Two doctors sat in a hospital laboratory office celebrating the breakthrough surgery of another doctor, someone they didn't particularly like, but the accomplishment was so big they wanted to be a part of it.

"It's lucky he had that (racial slur) in the operating room with him," one said, and the other agreed.

The scene comes from the HBO film "Something the Lord Made." It is the story of the relationship between Vivien Thomas, a gifted carpenter who becomes a lab technician/assistant to a prominent doctor, Alfred Blalock.

It's also a story about race and racism in the Jim Crow era. Thomas, a black man, and Blalock, a white man, together pioneered heart surgery, beginning with "blue babies" - infants suffering from congenital red-blooded heart defects.

Blalock was head of surgery at John Hopkins and Thomas, whose dreams of becoming a doctor were dashed by the Great Depression, later ran the labs at John Hopkins. But he didn't get to that lofty position without facing and overcoming overt racism of the day.

Racism is different today than the days of "separate but equal" treatment, back seats in buses, individual water fountains and restrooms, and segregated (no blacks allowed) restaurants and other establishments.

I used the word "different" at the beginning of the last sentence rather than suggesting racism has gone away - which would be foolish. There is less racism today - at least outwardly - and that suggests progress. But it is still a part of our lives. It doesn't matter if you are African American, Native American, Asian American, Mexican American, Caucasian American or non-American. We all are racist, to some extent, based on any number of factors, such as social and cultural surrounding, peer pressures or ignorance.

My intent in this column, however, is not to go there; I'll save that for another day.

My intent today is to honor people like Vivien Thomas, using as a backdrop Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Most, if not all of us, even in a state like North Dakota which is 92.3 percent white, have probably heard of King and his "I Have a Dream" speech, which included: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

King was not a perfect person; none of us are. But there are a lot of good men and women who have fought, and continue to fight, for what is right. Thomas, like King, fought the good fight, but there are many, many other Americans whose roots can be traced to Africa, but for a variety of reasons have not received proper recognition and/or respect for their accomplishments.

In tribute, here are just a few, some maybe more well-know than others - and some of their words of wisdom. They are all worth further review and consideration by people of all colors.

George Washington Carver, botanical researcher and agronomy educator: "Young people, I want to beg of you always keep your eyes open to what Mother Nature has to teach you. By so doing you will learn many valuable things every day of your life."

Bessie Coleman, airplane pilot: All she wanted was a chance to "amount to something." No one in America would teach her how to fly, so she went to France to learn. Upon returning to Chicago, she said: "We must have aviators if we are to keep pace with the times."

Frederick Douglass, a slave, abolitionist, editor, statesman and minister: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

Mae Jemison, physician and former NASA astronaut. "In kindergarten, my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I told her a scientist. She said, 'Don't you mean a nurse?' Now, there's nothing wrong with being a nurse, but that's not what I wanted to be."

Thurgood Marshall, member of the Supreme Court: "None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up our boots."

Rosa Parks, civil rights activist: "Each person must live their life as a model for others."

Sojourner Truth, a slave, spokeswoman for abolition, women's rights and temperance: "It is the mind that makes the body."

Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, humanitarian and Union Army spy: "I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other."

All good people, all good words to live by.

(You can reach editor John Irby at 250-8266 or john.irby@bismarcktribune.com and go to http://www.bismarcktribune.com/blog/?wthepaper&;e_id2671/ to read his blog.)