Khidr Abdun-Nur

Doctor Hudson
Hon 1000

This is the story of a young African American doctor named Paul Reeves who currently
lives in a rundown, crowded home. The combination of overcrowding, poverty, and poor access
to quality medical treatment (Jervis 1), was evident in his small town in Louisiana. The young
man went to Europe because of his scholarship in high school and was able to study abroad. Now
he and his wife Catharine Reeves and his one daughter, June, live harshly in these conditions. If
these living conditions werent bad enough working conditions were harsh and having his M.D,
in Louisiana Black labor was under-represented in the other non-farm industries such as
hospitals and public facilities (MARGO 1). A good paying job related to his degree was hard to
find. Instead he was working long, arduous hours in badly ventilated spaces, coming home to
equally unhealthy conditions, getting insufficient rest and nutrition (JAMES 1), working in the
south was one of his biggest challenges.
To him his family was everything, and he felt terrible for not being able to provide for
him despite having a PhD. He knew they deserved better. One day he got the paper and saw
Detroit, of course, is the great industrial center of Michigan, and to this point alone it was
estimated that in the two years 1916-17 between 25,000 and 30,000 Negro migrants came (The
Negro at Work 77). This was exactly what he needed to see to lift his spirits, this was his light at
the end of the tunnel, and this was his escape to a new life. As it seems his life couldnt get any
clearer he continues to read as it says "History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want
tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the
history that we make today." (Chicago Tribune, 1916). Thats it, he set his sights to move to the
great Detroit, where there is no tradition, the past has been forgotten, and where the people live
only in the present and aspire to make the future. He thought to himself we wouldnt have to

Khidr Abdun-Nur
Doctor Hudson
Hon 1000

suffer any more of these discriminations and having to live in these conditions! As he had his
mind set, the young doctor was ready to move to Detroit which was the best way for him and his
family to escape lynching, unemployment and oppression(McKenna 5), he wouldnt have to
worry about shortages on food supply, and to live the American dream; his American dream of
taking care of his family and working a stable job while being in a city, but his dream was short
lived as he faced racism, hunger, and social discriminations much like he did in the south, except
to an even worse extent than he imagined.
My name is Paul and I just moved to Detroit with my wife and daughter, as the only
building right now available for Negros, my landlord tells me is a one room apartment that I
could rent. As this is my first time in a big city very much different from my rural lifestyle back
down south I accept this offer for the time being. On my first day out to search for a job I
instantly find a job opening in the newspaper for a surgeon, which is exactly what I specialize in.
I call in and I have an interview the next day. I tell my wife who is enthusiastic about the news
considering the fact we are almost out of our savings for rent.
The next day came and I wore the best and only suit that I owned and I walked down to
the Henry Ford Hospital for the interview with my resume and M.D. diploma in hand. The
Hospital was financed and built by Henry Ford, who organized a closed staff of physicians and
surgeons, (HFHH 1) so I was sure the man who motivated me to move here would allow me to
work here also. As I walk into the doors of the hospital I notice a very peculiar atmosphere. My
original thought was that even in the North there were few black physicians and hospitals were
generally segregated (JARVIS 2), but I brushed that thought aside. This is the land of

Khidr Abdun-Nur
Doctor Hudson
Hon 1000

opportunities, the place where the past is left behind and we only look towards the future. I
continue my walk and approach the gentleman at the front desk, but he seem to have seen a ghost
when he laid eyes upon me. Are you alright I inquired of him and he very bluntly told me,
This hospital isnt for your kind, hurry up and leave before you taint our atmosphere. Baffled
by what I just heard I hastily left the hospital and hurried on home. I didnt want to let my wife
know of what happened today so when she asked how it went I told her, they decided to go
another way.
It had been almost a month and I still havent found a job. We dont have any more
money for the rent and we havent eaten for the past 3 days. This was supposed to be our new
life, we was supposed to be happy here. Our living conditions has barely changed and Im still
unable to provide for my family. Was my degree for nothing? Was me moving for nothing? Were
all my efforts for nothing? No, I was determined to find a job and be the man I dreamed of being.
Determined to find a job I searched every newspaper I could find, asked every person I knew,
and looked at all flyers posted. My determination payed off. I was hired into an African
American hospital, The Mercy General Hospital, with the pay of $5.00 a day. Drs. Davis and
Daisy Northcross establish Mercy General Hospital. The 20-bed facility is the first AfricanAmerican-owned and operated hospital in Detroit (DAAHP). Things in my life finally started to
look up. I was now able to feed my family, buy them new clothes and even start saving for a new
house.

Khidr Abdun-Nur
Doctor Hudson
Hon 1000

Two years had passed and we were finally able to move out of that godforsaken
apartment and into a real home. This home was located in suburbs of Detroit and my landlord
had told me that I was the only African American homeowner on the street. This piece of
information didnt bother me at all, I was too focused on accomplishing the American dream for
me and my family. For the first year of us moving there things was nice and my family was
content with our new and improved city life. Much better than those old days back down in the
south.
Until one day at 12 at night, a crowd of people, close to 200, formed around my house.
All of them with the KKK uniforms. I hurriedly wake my wife and grab my daughter and move
them into the safest room. I ask them what is their business here knowing full and well the
reason of their gathering. They responded saying that this was a whites only neighborhood and
they wanted me and my family to move out, weve stayed there too long. I tell them this is my
house and Im not going anywhere. I had to stand up for what was mine and my family and I had
suffered too hard to just be forced out of our home. They stayed in front of my house circling and
chanting until 4am and little by little they began to return home.
The next day I went out a bought a firearm to protect me and my family such another
case like that would happen again. That same night they all gathered again in front of my house
around the same time as before. That night no words were said and my wife and daughter was in
the upstairs room as I was in the downstairs room next to the window. The crowd outside started
to throw rocks and bottles of alcohol with towels that were lit on fire stuffed in them at my
house. They had set fire to the upper level of the house and I rushed upstairs to save my wife and

Khidr Abdun-Nur
Doctor Hudson
Hon 1000

child from the flames. They were passed out on the floor from inhaling too much smoke, I
wrapped my shirt around my face and dragged them out of the burning room. I run to the front
window and I shoot my pistol, leaving only one bullet in the barrel. Shortly after they all began
to run and I hear the sirens in the distance. I pull my wife and daughter into the backyard out of
our burning house, holding them tightly as I eagerly await for the ambulance to arrive.
I stay up all night in the hospital as I wait for the doctor to come and tell me their
condition. The doctor walked in with his head down, and his hands pressed together. As he
walked towards me I rushed to him to hear him tell me that they were alright, that they were
going to be okay, these were the words I needed to hear him say. He looked me in the eye and
told said Im sorry before he could say anything after that I began to break down, tears
running down my face as my knees hit the floor. He helped me up back into a chair and finished
his sentence saying Im sorry Mr. Reeves but your wife and daughter has passed from smoke
inhalation. My heart was broken, there was nothing that could stop the seal my pain. Realizing
that I was going to live with eternal regret, realizing that moving to Detroit, the city of forgotten
past and new future was a mistake, realizing that trying to forget about the past was a mistake,
realizing the irony of trying to escape reality, realizing that I cant live without my family. I go to
my half burned down house and sit in the room where my wife and daughter was trapped in.
With a bottle of whiskey in one hand and my one bullet left in my pistol, I take my own life in
great city of Detroit.

Khidr Abdun-Nur
Doctor Hudson
Hon 1000

My character has seen how no matter where you go there is always a politic. Even though
the south and the north may have had different problems regarding work or living conditions, or
even racism, the thing they have in common is that it still was a problem for him. Even if he
lived in the south he wouldve continued to struggle and when he moved to the north he realized
that he still continued to face the same problems, but all in a different way. My character tried to
break the line of social class and racism, though he was accepting to this idea many people
around him werent so accepting and they showed it. In his lifetime he experienced rural and
urban difficulties.

Khidr Abdun-Nur
Doctor Hudson
Hon 1000
Sources
Boyle, Kevin. Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age. New
York: H. Holt, 2004. Print.
"Early 1900's Black American South." Debbie McKenna. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.

Stuart E. Tolnay, The Bottom Rung: African American Family Life on Southern Farms,
(Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999), 123-133.
Two Pioneers of Cliometrics: Robert W. Fogel and Douglass C. North. Nobel Laureates
of 1993.Oxford, Ohio: The Cliometric Society, 1994.
Willrich, Michael. Pox: An American History. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print.
Woodward, C. Vann and McFeely, William S. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. 2001, p. 6

Scholarly:
Tolnay, Stewart E. "The African American" Great Migration" and Beyond."Annual Review of
Sociology (2003): 209-232.