A review by robertrivasplata
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

 History of the Great Migration told via the stories of three great migrants. Wilkerson's background as a journalist shows in the way she makes the book very readable while weaving historical context into the very personal stories she got from her interviewees. This book also has all kinds of other historical asides, including on page 354 one of the more detailed tellings I've seen of Henry “Box” Brown's escape by packing crate, including all the times his crate was pushed here and there by unsuspecting workers, turned upside down, and righted again before arriving in Washington DC, where his friends wondered aloud if he was alive inside the box before opening it up. The description on page 190 of how the Chicago Defender circulated in the Jim Crow South via Pullman workers throwing the bundled papers off of moving trains at secret spots along the tracks for distributors to pick up is also really interesting. Dr. Bob Pershing Foster's tales of being a successful surgeon, one time touring physician to Ray Charles, and ridiculously high roller in Southern California are also very amusing. George's career as a Pullman Porter highlights how much public transit was such a battlefield in the fight to end segregation. Makes me wonder how much the disinvestment in intercity train travel followed a similar pattern to other public services that were cut or discontinued as soon as they were integrated. Ida Mae's experience in Chicago during the 1980s-90s could be a prologue to Becoming Abolitionists or The New Jim Crow. My only issue is that I wish the endnotes were marked in the text. A great read! Very appropriate for July 4th.