In The Warmth of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson tells the story of the mass migration of millions of Black people who felt compelled to flee the south, settling in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities in the northern and western states of the U.S. The story is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Heartbreaking because people were effectively forced to leave. Slavery may have technically been over but Jim Crow was alive and kicking. Heartbreaking because racism thrived in the west and north as well; it just wore different clothes. But it was also inspiring because this is story of people of were determined to survive and thrive. It is the story of people who took control of their destinies despite forces that tried to grind them down."All told, perhaps the most significant measure of the Great Migration was the act of leaving itself, regardless of the individual outcome. Despite the private disappointments and triumphs of any individual migrant, the Migration, in some ways, was its own point. The achievement was in making the decision to be free and acting on that decision, wherever that journey led them." (page 535)
Like many people educated in the United States, I have read and seen immigration and migration stories about people arriving at Ellis Island, navigating new cities in a new country, and moving from one area of the country to another in response to a drought or some other type of natural disaster. I love those stories but always felt that something, or rather someone, was missing. Actually, lots of someones were missing. Reading this book I feel like a piece of my personal history has been filled in. Beyond the personal, The Warmth of Other Suns sheds a little light on how certain cities changed and took shape over the last century.
The Warmth of Other Suns isn't just a history book of facts and figures. Wilkerson vividly brings history to life by focusing on three people:
- Ida Mae Brandon Gladney and her family left Mississippi and settled in Chicago after a family member was falsely accused of stealing a White man's turkeys and beaten within an inch of his life.
- George Swanson Starling wanted to go to college but ended up picking citrus fruit in Florida. Faced with the threat of being lynched after asking for a fair wage for his work, George fled to New York.
- Robert Joseph Pershing Foster was a surgeon who served in the military and was still treated like a second class citizen. He wasn't even allowed to rent a hotel room at most places. Born in Louisiana he eventually made his way to Los Angeles.
The Warmth of Other Suns lives up to its subtitle; it is truly an epic story well told.
Mrs. Florence Green has a simple dream - to open a bookshop in a small seaside town that has none. She purchases an old, abandoned building and seems to be on her way. Unfortunately Mrs. Gamart, a well-to-do powerful woman wanted to turn that same abandoned building and turn it into an arts culture center. Mrs. Gamart is determined to have her own way and drive Mrs. Green out.