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A review by theunabridgedlifeofsalamacita
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
5.0
A must read for everyone. This historical narrative is moving, enlightening, and at times jarring with the brutal recollections of the many grievances that African Americans faced through the 1970s.
Dr. Wilkerson takes us along three separate journeys of Dr. Robert Foster, George Starling, and Ida Mae Gladney and the harrowing Jim Crow south that they lived in. We follow these three protagonists on their respective migration journeys to the North and West, along with six million other African Americans in the mass exodus from the South between 1915-1970.
We learn about the perils and discrimination they continued to face in what was supposed to be post-Jim Crow in the north and west, something that we quickly learn oftentimes did not hold true. We learn about the sacrifices they made after leaving the South, their acclimation to their new cities as well as the discrimination they faced from African Americans who had previously lived in those cities long before they had. Dr. Wilkerson brings us full circle as we revisit the South towards the end of our protagonists' respective lives, and we are left to ponder what may have been had they stayed in the South.
There is so much more that I want to say but will not, because I cannot speak to any of the experiences these brave stalwart men and women faced, nor am I versed enough in Black history to have the right to analyze beyond what is given to me. I will say that this book is incredible, and it behooves us all to read it time and again, and to disseminate these accurate stories as best as we can so that we can be a positive beacon of continuous progress and change towards ending discrimination and racism in our country.
Favorite Quote: "And so when blacks who had migrated north and west showed resentment at being considered immigrants, it was perhaps because they knew in their bones that their ancestors had been here before there was a United States of America and that it took their leaving the South to achieve the citizenship they deserved by their ancestry and labors alone. That freedom and those rights had not come automatically, as they should have, but centuries late and of the migrants' own accord."
Precautions: this book is very heavy emotionally and has vivid descriptions of horrendous acts of violence that were committed against the characters in this narrative.
Dr. Wilkerson takes us along three separate journeys of Dr. Robert Foster, George Starling, and Ida Mae Gladney and the harrowing Jim Crow south that they lived in. We follow these three protagonists on their respective migration journeys to the North and West, along with six million other African Americans in the mass exodus from the South between 1915-1970.
We learn about the perils and discrimination they continued to face in what was supposed to be post-Jim Crow in the north and west, something that we quickly learn oftentimes did not hold true. We learn about the sacrifices they made after leaving the South, their acclimation to their new cities as well as the discrimination they faced from African Americans who had previously lived in those cities long before they had. Dr. Wilkerson brings us full circle as we revisit the South towards the end of our protagonists' respective lives, and we are left to ponder what may have been had they stayed in the South.
There is so much more that I want to say but will not, because I cannot speak to any of the experiences these brave stalwart men and women faced, nor am I versed enough in Black history to have the right to analyze beyond what is given to me. I will say that this book is incredible, and it behooves us all to read it time and again, and to disseminate these accurate stories as best as we can so that we can be a positive beacon of continuous progress and change towards ending discrimination and racism in our country.
Favorite Quote: "And so when blacks who had migrated north and west showed resentment at being considered immigrants, it was perhaps because they knew in their bones that their ancestors had been here before there was a United States of America and that it took their leaving the South to achieve the citizenship they deserved by their ancestry and labors alone. That freedom and those rights had not come automatically, as they should have, but centuries late and of the migrants' own accord."
Precautions: this book is very heavy emotionally and has vivid descriptions of horrendous acts of violence that were committed against the characters in this narrative.