Prelude to Change

IT IS NOT OFTEN that the right circumstances, the right people and the right place all line up with the right vision to bring about change for good. We already know that in the 1960s good and strong people stood up for a vision of a country without the boundaries of segregation, for the vision of a country of freedom for every class of citizen, but what we sometimes fail to see is the ripple effect of such a just cause, a society bound together by change and the desire for the opportunities of change.

In 1963 a young Dr. George Van Giesen returned to the segregationist state of his birth, Georgia, to start his new practice in renal medicine. His clients were both black and white, often poor, but after the momentous enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 his first act was creating a colorblind office, a necessary act that established a pattern of service to his community and his patients.

Prelude to Change amply illustrates that Dr. Van Giesen is a generous man, facilitating, at least for that time, cutting-edge and practical treatment for those with chronic renal (kidney) failure.

Prelude to Change also shows that when the right man, the right opportunity, and the right environment align for transformation, anything is possible. In this heart-warming memoir his patients stories are proof that the heart, as much as the mind, is necessary for success.