| In the late 1800's, a son of slaves changed the course of history for his family carving a distinguished path that influenced generations after him. TO KNOW HIM tells the true story of John Henry Jordan who, at a young age, set his sights on a goal everyone told him was impossible: becoming a doctor. As if having the world against him wasn’t enough, his own father was adamantly opposed to the idea. Berry Jordan considered it a betrayal that John would even consider becoming anything else but a sharecropper like he was. Still, John remained determined. He knew he needed to get as much education as he could to prepare him, so he attended schools in his hometown of Hogansville, Georgia, and in neighboring counties eventually enrolling at Clark College in Atlanta. His choice for medical school was an easy one: Meharry Medical College, the alma mater of his mentor, Dr. Edward Ramsey. Ramsey was the first African-American doctor in Troup County, Georgia, and later became the first African-American doctor to practice medicine in Houston, Texas. John excelled in the classroom but struggled to pay his tuition. Lack of finances forced him to drop out after his third year, but John, determined as ever, worked until he could afford to go back. He graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1896. The story tells how from the beginning of John’s career, things were not easy. He struggled for two years in his hometown of Hogansville trying to make a living as a doctor but was forced to work as a schoolteacher to make ends meet. A move to neighboring Coweta County proved to be fortuitous. In 1898, he became the county’s first African- American doctor and was married in that same year to Dr. Ramsey’s daughter: Mollie Emma Ramsey. John’s medical practice thrived. He treated everything from colds to tumors. He also delivered babies, extracted teeth and performed difficult operations, often on his patients' dining room tables. He built the county’s first African- American hospital and started a medical aid organization teaching his patients about the importance of proper hygiene and preventative health care. However, it wasn’t until one of the county’s wealthiest, white residents sought out John, over white doctors in the area, to help save the life of his child that John’s skill and expertise began to resonate with people across the county no matter what their color. TO KNOW HIM chronicles John’s life and the unraveling of his family and fortune after his premature death at the age of 42 in a car accident. His wife, Mollie, who worshiped him, is at a total loss without him while also trying to raise their only son, Edward, alone. She eventually remarries a man everyone tells her is only interested in her money. He immediately forces Mollie to work, for the first time in her life, and takes money from her as well as forces her to sell much of her property in order to fund his funeral home business. By the end of the book, Mollie dies suddenly, leaving Edward alone to fight his stepfather for his birthright... Click here to visit Karen's blog All rights reserved. , |
| KAREN JORDAN |
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