In “The Warmth of Other Suns,” Isabel Wilkerson talks about the story behind the Great Migration through perspectives of the Southern Black Americans. The strict social caste system pushed blacks to the bottom of the hierarchy, where they had to work hard to earn a living. Families like Ida Mae’s had to escape to the Northern States to seek for equality and better economic prosperity. After they arrived in their dreamed cities, which turned out to be completely from what they expected; they also faced a lot of obstacles involves racial discrimination and segregation.

In Part I of the reading, Wilkerson give an overview of the heat of migration, people were fleeing to the new world with the intention of not returning; because where they used to live cannot sustain them anymore. They had to leave for good. Looking for better opportunities was probably the top reason for people to move from one place to another. For example, there were immigrants from all over the countries made a long and dangerous trip into the United States to seek freedoms. People from third world countries were willing to do anything just to secure a ticket to the United States; this concept was also implied to the Great Migration within the United States.

The social caste system within the southern states sets limitations on every social classes. The blacks were on the bottom of the caste system; they were mostly sharecroppers, which is the group that’s being suppressed hardly by white population. The caste system was like the prison that kills every opportunities for the blacks. According to Wilkerson, it seems like there were an invisible hand controlling all colored people’s lives. Living in a society that was completely controlled by white population was hopeless for them. It was impossible for these colored people to get a life that they should deserve.

In this book, Ida Mae’s was one of the families that followed the path of the Great Migration; the family worked hard just to secure a ticket to the North, where they thought as a land of freedom and more opportunities. However, sometimes the new world was somewhat different from what these people expected. Although, when Ida first arrived in Chicago, all the buildings and the new things excited her, later she realized that the new world was not any different from what she used to live down the Mississippi. Segregation still happened in the North; depression hit every part of the country, there weren’t a lot of job opportunities for blacks, and even less opportunities for women to be in the work force.

I like how Wilkerson describes the relationship between a white people and a black labor like “a child in those days had to obey a parent, except there was no love between the two parties as there is between a parent and child”. I agree with Wilkerson that it was definitely hard for those colored people to live under white people’s control. They worked so hard, but couldn’t get what they should deserved; instead they being treated badly by their landlords. However, the relationship between Mr.Edd and George isn’t as bad as what Wilkerson describes. Therefore I was wondering maybe there were a lot more positive examples of how the black population were treated by the white people.

In the introductory portion of the reading, Wilkerson makes a reference to the “customs turnstiles” at Ellis Island, stating that the participants of the Great Migration were different from the thousands who came to the great American cities from abroad because, unlike the latter, the former were, already legal citizens of the United States. Yet, when they moved into the northern cities, they might as well have been migrating to a new country given the way of life that had been thrust upon them in the segregated south. In my opinion, the great migration that African Americans undertook in the first half of the century is equal in bravery, pioneering spirit and individual strength of character to any undertaken by the first European settlers to the New World. The distance may have been smaller, across a few degrees of latitude as opposed to over the great ocean, but the stakes were some of the highest in human history.

In the description of Ida Mae’s life as a young girl in Georgia, it could not be clearer that the former slaves and newly turned sharecroppers were not leading the lives that were technically promised to them at the end of the Civil War. Not having shoes was considered normal, a man in a coma may have been buried alive because there were no doctors who would visit him at home, young children went to school only when they were not needed on the farm – these are not the hallmarks of the lives of citizens in a free country.

Another highly interesting point brought up by Wilkerson is that the Great Migration was the first major act of choice for a people whose history in this country had until that point been defined by slavery. The first slaves who had been brought over to the New World had no choice in that decision, but their descendants now were making the choice to migrate. Ida Mae herself, however, did not have that choice – she followed her husband against her better wishes. There is a careful juxtaposition of the individual and the collective here.

Wilkerson shows us many such contradictions. Yes, African Americans made the collective choice to leave the South, where they were being oppressed and treated like second-class citizens. But, that choice was made in portion out of necessity. Life under the Jim Crow mentality would have unbearable – in a way, there was only ever one choice if one wished to live as a free and equal human being. The kindness of certain well-meaning whites is again a contrast to their willing participation within a society that stuck to a cruel system of segregation and stigmatization. Change was thus inevitable and it came in the form of the Great Migration.

The Great Migration literally changed the face of America. The ripple effects created in the cities that the migrants moved into are felt to this day in the economic, cultural and social lives of urban America. Amidst these large societal implications of the Great Migration, however, it is also important to acknowledge and understand the individual journeys made by these extraordinary individuals who, as Wilkerson points out, stood up to social injustice in perhaps the most defiant of ways – “they left.”

The first thing I noticed when reading Isabel Wilkerson’s is that I liked the writing style. I don’t usually enjoy reading writings in an interview method because it reminds me of anthropology class and it bores me in general. But, I feel in this case I feel that I enjoyed reading it because I found it relatable.

Now to be more specific I don’t find it relatable because my family was involved in The Great Migration. In fact the reason I find it so relatable is because my family was not near this country my family was doing its own migration. I come from all sides of the world and my family constantly moved from country to country and I pretty much have a heritage from every continent and relatives alive in every continent.

However, I can’t compare the experience of my family to the experience of the families in The Great Migration. I mean some of my ancestors moved around because of persecution but regardless of this fact no persecution is ever the same. I mean some of the persecution they were experiencing such as Jim Crowe laws were out of this world, in fact it seems so out of this world as if it’s not possible.

Furthermore in the very beginning the quote by ‘The colored Woman in Alabama’ she says that even in the church or at home, no matter where they are they are discussing whether or not to escape. They are even discussing how to escape; should they go all at once or one at a time. In all honesty it sounds like a weird discussion to be having in the land of the free and the home of the brave. I just feel like nowadays these types of discussions don’t happen in the US.

In my opinion, the reason books like these are so successful is because of a sort of masochist aspect that people have. I’m not saying people are crazy and like to see others suffer, but there is a certain reason books like these are so successful. I mean look at Eli Wiesel he wrote books about  the holocaust and became an incredible writer. On the other hand it might just be that people can’t believe such horrors occured and they read it as a form of sick novel or they might read it as an impartial way to view history and how society has improved. Personally, I prefer that it’s the last reason and that people just want to see how we improved on ourselves and to never revert to a society where discrimination and hate is allowed.

When you hear the word immigrant, who usually comes to mind? I think of my grandparents who left Europe in the 1970s in search of greater opportunities. I picture my best friend’s parents who fled Pakistan years ago. The Warmth of Other Suns provides an intensely personal account of a migration of different sorts, however — an epic migration that is often overlooked but that has profoundly shifted American society.

The unique aspect of Wilkerson’s novel is that it recounts stories of people who were not walking through the doors of Ellis Island, but rather “citizens” who had already lived in America for years. Over the span of 55 years, 6 million black Americans made a risky decision to flee the Jim Crow South. I had always known that discrimination in the South was blatant and often generated dangerous environments for blacks. I found it surprising, however, that while the North was nowhere near as prejudiced, sentiments against people of color were still quite tempestuous.

Although the excerpts provided at the beginning of each chapter — namely the last two by Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin — were not Wilkerson’s own, they added depth to her story. The addition of Ellison’s quote underscored the idea that many blacks left everything they ever knew for something that was far from peachy, but there was still “something worth hoping for.” Baldwin’s quote, “The wonder is not that so many are ruined, but that so many survive,” echoes hardships faced by blacks that could not be described more powerfully.

Delving deeper, Wilkerson bases the bulk of her novel around three characters: Ida Mae Gladney, George Starling and Robert Foster. Each person brought a vastly different story to the table, but they were representative of the struggles and successes faced by the greater migrant population.

After doing some additional research on Wilkerson and her novel, I found that she had interviewed more than a thousand people and accessed data and official records in order to write her novel. This factual basis, combined with the intensely personal accounts of Wilkerson’s characters, resulted in a rare combination of history and prose that I enjoyed reading. In retrospect, The Warmth of Other Suns packed more of a punch than I thought it would. 

The silent migration that occurred after World War I is indeed the most underreported story in the history books and consequently, in classrooms across the country. In addition, the outbreak of racial violence that occurred after blacks migrated to the North was surprising because it displayed more tension than the South. Yet, amidst everything, Ida Mae and family seem to retain their sanity without losing hope.

It is difficult to believe that the migration of six million African Americans can amount to a mere footnote in the New York school system. During all my years of schooling, I have only heard of the Great Migration about twice. Both accounts were brief. Even in our previous interdisciplinary studies class, which had a focus on the movement of people in NYC, there was never even a substantial mention of the Great Migration. This strikes me as odd. Is there still a subtle hint of racism in our history classes? Is it not important enough? It almost seems as though this vast and leaderless pilgrimage was silently swept under the carpet.

As I was reading Ida Mae’s story, I had an expectation that her family would find a better and less racially diverged society waiting for them up North. However, it seemed that the racial tensions of the North was no different from the segregation of the South. It could be said that the Great Migration was a form of rebellion against the Jim Crow South. However, the riots that broke out in the south side of Chicago were, in some ways, more intense than the lynching that occurred in the South. Hence, it seemed as though blacks of the mid 20^th century fled one curse for another.

Still, amidst the intense violence and racial tension, it seems as though Ida Mae’s attitude is extremely nonchalant. For one thing, I never got the sense that her family lost hope. In fact, they seem to accept the status quo. They seemed ambivalent to the way whites treated blacks. At times, I felt that other people (such Miss McClenna, and even myself) were more outraged at racism than Ida Mae herself. Yet, it seems that even through oppression, exclusion, unsavory living conditions, lack of jobs, unfair and unjust treatment, Ida Mae’s family never seemed to retaliate with anger.

Altogether, the Great Migration still stands as the most underreported story in the 20^th century. Yet, for all their efforts to escape the segregation of the South, it didn’t seem as though blacks found immediate comfort in the cities of the North. Nonetheless, as seen with Ida Mae and family, there remained a strong resilience among the African American community.

Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns” gives three personal accounts of African Americans who moved from the south to the north during what is now known as the Great Migration. I found this to be one of the more interesting things I’ve had to read because of how little I knew about the subject and the personal aspect of it.

From reading the opening section, I would think that the Great Migration would be taught more because of the vast number of people who moved and the effect that it had, but prior to reading these excerpts. I had only learned about the Great Migration in one other class. I’ve learned about the great waves of immigration to the U.S. but not about the huge movement within the country. As the book says, the Great Migration was a turning point in history and cities, in both the south and north would be really different had it not been for the migration. This makes me wonder about what other events in American history I haven’t really learned about that have changed and shaped urban cities.

Something that I found interesting was at the end of the first excerpt, was when it she wrote about the distortions of the Great Migration. The people who migrated from the South were blamed for the problems in the cities they moved to, but studies now show that compared to northern blacks, southern migrants were more likely to raise children in a two parent household, had higher incomes, lower levels of poverty, and other things that seem to suggest that they were better off and were not the source of problems. I would like to know why this was so, especially the statements regarding work and economic issues. I would have guessed that Northern blacks would have a higher labor participation rate and higher incomes because they had been there longer so they could have worked more and people would be more willing to hire them.

In the second excerpt, the part about Miss Theenie not approving of the two men because of their dark skin and how she would prefer a man with lighter skin made me think about how much looks have mattered and still mattered and the preference of looking more like white. This makes me think about how many Asians get double eyelid surgery. I can’t say for sure, but I do think it influenced by the white standard of beauty and how they want to look more “white” with larger eyes.

The biggest thing these excerpts made me think about is how times have changed, but also how there is still a long way to go. There was a lot of hardship and struggle and outward discrimination back then for African Americans, and while there may longer be discrimination in the law and it isn’t so outright, discrimination and racism does still exist, not just for African Americans, but for other races as well. I know that the country has come a long way in a short time, but I wonder if every race will ever truly be thought of as equal.

The impact of the Great Migration had an enormous effect on urban life. Of course, a movement of six million people is bound to have a dramatic effect, but I was unaware or had not considered the direct imprint on the “configuration of the cities as we know them [and] social geography” (Wilkerson 10). Perhaps this is because history books do not cover the Great Migration in its entirety, and as Wilkerson states, “a comprehensive treatment of the century-long story of black migration does not exist” (13).

I like how Wilkerson addresses the universality of the issue in her introduction. She mentions many groups of people who had to migrate and leave the areas where they have lived for years in order to “search for something better” (15). Many people I know have families who immigrated to America for various reasons and similarly my parents came to America from the Soviet Union for freedom and something better. I enjoyed Wilkerson’s choice of syntax, using the short phrase at the end of the chapter, “They left,” to emphasize the prevailing subject throughout the book and to answer the unifying question of what “human beings … have often done” when looking for freedom (15).

Ida Mae’s description of her neighborhood is surprising. The street seems dangerous with “urban drug dealers,” “hustlers and pushers,” yet even though “they may have just shot a rival or just got out on parole” they take the time to look out for Ida and tell her to take care (20). The juxtaposition of the seemingly dangerous street and the kindness shown is very interesting and surprising.

Wilkerson brings up a good point when she points out how “the thick walls of the caste system kept everyone in prison” (33). Certain expectations were given to each group of people, causing most to always attempt to stay “within the narrow confines of acceptability” (33). Even the white woman, Miss McClenna, who took Ida to deliver eggs and was upset by the name Ida was called, did not attempt to stand up for Ida and no longer took Ida with her. Perhaps as with the example of the woman with the Catholic statue, she could not “afford even the appearance of having stepped outside the bounds of her caste” (34).

As sociologists often explain, people tend to act in accordance to ‘social norms.’ However unfair, the norms of that time period placed people into social castes based on race. After witnessing and hearing about several racist events, Ida left in “search for something better,” as so many others did as well.

Isabel Wilkerson establishes a very powerful introduction to her book. In the The Warmth of Other Suns, Wilkerson provides an informative overview on what her book would be about. It encompasses the struggles of twentieth-century African Americans in the South, their movement to the North, and how society has changed because of their journey. Most people today take many things for granted. But through Wilkerson’s tone, it is easily seen that she does not take what her mother did for granted. In fact, she questions how life would be or if she would even exist had it not been for her mother’s courage. She asks, “Would I (and millions of people born in the North and West) have even existed?” (Wilkerson 12). In her point of view, leaving the South was the strongest and bravest thing anyone could have done.

To cover what she wanted for her book, Wilkerson interviewed “more than twelve hundred people” who “gave hundreds of hours of their days to share with me what was perhaps the singular turning point in their lives” (13). This certainly makes her book comprehensive, but I was surprised by that amount of people. Of these people, one was Ida Mae Brandon Gladney whom she made a main character. When I studied U.S. History and the plantations in the South, I failed to realize that blacks did not see any of the technological advancements made. Thus, I was shocked that Ida never saw bridges or even simple street lamps. She was completely out of place.

One point I found interesting was when Wilkerson stated that there were more African Americans living in Chicago than in Mississippi at the turn of the twenty-first century. It is surprising that the population can skyrocket that much and that quick as a result of the Great Migration. This just shows the immense impact the movement had on society – major cities such as Chicago had changed. The South radically changed as well.

Another thing I found particularly interesting was how certain misrepresentations caused the non-blacks to think negatively of the whole black population. People of the North thought that these migrants from the South were dysfunctional, promiscuous, unemployed, etc. They basically had bad reputations and negative images. Research by scholars however, show that these migrants were more apt than Northern blacks. In fact, these newcomers had higher rates of marriage, higher income, higher labor force participation rates (14). In “Transplanted in Alien Soil”, an employer during the First World War said that they were more loyal, quicker, and happier than other laborers (244). This reminds me of immigrants who came to America and had jobs. They shared similar work attitudes and worked earnestly.

Overall, I found Wilkerson to be very interesting and very informative. Although I thought I knew a lot about the South, I learned a lot from these excerpts – the struggles and hardships of blacks through Wilkerson’s collective and comprehensive work based on individual accounts. It is certainly hard for me to imagine New York City if blacks did not leave the South and create the Great Migration movement. Nonetheless, I am glad to live in the equal society we have today. One question I would like to ask Wilkerson would be: If the Great Migration had not occurred, what do you think would have happened to society?

Throughout her book, “Warmth of Other Sons,” Isabel Wilkerson discusses life during the time of the Great Migration. She uses the viewpoints of 3 different interviewees in order to stress the obstacles and burdens faced by many African Americans during the time period surrounding the Great Migration. Besides for the hardship of having to migrate from the places you’ve known all of your life to one which is unknown, these people were burdened with yet another obstacle, their race. Although they were human, they were treated as unequal due to the color of their skin.

Before the Great Migration, most African Americans lived in the Southern States, in extremely tough conditions. As the first excerpt mentions, they lived in a type of caste system, where they worked as slaves, sharecroppers and farmers. Furthermore, they were controlled by the Jim Crow laws, which would take every chance it got to execute and torture them. However, as much as they had to endure in the South, they were forced to face many challenges as they moved to the North as well. From the excerpts we can see that as blacks migrated to the north they were faced with many obstacles. Not only were they looked at as inferior to whites, but they faced many instances of racial discrimination as well. They were discriminated against when it came to the labor force and in many cases they were unable to get certain jobs due to the color of their skin. Furthermore, it was also prohibited for them to live in certain neighborhoods and to eat in certain restaurants.

What was so intriguing about these excerpts was the fact that you can see how much the world has changed in a short matter of time. Although it pains me to look back on the past and to notice all of the hardships African Americans had to endure, I gain a lot of pleasure knowing how much this country has progressed. In this day and age, not only African Americans, but the people of all races and nationalities are seen as equals. There is little to almost no discrimination in the workplace and everyone has the same opportunity as the person next to him. Race does not separate people and does not determine your fact. Instead, each and everyone of us have the opportunity to control our own destiny. As opposed to the time of the Great Migration, race does not control our futures, we do.

One sentence that really had a great impact on the way I viewed life was when Wilkerson wrote, “How did they get the courage to leave all they ever knew for a place they had never seen, the will to be more than the South said they had a right to be?” I found this sentence to be truly amazing because I couldn’t even bare to try and imagine what these people had to go through. Their lives had been dictated for them from the start. From when they were born they were being told how to live and what they could do. Now, they were deciding the type of life they wanted to live and were determined to attain that. Furthermore, to me the idea of moving out of the city and town you had lived all your life to go to a city you had only seen in a catalog is truly petrifying. I feel out of place when I’m in the next neighborhood and all of these people were able to travel across the country to a destination that was foreign to them. The conditions in the South must have been truly unbearable for them to embark on such a journey. In fact, Wilkerson describes them as fleeing from a “spell or high fever.”

What was so interesting about this reading was the fact that it was able to shed light on something that is overlooked. Everyone fails to recognize that the world wasn’t instantaneously transformed to the way it looks today. Different time periods were unlike one another and the world had to slowly evolve into what it is today. The migration of African Americans to Northern cities was first met with opposition and segregation, however, as time went on the people of different races began to accept one another and recognized that in order to maximize the well-being of society we much share beliefs and cultures. The one question I would have for Wilkerson would be, how was society able to change from how it looked back then to the way it is today?