Lynette Charity’s grit, grief, and gratitude will have readers rooting for this timeless memoir about growing up in the early ‘60s South and overcoming all the odds against her to become a doctor in a time when the idea of a Black woman physician was practically unheard of.
At nine years old, Lynette Charity looked on, frozen in place, as her father hit her mother so hard that she flipped over their front porch railing and fell into the hedges below. That night, young Lynette hatched a plan: she would escape this life, no matter what it took. And a month later, after watching the first episode of a new show called Ben Casey, she decided that becoming a doctor was her way out.
At some point, Lynette noticed that all the real doctors and nurses who took care of her were Black and all the make-believe doctors and nurses on TV were white. Did it make a difference? Not to her. Over the next decade-plus, she focused on her studies. At a time when segregation was still alive and well in Virginia, she forged her mother’s signature on transfer papers so she could go to a better-resourced white school on the other side of town. Upon finishing high school, she got a full ride to Pittsburgh’s Chatham College. And after graduating Chatham with honors, she became a member of Tufts University School of Medicine's Class of 1978, one of seven Black women in her class.
Raw, candid, and inspiring, Escape Plan is the remarkable story of how, through perseverance and single-minded determination, a Black girl from the 1960s South faced down adversity, exceeded everyone’s expectations, and fulfilled her dreams.

- 297 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Information
Subtopic
Medicine BiographiesIndex
Social SciencesTable of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Part I: Anywhere but Here
- Interlude: Then and Now
- Part II: Plan in Motion
- Part III: The Escape
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Looking for your next great read?
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Yes, you can access Escape Plan by Lynette Charity in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Medicine Biographies. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.