Brick to Brick: Building a Black Family in America - Paperback

by Mary Dowdell (Author)

This book does not follow the customary organizational patterns of writing. It is not totally chronological, and it is not totally topical. It is a hybrid. It begins with the history of my parents and our core family from my vantage point. It moves then to my memories of childhood through college. From there, it becomes topical in that it is written in short stories about meaningful events. Because it is written in topical short stories, there are occurrences of overlaps, which was done for clarity of detail of the memoir. There are three entries not authored by me. One from my sister who is now deceased, one from my eldest sibling, and one from my niece, Leslie (the daughter of my third brother-now deceased). It ends with some items from a collection of artifacts. Once I started writing this book, I realized that to write only about the history of our family would not be enough. It is necessary that the oversight and guiding hand of the Lord be seamlessly acknowledged throughout. I do hope you will enjoy it.

Author Biography

I am a native of Eastern North Carolina, born in Brick, North Carolina. As a graduate of Hampton University, with a master's in public administration from Strayer University and a PhD in business administration/public administration, education is of the highest importance to me. I am a mother of three, a retired public service social work administrator, and a missionary/evangelist. Looking back, I saw (1) how much my parents invested in their children, (2) how much of what they taught influenced my parenting and life, and (3) how God generously kept and blessed us all. This is my testimony about all three of these areas.