Librería Samer Atenea
Kálamo Books
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
What happens when a white man raised in a world divided by hatred chooses to become part of the change?Born into an era when segregation was woven into the fabric of American life, Martin P. Garris grew up surrounded by the racial attitudes and prejudices of his time. He could not have known then that his life would eventually place him at the center of extraordinary change in Jacksonville, Florida, or that his own heart would undergo a transformation just as significant.Born to Hate, Destined to Love is the remarkable true story of a soldier, police officer, leader, husband, and man of faith whose journey would carry him from the deeply rooted divisions of the past into a life marked by courage, conviction, and ultimately, love.Martin served his country in the United States Army before dedicating his career to law enforcement. As he rose through the ranks of the Jacksonville Police Department, he entered a world facing enormous social change. The Civil Rights era was challenging long-held beliefs; racial barriers were being confronted, and communities across the South were wrestling with questions of equality, justice, and what the future would look like.Martin would eventually become Jacksonville’s Director and Chief of Police for the University of North Florida, but the badge and title tell only part of his story.During a pivotal period in Jacksonville’s history, Martin made decisions that challenged the racial divisions of the day. He helped open doors for Black police officers and took steps toward greater integration within the department. These were not simply administrative decisions. They were choices made during a time when racial tensions were real, resistance to change was strong, and leadership often came with a personal cost.Yet the most profound transformation in Martin’s life did not happen inside police headquarters.It happened in his heart.The prejudices and hatred that had once been part of his world began giving way to something radically different. Grace. Forgiveness. Compassion. Faith. Love.This is not the story of a perfect man. It is the story of a man willing to change.Through personal memories, historical events, family stories, and the reflections of those who knew him, Born to Hate, Destined to Love reveals the man behind the uniform and the journey behind the public title. It explores a complicated period in Jacksonville’s history while telling an intensely personal story of leadership, marriage, faith, redemption, and transformation.Martin’s story reminds us that our beginnings do not have to determine our endings.We may inherit beliefs, prejudices, wounds, and ways of thinking from the world around us, but they do not have to define who we become. Courage can confront what has always been accepted. Truth can challenge what has always been believed. And the love of God can reach into even the hardest places of the human heart and make something new.At its core, Born to Hate, Destined to Love is more than the biography of a Jacksonville police chief. It is a story about the power of transformation.It is about a man who lived through some of the most difficult racial and cultural changes of his generation and discovered that the greatest change of all had to begin within himself.From soldier to police officer, from chief to husband and father, from prejudice to compassion, and from a life shaped by the attitudes of his time to one transformed by faith, Martin P. Garris left behind a story worth telling.A story of courage.A story of redemption.A story of a heart changed by God.He may have been born into a world that taught him to hate.But he was destined to love. 6
