FAMILY SERVICE

In a country built on hard work, it is befitting our national pride to honor a family whose service to others inspires.

Annie Mae King was 96 years old when she died. She lived most of her life in Union County, Miss. She attended a one-room schoolhouse, put herself through college and then taught first through seventh grades in a similar one-room school. She was paid 50 cents a day for her efforts.

Along the way, Annie Mae, an African-American, had seven children. Her third child, Dorothy, went to Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College and after graduation began working for Lift, a multispecialty social services agency in Tupelo, Miss. That was 1974. Her first job was as a neighborhood health worker. She moved on to work in family planning services and utility assistance, and she is now the executive director.

Dorothy’s second son is Menachem. He was born at the time of the Camp David accords when there was hope for peace in the Middle East. To show her respect, Dorothy named her baby after Menachem Begin.

When Menachem was 11, he began working on the back of a garbage truck before he went to school in the mornings. He played football in high school. And though he was not very big, he was good enough to get the attention of Rhodes College, where he played fullback for four years. He decided he wanted to be a doctor. After all, Dorothy started out as a neighborhood health worker. When he first applied to medical school, he was not accepted, so he took a one-year internship at the Church Health Center. This is when I met him. I could see right off that he was kind and polite but determined. I took a special interest in him.

It took Menachem three years to get accepted. The University of Tennessee School of Medicine Admissions Committee got very tired of my calling them to plead his case, but he was accepted because he earned his spot. By this time, he held a special place in the hearts of my wife, Mary, and me. We had no children, so we chose Menachem to be our family. Both he and Dorothy were fine with that. When he graduated from medical school and parents were asked to stand, Mary and I stood up, and Dorothy was proud for us to be beside her.

I made one big mistake with Menachem when it was time for him to decide on his residency: I took him to New York City.

Menachem immediately fell in love with the Big Apple. He entered a family practice residency caring for the underserved based at Beth Israel Hospital on the Lower East Side. Many Hasidic Jews use the residents as their primary care physicians. They pick their doctor from a list they are provided. You can imagine the surprise when these patients first met Menachem. When he began, he did not know what a Hasidic Jew was, and most of them had never met an African-American from Mississippi. But it all worked out just fine. In fact, a little too fine.

Last year, during Hurricane Sandy, Beth Israel Hospital was the only place on Manhattan from

39th Street to the Bowery that had electricity. Menachem and his fellow residents worked 24/7 to care for all who came to them. He felt like he had found his calling.

So now, Mary and I have just returned from Menachem’s residency graduation, along with Dorothy and her older son, Barabus, who teaches 11th-grade English at a small school in the Delta. He took a job in Harlem at a clinic for the underserved.

I tried every way I could to get him to come back to work at the Church Health Center, and one day maybe he will. But for now, there are people still recovering from Sandy, and Harlem still has great need.

Last summer, Mary and I went to Annie Mae King’s funeral. It was remarkable what she did in her lifetime at a time when poor African-American women had few options. I am confident she would be pleased with her grandson’s choice.

On the Fourth of July, we are to celebrate what it means to live in this country. Surely, Annie Mae, Dorothy and Menachem’s stories are what freedom and liberty are all about.

Their success makes me proud to be an American. Dr. Scott Morris is the founder and CEO of the Church Health Center, whose ministries provide health care for the working uninsured and promote healthy bodies and spirits for all. Dr. Morris is also the associate minister at St. John’s United Methodist Church. For more information about the Church Health Center, call 901-272-7170, or visit churchhealthcenter.org.