From the tenements of East Harlem to the footlights of the Apollo Theatre to the halls of an Ivy League medical school, Dr. Thornton has written a family biography that is a modern Horatio Alger saga. The book tells the true story about a black family of all girls that transcends race, color and gender to rekindle our belief in the American spirit and the human will to succeed despite adversity. Today, two daughters are physicians (high-risk obstetrician and psychiatrist), one an oral surgeon, one a nurse and one an attorney. The book, "The Ditchdigger's Daughters" is a tribute to Dr. Thornton's father and celebrates her family's fulfillment of the American Dream.

 

Praise for THE DITCHDIGGER'S DAUGHTERS
"Inspirational"
--The New York Times Book Review

 

"This book not only tells the story of a black family's successes but also serves as a corrective to those who have underestimated the strength of the values that have historically enabled black families to survive and even thrive."
--The Washington Post Book World

 

"Dr. Thornton's story shows that a family that stays together, that holds fast to traditional values, can make a quantum leap up the social mobility scale in a single generation. This holds true no mater how poor a family may start out and no matter what the family's racial heritage."
--The Wall Street Journal

 

"The remarkable power of family values as articulated by an uneducated black man and his wife is played out in this loving memoir…A tribute to an extraordinary father who transcended racial prejudice to raise appreciative daughters to be independent women."
--Publishers Weekly