Although I have learned about the migration within the country, where African Americans from the South moved up to the North to begin a new life, the excerpts found in “Warmth of Other Suns” really brought the journey to life. I was most affected by the fourth book with Ida Mae Brandon Gladney’s experience trying to rebuild her life, as well as the descriptive riots. When learning about this in history class, it is extremely objective and you do feel sympathy, but reading first hand accounts tug on the reader’s emotions, which is exactly what it did to me.

While reading Gladney’s time in Milwaukee, most of her experience was familiar. Moving up North would require her husband to find a job, and it was given that during that time it would be difficult for her husband to find a stable job. Especially since the war had just ended and soldiers were coming back home, which would mean they would take their jobs back. However, it seems that when Gladney’s migrated to the North most jobs were not available. Even if that were the case, it may be possible for her husband to find a job for cheap labor. However, according to Gladney’s it did not seem so since they moved to Chicago.

Before Mr. Gladney’s had moved to Chicago to find a more stable job to support his family, Ida Gladney’s was pregnant and had traveled down South to give birth. I found this extremely interesting. This is the first I’ve ever heard of people traveling down South to give birth. If Ida was already in the North, would it not have been better to give birth there as it would save money and be more convenient? Also, was it not possible to find a midwife in the North? Regardless, Ida’s decision appears to have led Mr. Gladney’s choice to move to Chicago. If Ida had stayed in the North to give birth, I do not think Mr. Gladney’s would have moved to Chicago and they would not have gotten their own small home. Mr. Gladney’s hard work as an iceman that helped buy a home for his family illustrated how even after slavery ended life was still hard for African Americans.

During the Gladney family’s time in Chicago, riots were erupting everywhere. The stories mentioned, such as a young African American boy being killed and stirring up riots, were extremely heart-wrenching. These accounts made the riots that killed and injured so many people feel more real instead of just being statistically told from a history textbook of what happened. Also, these stories illustrate the extremity of the racial tension and conflict.

From Ida’s experience, I got to understand from her first hand experience of the hardships that she faced. Many of them are similar to the hardships that many immigrants of other ethnicity faced.  From her time to the present, many things have changed and it feels unrealistic that all these racial discrimination and hardships existed back then. However, I believe it is inevitable that all past occurrences happened; because they happened, we are where we are today.

These excerpts from Wilkerson’s Warmth of Other Suns were a great read for me because I really enjoy American history, especially regarding race issues. I’ve heard the story of blacks moving out of the South during the twentieth century, but I’ve never read anything related to the topic that was so detailed. These first-hand accounts of the Great Migration were very enlightening and intriguing to read.

Something from the first excerpt that caught my attention was Wilkerson’s question regarding her mother’s picture: “Was it a braver thing to stay, or was it a braver thing to go?” (12). I think the answer is both, and that either one can be interpreted as cowardice towards the other. Of course it was incredibly brave to embark alone on a journey into an unknown world, but it would have also been brave to stay and endure the cruelties of segregation. On the other hand, leaving could mean you were afraid of what would happen if you’d stayed, and staying could mean you were afraid of what would happen if you’d left.

The closing statements of the first excerpt are: “They did what human beings looking for freedom, throughout history, have often done. They left,” (15). Wilkerson offers multiple examples of humans doing just that over the course of a few hundred years, and each one made me wonder what would have happened if the people had never left. It’s great to hear the stories of those who defined the Great Migration, but now I’m curious to hear the stories of those who didn’t. I want to know who was eventually better off—the people who left or the people who stayed.

Although history often leads us to believe that those who left were much better off, it appears that such is not necessarily the case. As mentioned in the seventh excerpt, even in the North, blacks were condemned to certain residential areas and were restricted in terms of their jobs. Discrimination was nonexistent in general, but Northerners still exercised their own personal discriminations by, for example, keeping blacks out of their organizations.

Warmth of Other Suns is a great retelling of an important part of American history. It provides an interesting perspective on something that most people don’t recognize as an event. I felt that it could have included some different viewpoints, such as from people on the other side of the migration, but it still offered good and thought-provoking insight on something that affected many lives.

In “The Warmth of Other Suns,” Isabel Wilkerson talks about different viewpoints from African Americans during the Great Migration. She interviews three people who migrated to the north during the Great Migration. I found this topic to be very interesting since it is not very easy to find people of that generation to share their experiences from those difficult times.

Prior to this reading, I never thought of African Americans to discriminate between suitors based on the skin of their color. The struggles that African Americans went through during the Great Migration and before then are hard to describe for those who experienced it. For example, the trip to school for Ida Mae is very difficult to understand for most people today because of the ease of transportation and greater equality in society.

It is hard to imagine life in which people have to take certain modes of transportation, even walk, for long distances based on the color of their skin. The decision for many African Americans to leave their homes in the South and move to the North was clearly very hard since it would change their lives forever. Considering the famous African American people in today’s generation and the fact that they would not have been in their position today if it was not for their ancestors who made the decision to migrate, it is drastic to think of how different society would be.

I believe that today’s society is almost the complete opposite of society at the time of the Great Migration. Back then, racial discrimination was still present and there were still separation in public places. Southern African Americans decided to move to northern cities, such as New York and Philadelphia, because their lives were already so difficult in the south. Their decision was definitely very risky since they did not have any established residence in the north nor any occupation. It was essentially a whole new country for them, as Wilkerson describes the migration experience.

Overall, I found this reading to be very informative and it certainly taught me a lot about the experiences of the migrants after the segregation against African Americans was outlawed. Most, if not all, of the northern cities in today’s America would be drastically different if those people had not made the decision to move. The migration of black Americans led to great developments such as the rise of the language and music of urban America that sprang from the blues that came along with the migrants and dominates our airwaves today. After the influx of African Americans into northern cities, the appearance and make-up of those cities changed.