial discrimination after graduating from nursing school, Staupers became an advocate for racial equality in the nursing profession.

Staupers fought for the inclusion of black nurses in World War II to the Army and Navy as the executive secretary of National Association Of Graduate Colored Nurses(NAGCN). She continued fighting not only for quotas, but for the full inclusion of nurses of all races, which was granted in January 1945. In 1948, the American Nursing Association followed suit and allowed African-American nurses to become members. In 1950, Staupers dissolved the NAGCN because she believed the organization had done all it was meant to do.