The Conclave is an organization of professional nurse graduates of Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia.  These graduates, represented throughout the United States, were first organized to establish a history of Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing for black nurses, and also to remember our founder, Mrs. Ludie Andrews.  The history and a bronze plaque in memory and in tribute to the accomplishments of this great black woman, were placed at Grady Hospital.

Another emphasis of the Conclave was to begin a scholarship in the name of Mrs. Ludie Andrews.  The scholarship would be designed for minority students interested in nursing and other health related fields.  The presentation of the Ludie Andrews Distinguished Service Award will highlight all Conclaves.

The National Conclave of Grady Graduate Nurses was organized in August, 1972 and named Grady Professional Nurses.  The organization was incorporated in the State of Michigan under the name National Conclave of Grady Graduate Nurses in April, 1977.

Formation of the group resulted from a group of nurses being openly rejected / excluded from participation in "Homecoming" activities in August, 1965 at Grady Memorial Hospital.  The nurses were told that the "Homecoming" activities were scheduled by and for the all white school.  From 1914 to 1965 there were two schools of nursing at Grady Hospital.  They were Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, for white students, and Grady Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses, for "Negro" students.

Mrs. Ludie Clay Andrews organized the Grady Municipal Training School in 1914 and directed it to meet State of Georgia Accreditation in 1917.  The first class, comprised of six (6) young women, graduated in 1920.  Mrs. Andrews left the school in 1922.  She was succeeded by Miss Annie Bess Feebeck who served as Superintendent of both schools until her retirement in 1944.

The first successful Conclave was held August 10-12 in Detroit, Michigan.  Out of these sessions, a second Conclave was planned.  The emphasis was also broadened to include establishing other projects for future Conclaves.

Purposes:

1. Inform our members of the role played by Mrs. Ludie Andrews in organizing the Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses.

2.  Engage in serious discussion of issues facing black nurses, including political,  educational, and economical.

3.  Involve community in combating drug abuse problems.

4.  Engage in activities of a purely social nature.

Our school, the Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses, was chartered in 1917.  It was integrated in 1964 and closed in 1982.  Mrs. Mable K. Stoupers, a graduate of Freedman's Hospital School of Nursing, was  the first executive of the now legally dissolved National Association of Colored Nurses.  She became the first honorary member of the National Conclave.

Participants of the 1982 Conclave voted to meet every two years on the uneven years at various locations nationwide.