Raised in poverty in Tyler, Texas, Helen Harris Green went on to 
become the first black woman admitted into a Dallas school of 
professional nursing, the first black nurse-manager at the Harris 
Methodist Hospital in Euless, the first black department director at 
Timberlawn Psychiatric Center, the first black president of the 
Texas Society of Healthcare Educators, the first black to be on the 
board of directors for the TSHE division of the Texas Hospital 
Association, and the first black chair of the board of directors of 
TSHE. In this moving and personal account, she details the battles 
she fought and insults she endured to reach her professional goals.

    Green was blessed with an educated mother who was 
determined to help her daughter rise beyond the poverty of her 
childhood and who emphasized that education was the key. Her 
mother, Willie Raye Harris, was the single greatest influence on 
Helen and the person most responsible for her success. Her father, 
less well educated, believed in ruling the family with an iron fist, and 
her brother ran away from home in rebellion. Willie Raye was able 
to keep her daughter at home despite the father’s harshness. The 
vivid description of her poor childhood in segregated East Texas is 
riveting, giving a clear picture of the place and the time.

    Married and a mother at an early age, Green never lost her 
ambition. She studied, in a segregated class, for her certificate as a 
licensed vocational nurse. While working as an LVN, she applied 
for admission to professional nursing schools and was consistently 
turned down for seven years. Finally, she was accepted into the 
Methodist Hospital of Dallas School of Nursing, where she was 
clearly an experiment. Green met encouragement and support from 
the dean and faculty and most of her classmates, but she also 
endured curiosity, scorn, and rudeness from some professional 
healthcare workers and some students. At graduation, she was 
awarded the Florence Nightingale Award for academic and clinical 
excellence.

    Over the years, Green’s continuing education—she earned a 
master’s degree in business administration—and her professional 
success placed great strains on her family. She and her husband, 
Sed, were periodically at odds and even divorced briefly. Her 
daughter, Shalimar, distanced herself from the family and 
developed a drug problem. And her son, Chris, was often saddened 
by the anger between his parents. Yet much as she worked at her 
family life, Green could not and would not give up her professional 
goals, which she felt were necessary for a successful life.

    Helen Green’s story, told frankly and honestly, reflects the 
experiences of many black citizens, no matter their profession, 
during the fifties and sixties and on into the twenty-first century. Her 
determination and courage are to be admired, her humor and 
insight to be appreciated, her love and compassion to be shared 
with the world. This is the story of one East Texas daughter who 
learned that sticks and stones may break her bones and even slow 
her progress, but never end it.

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Now semi-retired, HELEN GREEN makes her home in Dallas and 
remains active in the world of nursing. She serves on the board of 
trustees of Dallas Metrocare Services and conducts seminars for 
small groups. She is the mother of two children, a grandmother, 
and a great-grandmother.