The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

This was such an unexpectedly fascinating book (I guess I will actually read anything, even if I have no idea what its about!). The whole premise of the book is to look at the “Great Migration,” of blacks from the south to northern cities from the period of Reconstruction through the 1970s and the social/cultural/economic affect that has had on their families and their adopted cities.

The author conducted 1,200 interviews and focused primarily on three stories (she appeared to be very closely involved with these three people – with one of them when he died sort of thing) but the story is populated with corroborating stories and examples of particular experiences from all of her interviews.

What I thought was really interesting was the big emphasis the author put on making the choice to leave. Some people stayed behind with the thought “better the devil you know,” and some just knew their situations couldn’t be borne any longer, not if there was hope for basic survival elsewhere or god-forbid, a chance to flourish.

It is also an interesting to concept to suppose things had been different – what if a more sensitive approach had been taken during Reconstruction, what if the southerners hadn’t felt so desperate to clamp the Jim Crow laws down? What if no one had felt the need to leave? Is that even feasible? All things considered it certainly doesn’t sound so but what if things had been different? What would northern cities be like, hell what would the south be like? Would we all be the same we are now without this huge cultural revolution? How would we be different? Would there be less strife between races or is strife always a foregone conclusion?

I know all of history is this way but it’s such a crazy thought to think that decisions that were made 140 years ago have had such lasting ramifications on people’s daily lives.