I just finished reading 'The Warmth of Other Suns' by Isabel Wilkerson, and below is the review I posted to Amazon.com.
As Black migrants fled from the South, immigrants who fled Facism and Stalinism in their home countries fought Black migrants coming to Northern cities for resources such as jobs and housing; and with a perceived sense of fear, they desired to segregate themselves with those who shared their cultural attachments.
The interweaving personal stories of Ida Mae, George, and Pershing (Robert) humanizes history with the portrayal of the strength of character and human spirit indicative of most Blacks migrating to a new world within the same world. Their struggle and search for the freedom afforded them by the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the equality eventually insured by the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, is a monumental testament to generations of all ethnicities wanting a better life for their children.
Despite Federal Law, America's melting pot evolved into a psychological warfare for Black migrants because it proved to be more opportunistic for immigrants from other countries, while those who were born in this country were subjected to threats, violence, and bombings to keep them out of newly established neighborhoods. Generations of Black migrants persevered and adapted to the trappings of overcrowded ghettos and thirty years later their children still dream of escaping - a concrete jungle overruled by gangs, guns, drugs, and prostitution.
Jacqueline Joan Johnson - South Carolina migrant to New York in 1971, said, 'It occurred to me that no matter where I lived, geography could not save me.'
Notes at the end of the book (pg. 586, Notation # 535) list famous African Americans with their family's state of origin, who have successfully made it out and paved the way for generations to come.
Many quotes are cited from other's works, but I've chosen two to sum up the reality exposed in this book.
Revolutions - 'I can conceive of no Negro Native to this country who has not, by the age of puberty, been irreparably scarred by the condition of his life . . . The wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive. - James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son.
Disillusionment - 'Let's not fool ourselves. We are far from the Promised Land - both North and South. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
This was a tedious read due to the painful atrocities recorded in the beginning, but the insights eventually established outweighed the discomfort.
A Real Fact Of Life Lesson In American History,June 3, 2013 by Catherine E. Johnson
'The Warmth Of Other Suns' is a brilliant work documenting America's Great Migration from the South to the North and Western cities of America during the twentieth century. This analytical and profound story of American's socio-economic development was spurred by the Jim Crow Era of the South.
As Black migrants fled from the South, immigrants who fled Facism and Stalinism in their home countries fought Black migrants coming to Northern cities for resources such as jobs and housing; and with a perceived sense of fear, they desired to segregate themselves with those who shared their cultural attachments.
The interweaving personal stories of Ida Mae, George, and Pershing (Robert) humanizes history with the portrayal of the strength of character and human spirit indicative of most Blacks migrating to a new world within the same world. Their struggle and search for the freedom afforded them by the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the equality eventually insured by the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, is a monumental testament to generations of all ethnicities wanting a better life for their children.
Despite Federal Law, America's melting pot evolved into a psychological warfare for Black migrants because it proved to be more opportunistic for immigrants from other countries, while those who were born in this country were subjected to threats, violence, and bombings to keep them out of newly established neighborhoods. Generations of Black migrants persevered and adapted to the trappings of overcrowded ghettos and thirty years later their children still dream of escaping - a concrete jungle overruled by gangs, guns, drugs, and prostitution.
Jacqueline Joan Johnson - South Carolina migrant to New York in 1971, said, 'It occurred to me that no matter where I lived, geography could not save me.'
Notes at the end of the book (pg. 586, Notation # 535) list famous African Americans with their family's state of origin, who have successfully made it out and paved the way for generations to come.
Many quotes are cited from other's works, but I've chosen two to sum up the reality exposed in this book.
Revolutions - 'I can conceive of no Negro Native to this country who has not, by the age of puberty, been irreparably scarred by the condition of his life . . . The wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive. - James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son.
Disillusionment - 'Let's not fool ourselves. We are far from the Promised Land - both North and South. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
This was a tedious read due to the painful atrocities recorded in the beginning, but the insights eventually established outweighed the discomfort.
We study History to understand the past in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes. I highly recommend 'The Warmth of Other Suns' as a 'must read' for ALL Americans in order to not only understand what has established us as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all; but also to further promote a healing that is still long overdue.
Congratulations to Isabel Wilkerson for her tenacious research and journalistic skills. I'm sure that many tears were shed in compiling this book. This Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece succinctly portrays an in-depth history truer than anything I was fortunate to read as a High School student in Connecticut, (A state only mentioned once.) during the 1960's.
Congratulations to Isabel Wilkerson for her tenacious research and journalistic skills. I'm sure that many tears were shed in compiling this book. This Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece succinctly portrays an in-depth history truer than anything I was fortunate to read as a High School student in Connecticut, (A state only mentioned once.) during the 1960's.
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