The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

 

Summary (from the publisher): In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.

 
With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.

Review: This incredibly detailed and well researched book gives a comprehensive history of the Great Migration of the almost six million blacks who left the south between 1915 and 1970 in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families in northern cities. This important historical migration is often overlooked but it shaped the the face of our current country. In addition to a high level historical account, the book truly glows in its focus on three individuals who represent the greater pattern of migration to the north. These three people give a human face and a personal touch to a much larger pattern of movement within the country. 

To breathe life into this history, the book details the lives of three individuals who participated in the great migration north. Idea Mae Brandon Gladney left the cotton fields of Mississippi for Chicago in 1937. George Starling fled the fruit orchards in Florida for Harlem in 1945. And Robert Joseph Pershing Foster left his middle class home in Louisiana, became a doctor, and ended up in Los Angeles where one of his patients was the singer Ray Charles. Through hours of interviews with each, Wilkerson has captured hundreds of stories and details about their lives that help illustrate the difficulties and struggles blacks at the time faced. While each hoped to escape the racism and segregation of the south, they found the north to still have its own share of problems. 

So many details of this book are heartbreaking. The baby that died after getting sick from eating unripe fruit because Idea Mae was forced to leave her two children sitting alone under a tree while she picked cotton. The drive through the night because motel after motel refused to let Robert Foster use a room because of the color of his skin. The images of families packing up small bags of belongings and cold fried chicken, biscuits, and hard boiled eggs to get on a train in search of a better life were inspiring but also heartbreaking in their hope for change. And while the north was better in some ways, it was still a hard life. It was also interesting reading about general patterns that emerged. For instance, the available railroad lines had a huge impact on where individuals would end up, to the point that even today, you can pinpoint what southern state a black family originally migrated from based on what northern city they live in. 

While Wilkerson was repetitive at times, I loved this book. This is an important social history that is both educational and entertaining. In the hours she spent with the three individuals whose stories fill these pages, Wilkerson humanized the experience of moving north and transformed it from a dry history to a touching, personal account that clearly resonates with readers. 

Stars: 4.5