Well-Achieved
Simmons' family was breaking minority stereotypes left and right in the twentieth century. He notes that his grandmother was the first woman to graduate from Ohio State University. While researching his grandfather, who was one of the few Black men to graduate from the same university, he discovered his grandmother also attended. Not only was it rare for women to be in college at the time, but it was also rare for there to be women of color in universities. Simmons' father was hired by the Los Angeles Police Department, joining the ranks of Black officers that included Tom Bradley. The first Black person elected mayor of Los Angeles, Bradley served for two decades, from 1973 to 1993. Simmons left his career with the LAPD when he took another path to become a doctor.
During the 1950s, racial discrimination was pervasive in U.S. education. Many medical schools were segregated. Information about available opportunities, application processes, and admission requirements was not as readily accessible to African American students. Simmons' father went from working on the nearly all-white LAPD to attending Meharry Medical College, an HBCU [Historically Black College and University] in Nashville, TN. When it opened in 1876, Meharry College was the sole option for Black students seeking medical education in the south.
Simmons' father paved the way for Simmons to be successful in life, but he wanted his son to make different choices when it came to education. Simmons was essentially pressured into choosing a PWI [Predominantly White Institution] because that is where his dad said he would pay tuition, not at an HBCU. It can be inferred that his father wanted to change the perception of Black people, that they could accomplish things at the same rate and in the same institutions as white Americans.