In
Breaking Ground
, Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. recounts his extraordinary life including his childhood in Jim Crow south Georgia and continuing through his trailblazing endeavors training to become a physician in an almost entirely white environment in the Northeast. He was the founding dean and president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in President George H. W. Bush’s administration. Throughout his extraordinary life Sullivan has passionately championed improved access to health care for all Americans and greater diversity among the nation’s health professionals.
Sullivan’s life—from Morehouse to the White House and his ongoing work with medical students in South Africa—is the embodiment of the hopes and progress that the civil rights movement fought to achieve. His story should inspire future generations—of all backgrounds—to aspire to great things.