**"I Love You Better Than I Love Life..."
**
...Donald Thornton told his six daughters. "But I'm not always gonna be
around to look after you, and no man's gonna come along and offer to
take care of you because you ain't light-skinned. That's why you gotta
be able to look after yourselves. And for that you gotta be smart."
The Ditchdigger's Daughters is an inspiring portrait by a loving
daughter of a father whose pervasive common sense, folk wisdom, and
untutored but right-on insights gave his children their road map to a
better life. It is the story of a man who dared to dream that his black
daughters would someday become doctors--and who guided them to achieve
the seemingly impossible goals he set for them.
From the tenements of East Harlem to the footlights of the Apollo
Theatre to the halls of an Ivy League medical school, Dr. Yvonne
Thornton has written a family biography that is as moving as it is
inspiring. Here is the story of a poor black father and his unimaginable
dream of seeing all six of his daughters become doctors; of the wisdom
and guidance that gave his girls the strength to keep striving; and of
the remarkable way that each one of them transcended race, color, and
gender to fulfill the promise of the American Dream.
"Dr. Thornton's story shows that a family that stays together, that
holds fast to traditional values, can make a quantum leap up the social
mobility scale in one generation." --*Wall Street Journal
*
"Entertaining yet inspiring...a welcome antidote to the many recent
books that have shown the underside of growing up black." --Cleveland
Plain Dealer
