The National Conclave of Grady Graduate Nurses, an organization of professional nurse graduates from Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Atlanta, Georgia, first met in 1972. The organization is dedicated to maintaining and publicizing the history of the school and its founder, Mrs. Ludie Andrews; fostering high standards of nursing and healthcare; and addressing issues faced by African Americans in the nursing profession.

In 1917, the first class of the Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses entered Grady Hospital, where a school for white nurses had been founded in 1898. Organized and initially supervised by African American nurses, the Training School for Colored Nurses was administered by the director of the program for white nurses after 1923. In 1946, when Grady Hospital became part of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, the school was renamed Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. The hospital maintained two separate programs for black and white nurses until integration in 1964, and it closed the nursing school in 1982.

In 1965, black Grady graduates, invited from Detroit to a School of Nursing homecoming, arrived in Atlanta only to be excluded from the whites-only reunion. In discussing this situation, Grady graduates from across the country discovered a shared interest in addressing the political, educational, and economic status of African American nurses, which led to a renewed sense of camaraderie. After an organizational meeting in Atlanta in 1968, the first National Conclave of Grady Graduate Nurses met in Detroit in 1972. The Conclave, incorporated in 1977, has met biennially since 1975. Many Conclave members also belong to local Grady alumnae groups or chapters of the Grady Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association (which integrated its black and white chapters in 1972). Hosts of the Conclave's national conventions have included groups of Grady graduates in New York, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Miami, and Los Angeles.

Raising awareness of the accomplishments of Mrs. Ludie Clay Andrews (1875-1969), founder of the Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses and Georgia's "Dean of Black Nurses," remains central to the Conclave's mission. Mrs. Andrews earned a degree in nursing at Spelman Seminary (which closed its nursing program in 1928). She was the supervisor at another training school in 1914, when the city of Atlanta appointed her to create a nurse training program for African Americans at Grady Municipal Hospital. While organizing the school, selecting its first students, and working to achieve its accreditation, Mrs. Andrews, at her own expense, continued a legal battle she had initiated with the Georgia Board of Nurse Examiners. She fought for ten years to secure the right for African American graduate nurses to sit for the same certification exam taken by white nurses. In 1920, the year the Training School for Colored Nurses graduated its first class, Mrs. Andrews won the right for her students to earn the title "Registered Nurse."

The National Grady Nurses Conclave has publicized Mrs. Andrews' accomplishments with a plaque at Grady Hospital, a portrait presented to Spelman College, and a major exhibit at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. Since 1975, the Conclave has bestowed its highest honor, the Ludie Andrews Distinguished Service Award.

Grady graduates have had varied and successful professional lives, with many pioneering African American women in their fields. Many earned advanced degrees, with some entering research or education, others pursuing administrative careers in healthcare and nonprofit organizations, and still others undertaking second careers. Numerous Grady graduates have had distinguished nursing careers, including at Grady Hospital, and several attained leadership positions, such as the first African American presidents of the Georgia Nurses Association and the Michigan Nurses Association. Verdelle Brim Bellamy, an early organizer of the Conclave, later served as President of the Georgia Board of Nursing, the same board whose exclusionary policies Mrs. Andrews had fought. The Conclave's first honorary member was Mrs. Mabel K. Staupers, a pioneering African American nurse and the first Executive and last President of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, the organization that achieved the integration of the American Nurses Association.

The biennial Conclave provides Grady graduates with the opportunity to meet and discuss issues as healthcare and society continue to evolve. From its inception, the Conclave has also addressed recruitment, retention, and development of African Americans in the nursing profession. It grants scholarships to nursing students, and its conventions feature workshops for continuing education. Topics over the years have included geriatric care, AIDS, substance abuse, and information technology. Fellowship is another important purpose of the National Conclave of Grady Graduate Nurses, offering members the chance to socialize, share memories of Grady, celebrate their accomplishments, and look to the future of their profession.