Nominee James Derham by Ariel and Nicole Grade 8, Oregon, 2/23/1999 We nominate James Derham to be a trailblazer because he was a slave who purchased his own freedom and started his own practice as a doctor. He had black and white patients. In that time period it was hard to get your freedom let anlone atract white and black people to be your patients. Making your own buisness would of been extremly hard too, for a black man. Return to James Derham