American nurse, newsletter writer, radio and television personality, and civil rights activist. She presented The Homemaker’s Club and produced Alma John Talks to Teens, What’s Right with Teenagers, Speak of Color and other radio programs in a 25-year association with WWRL in New York City. She hosted TV show Black Pride from 1970-1971 before becoming the show’s producer in 1972. She also hosted the talk series Positively Black.
She moved to New York to take nursing classes after graduating from high school. She completed her nursing training at Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in 1929 and worked for two years as a nurse before being promoted to the director of the educational and recreational programs at Harlem Hospital. After being fired for trying to unionize nurses in 1938, she became the director of the Upper Manhattan YWCA School for Practical Nurses, the first African-American to serve as director of a school of nursing in the state of New York.
In 1944, John became a lecturer and consultant with the National Nursing Council for War Service, serving until the war ended, and was the last director of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses from 1946 until it dissolved in 1951. Her position at both organizations was to expand nursing opportunities for black women and integrate black nurses throughout the nation into the health care system.
In 1949, John wrote a script Brown Women in White for production on WNBC, which led to a second career in radio and television. In 1952, she presented The Homemaker’s Club on station WWRL in New York. The following year, she became the first black radio personality to be invited as a member of the New York chapter of the Association of Women in Radio and Television. She campaigned successfully for the organization meetings to be held in unsegregated facilities.
She married Cornwall Lisley John on 1 October 1937. She died at age 79 on 8 April 1986 at Harlem Hospital in Manhattan, New York after suffering a stroke the previous day.
Link to Wikipedia biography