DR. SESOMS Distinguished African American physician and man of faith Dr. Fred Sessoms arrived in Washington, Georgia, in 1907. Dr. E. L. Wilkerson writes in his book, Struggling to Climb – A Biography, that after spending two or three days looking over the town and discussing the possibilities with black civic leaders – such as John Henry Bonner, a successful builder and farmer; Toombs McLendon, mortician and funeral home director; Professor L. S. Harper, high school principal; Reverend Charles Holloway; Marshall Jarrett; and others – Dr. Sessoms felt very encouraged and decided to establish himself in Washington for a lifetime career of practicing medicine. Most of the town’s white doctors welcomed his arrival as well.

To enable him to reach his patients in remote rural areas, Dr. Sessoms bought a horse from Monroe Bufford and a covered buggy from W. T. Johnson Company. Transportation and communication were still in their near primitive stages of development in 1907. Additionally, the unpredictable whims of the weather sometimes made it most challenging for a doctor to connect with his patients in that era. Dr. Sessoms rented a vacant store and converted it into an office. His practice developed slowly at first. Then it grew by leaps and bounds and required endless hours of his attention, both day and night.

In May 1908, the home of Fred and Minnie Sessoms was blessed with the arrival of their first child, Madie. Soon thereafter, they built a beautiful home for their growing family to enjoy and live in comfort. Dr. Wilkerson writes: “Although planned for the needs and possible exigencies of that time alone, this commodious residence became, over the years, the center of family activities on all occasions. Many distinguished visitors were to enjoy the charm and hospitality which literally radiated from the big white house on Lexington Avenue in Washington, Georgia. And if walls could speak, they would tell a story of beauty, of simplicity, of saved lives, and of wholesome goodness from all points of view.” Dr. George Washington Carver, scientist and faculty member at the Tuskegee Institute, who invented more than 300 uses for the peanut, would be one of the distinguished visitors who valued and nurtured a professional and personal relationship with Dr. Sessoms and his family.

Dr. Sessoms’ reputation as a very capable, dedicated, and hard working physician was well established in both the black and white community. In one of his very first cases, “he was called to the bedside of a man who was reportedly choking to death. He rushed to the scene where he found the patient struggling for breath. He quickly diagnosed the difficulty to be due to inflamed and extremely enlarged tonsils, whereupon he performed an on-the-spot tonsillectomy in measured, calculating haste,” said Wilkerson. When he returned the next day to check the patient’s status of recovery he discovered, much to his amazement, that the near-dying man was not only recuperating and comfortable, but was actually working with vigor in the fields.

Dr. Sessoms later learned that he had been called into the case as a desperate, last resort, after other physicians had given up the patient as a lost cause.

In his book, Wilkerson tells another ultimately success story from the medical practice of Dr. Sessoms. It involves a patient who needed surgery that required two doctors. It was necessary to seek the assistance of a white physician. Even with the life of the patient at stake, one white doctor refused to assist because “he could not perform an operation with a Negro doctor.” The relentless efforts of Dr. Sessoms to save the life of his patient caused him to contact Dr. Edward Wills, who lived in the Sharon community, several miles from Washington. The affirmative response and unselfish devotion to reducing the suffering of a human being endeared Dr. Sessoms to Dr. Wills for the remainder of his life. In fact, he valued the cooperative relationship that existed with Dr. Edward Willis, Dr. Edward Willis Jr., Dr. O.S. Woods, Dr. Ellis, and Dr. A. W. Simpson. Moreover, he deeply appreciated Dr. Penn and Dr. Powell, two black physicians who would travel from Atlanta to assist with certain surgeries.

In his biography of Dr. Sessoms, Dr. Wilkerson records the medical treatment of another patient. “… four sons brought, or rather carried, their father into my office, each of the four holding the hapless and suffering man by one of his extremities. The completely miserable white man, quite elderly, had been a patient at the University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, and had just been discharged as a hopeless case.” Dr. Sessoms examined the old gent and decided he might be able to help him. After formulating the correct medicine for the elderly gentleman and giving the four sons instructions on how it should be administered, the elderly gentleman recovered. He regularly visited Dr. Sessoms and brought gifts of grain, meat, and other tokens of his heartfelt appreciation from his farm. Dr. Sessoms felt that the motivation behind these gifts were far more important than the gifts themselves.

With regards to prescription medication, there were no corner drug stores for the filling of prescriptions; no laboratory-mixed, ready-for-use complicated medications compounded by large drug firms. Dr. Sessoms and other doctors formulated their own prescription medicine after examining each patient and determining what medicine might be needed. Many pat ients who moved away would continue to order their prescribed medicine from him via mail.

His belief in lifelong continuing medical education caused Dr. Sessons to participate in and be a resource for lectures and courses for local citizens at Third Shiloh Baptist Missionary Association, his medical school alma mater – Shaw University, the John A. Andrews Hospital at Tuskeee, Alabama, and others. His interest in the developing science of x-ray technology caused him to carve time out of his demanding practice to spend two months at Chicago Laboratory of Surgical Techniques in Chicago, Illinois, where he engaged in the study of the fine points of surgery, as well as x-ray techniques. He returned to Washington with the first x-ray machine in this part of Georgia. Dr Wilkerson states that, “He became the very first physician in his large area to avail his patients of this comparatively new, yet outstanding diagnostic aid in probing the pin-pointed causes, symptoms and indicative prognosis in any given case. This forward step, too, was taken with a view towards the earlier relief of suffering mankind and the prolongation of life.” Moreover, it pleased him to be the teacher and advisor to his white colleagues, as they, too, began to appreciate such a wonderful new invention.

During these years of growth and development, Dr. Sessoms found his beloved wife Minnie, and their young daughter Madie to be a constant source of love and inspiration. They equaled his dignity and unselfishness with their own; they filled their positions in community life; they assisted Dr. Sessoms with his work; and at the same time they preserved within the home, a closeness of family life. Tragically, in 1912, his wife developed nephritis associated with hypertension and over the next five years became incapacitated to a considerable degree and was often confined to her bed. Dr. Sessoms exerted every resource at his command, and brought others of medical acumen into the case, but all to no avail. In 1917, he had to watch hopelessly and helplessly, though prayerfully, as death claimed his beloved Minnie.

(to be continued next week)