Drawing on a variety of sources from oral histories to the records of professional organizations, Thomas J. Ward, Jr. examines the development of the African American medical profession in the South. Illuminating the contradictions of race and class, this research provides valuable new insight into class divisions within African American communities in the era of segregation.

Thomas J. Ward Jr. is an assistant professor of history at Rockhurst University. He was the writer and co-producer of Mississippi Voices: A Trip through the Twentieth Century, a public radio program, and was an assistant editor for the Mississippi Oral History Project.