Essie Davis Morgan, sister of Hollywood actor-producer Ossie Davis, was a pioneer in American social work and VA’s first African American woman regional office director.
Essie Mae Davis was born on the last day of 1919 in Waycross, Georgia, where she grew up in the racially segregated South. She was a year younger than her brother Ossie and the only girl among five siblings.
Job opportunities for black women were extremely limited in those days. Despite those obstacles, she graduated from Alabama State College and went on to pursue a master’s degree in social work from Atlanta University. In 1949 she was hired as a social worker at the Tuskegee VA hospital.
While at Tuskegee she developed a community placement program for psychiatric patients that became a model for all VA psychiatric hospitals. She authored numerous guides and articles that perpetuated best practices within VA and benefitted the field of social work overall. She later developed new techniques to aid in the care of patients with spinal cord injuries or receiving dialysis.
After the 1964 Civil Rights Law was enacted, career opportunities for women opened up. In 1965 Essie Morgan was appointed as Chief of Community Service in the VA Social Work Office at VA Central Office in Washington, D.C. In 1971 she received the Federal Woman’s Award, which recognized government career women. She was recipient of the Paralyzed Veterans of America’s Speedy Award in 1974 for her work with spinal cord injury veterans. She continued to advance in her career serving as Chief of Socio-Economic Rehabilitation and Chief of Staff for Spinal Cord Injury, Area Field Director for the Western Region and in the summer of 1980, after serving as an Assistant Director, she became VA’s first African American woman regional office director for the Washington, D.C., regional benefits office.
She retired from VA in 1986 with a career that spanned nearly 40 years and died of a brain tumor on February 27, 1990. She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals and the American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers established awards named in her honor to acknowledge her contributions to the field of social work.
https://www.facebook.com/VAAlbany/posts/history-tidbit-essie-davis-morgan-sister-of-hollywood-actor-producer-ossie-davis/859255967477727/
Contributor: Roselvr (48049775)
Essie Mae Davis was born on the last day of 1919 in Waycross, Georgia, where she grew up in the racially segregated South. She was a year younger than her brother Ossie and the only girl among five siblings.
Job opportunities for black women were extremely limited in those days. Despite those obstacles, she graduated from Alabama State College and went on to pursue a master’s degree in social work from Atlanta University. In 1949 she was hired as a social worker at the Tuskegee VA hospital.
While at Tuskegee she developed a community placement program for psychiatric patients that became a model for all VA psychiatric hospitals. She authored numerous guides and articles that perpetuated best practices within VA and benefitted the field of social work overall. She later developed new techniques to aid in the care of patients with spinal cord injuries or receiving dialysis.
After the 1964 Civil Rights Law was enacted, career opportunities for women opened up. In 1965 Essie Morgan was appointed as Chief of Community Service in the VA Social Work Office at VA Central Office in Washington, D.C. In 1971 she received the Federal Woman’s Award, which recognized government career women. She was recipient of the Paralyzed Veterans of America’s Speedy Award in 1974 for her work with spinal cord injury veterans. She continued to advance in her career serving as Chief of Socio-Economic Rehabilitation and Chief of Staff for Spinal Cord Injury, Area Field Director for the Western Region and in the summer of 1980, after serving as an Assistant Director, she became VA’s first African American woman regional office director for the Washington, D.C., regional benefits office.
She retired from VA in 1986 with a career that spanned nearly 40 years and died of a brain tumor on February 27, 1990. She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals and the American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers established awards named in her honor to acknowledge her contributions to the field of social work.
https://www.facebook.com/VAAlbany/posts/history-tidbit-essie-davis-morgan-sister-of-hollywood-actor-producer-ossie-davis/859255967477727/
Contributor: Roselvr (48049775)
Essie Davis Morgan, sister of Hollywood actor-producer Ossie Davis, was a pioneer in American social work and VA’s first African American woman regional office director.
Essie Mae Davis was born on the last day of 1919 in Waycross, Georgia, where she grew up in the racially segregated South. She was a year younger than her brother Ossie and the only girl among five siblings.
Job opportunities for black women were extremely limited in those days. Despite those obstacles, she graduated from Alabama State College and went on to pursue a master’s degree in social work from Atlanta University. In 1949 she was hired as a social worker at the Tuskegee VA hospital.
While at Tuskegee she developed a community placement program for psychiatric patients that became a model for all VA psychiatric hospitals. She authored numerous guides and articles that perpetuated best practices within VA and benefitted the field of social work overall. She later developed new techniques to aid in the care of patients with spinal cord injuries or receiving dialysis.
After the 1964 Civil Rights Law was enacted, career opportunities for women opened up. In 1965 Essie Morgan was appointed as Chief of Community Service in the VA Social Work Office at VA Central Office in Washington, D.C. In 1971 she received the Federal Woman’s Award, which recognized government career women. She was recipient of the Paralyzed Veterans of America’s Speedy Award in 1974 for her work with spinal cord injury veterans. She continued to advance in her career serving as Chief of Socio-Economic Rehabilitation and Chief of Staff for Spinal Cord Injury, Area Field Director for the Western Region and in the summer of 1980, after serving as an Assistant Director, she became VA’s first African American woman regional office director for the Washington, D.C., regional benefits office.
She retired from VA in 1986 with a career that spanned nearly 40 years and died of a brain tumor on February 27, 1990. She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals and the American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers established awards named in her honor to acknowledge her contributions to the field of social work.
https://www.facebook.com/VAAlbany/posts/history-tidbit-essie-davis-morgan-sister-of-hollywood-actor-producer-ossie-davis/859255967477727/
Contributor: Roselvr (48049775)
Essie Mae Davis was born on the last day of 1919 in Waycross, Georgia, where she grew up in the racially segregated South. She was a year younger than her brother Ossie and the only girl among five siblings.
Job opportunities for black women were extremely limited in those days. Despite those obstacles, she graduated from Alabama State College and went on to pursue a master’s degree in social work from Atlanta University. In 1949 she was hired as a social worker at the Tuskegee VA hospital.
While at Tuskegee she developed a community placement program for psychiatric patients that became a model for all VA psychiatric hospitals. She authored numerous guides and articles that perpetuated best practices within VA and benefitted the field of social work overall. She later developed new techniques to aid in the care of patients with spinal cord injuries or receiving dialysis.
After the 1964 Civil Rights Law was enacted, career opportunities for women opened up. In 1965 Essie Morgan was appointed as Chief of Community Service in the VA Social Work Office at VA Central Office in Washington, D.C. In 1971 she received the Federal Woman’s Award, which recognized government career women. She was recipient of the Paralyzed Veterans of America’s Speedy Award in 1974 for her work with spinal cord injury veterans. She continued to advance in her career serving as Chief of Socio-Economic Rehabilitation and Chief of Staff for Spinal Cord Injury, Area Field Director for the Western Region and in the summer of 1980, after serving as an Assistant Director, she became VA’s first African American woman regional office director for the Washington, D.C., regional benefits office.
She retired from VA in 1986 with a career that spanned nearly 40 years and died of a brain tumor on February 27, 1990. She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals and the American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers established awards named in her honor to acknowledge her contributions to the field of social work.
https://www.facebook.com/VAAlbany/posts/history-tidbit-essie-davis-morgan-sister-of-hollywood-actor-producer-ossie-davis/859255967477727/
Contributor: Roselvr (48049775)
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