FIRSTS - Barrier Breakers - Glass Ceilings

Dr. John T. Harper

Was a retired orthopedic surgeon who helped to break racial barriers at the Medical College of Georgia, died on April 2, 2016. He graduated as the valedictorian from Hancock Central High School in 1963. After graduation, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia where he majored in biology and minored in chemistry. While taking a math class across the street at Spelman College he met his future wife, Agnes Louise Houston. During his sophomore year he pledged Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated. In 1971 along with his classmate, Dr. Frank Rumph, Dr. John T. Harper, Sr. became the first African-American to graduate from the Medical College of Georgia, School of Medicine. Upon graduation from medical school, Dr. Harper completed his internship and a year of general surgery residency at the Emory University Affiliated Hospitals. His medical training was then interrupted as he had been drafted into the military. He served his country as a Flight Surgeon in the United States Air Force and was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. After concluding his service to his country, he returned to the Emory University Affiliated Hospitals to complete his training as an orthopedic surgeon and hand surgery specialist. Dr. Harper opened a private practice in 1979 and entered partnership with another physician shortly thereafter. It is the late Dr. Don A. Morris, with whom he practiced the longest. Dr. Harper provided excellent orthopedic care to patients performing surgeries primarily at Atlanta Medical Center, Crawford Long, and Rockdale Community Hospital where for a time he served as Chief of Staff. He retired from patient care in 2008. While he considered himself a simple country boy, one of his personal goals was to travel the world. He has toured parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe. His final trip was a also spiritual journey in which he traveled to the holy land of Israel. (excerpt from obituary)

Someone Had to Be First

Thru Facebook posts we received significant information about people who made history in Rockdale County by becoming the first (or among the first) to achieve X, Y or Z— especially in the days when laws and tradition dictated that there was a certain restricted place for black people and/or for women.

List of Firsts, including those that we do not have pictures for in the above presentation.