Zipporah Parks Hammond

Make it Right. Let’s get CU Nursing’s first Black graduate inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. After five tries, it’s about time. Discover more about Zippy and why she deserves it.

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Our best-known American heroes are made of lesser stuff.  Most people have never heard of Zipporah Parks Hammond because she was a woman and Black. Yet, in her lifetime she blazed trails in the fields of education and healthcare, courageously fought for the elderly and mentally ill, preserved the history of Black people in Denver, and nurtured children paralyzed by polio shunned by others because of their skin color.

Zipporah lived in a time when Blacks and whites did not mingle, and segregation was the norm. And still she found ways to open doors for historically oppressed communities, elevate the status of all women, and make significant contributions to her community and society with class and grace.

Prejudice must be removed and all people in need given equal assistance. About the only way to receive this treatment will be to have well-trained, conscientious Negro workers who will demand fairness for our people. - Zipporah Parks

In 1941, she was accepted into the University of Colorado School of Nursing, the only Black student in a class of 30. Many of her classmates were prejudiced. She couldn’t live on campus, study with white students or get hands-on learning. And because of the color of her skin, some didn’t think she had the mental capacity to learn. But learn she did. In 1946, Zipporah Parks became the university’s first Black nursing school graduate.

Zipporah had vision – a dream of accomplishing something that no other African American woman before her in the history of Colorado had done: to be admitted to and successfully graduate from the nursing program at C.U. In spite of much skepticism from all quarters, she succeeded with aplomb. She fearlessly challenged the status quo and refused to allow the color of her skin to confine her to arbitrary and limited choices routinely conscribed to women of color during her time. - Resource room educator Karen Pauley

When nurses were desperately needed in World War II, Zipporah joined the Cadet Nurse Corps where she was the only Black nurse out of 1600 student nurses.

Read more HERE