The Talented Tanners

Public Domain

Confession: I had no intentions of writing about the Tanner family this month. However, when I began writing a profile on Henry Ossawa Tanner, I learned that his father, Benjamin Tucker Tanner was an influential bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. I then learned about Tanner's daughter, Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, who became the first woman to be licensed to practice medicine in the state of Alabama. Later I learned of his granddaughter, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, who was the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in the United States.

Wow, what a legacy of accomplishment. What an inspiration to readers. In coming months, I plan to expand my content to include profiles on the Mossell family--equally as accomplished as the Tanners with quite a story to tell!