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

Wilkerson,Isabel.(2011) The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Hardback | Vintage Press  |  ISBN 13:978-0679763888   |  $12.66  | 640 Pages

The Warmth of Other Suns is a skillfully written masterpiece by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson, chronicling what she calls “the most unreported story of the twentieth century”: the early 20th-century migration of African Americans out of the South. In 1910, 90% of African Americans lived in the South. During the Great Migration, millions relocated to urban centers in the North and West—including Philadelphia in search of jobs, an escape from racial prejudice, and the hope of a better life. But one question remained: Did they find what they were looking for?

Wilkerson spent over ten years researching this book, interviewing more than 1,200 people. Out of those, she selected three dozen for in-depth interviews and chose three key individuals to anchor the book’s powerful narrative.

She tells the stories of:

• Ida Mae Gladney, who left the cotton fields of Mississippi in 1937 and moved to Chicago.

• George Starling, who fled Florida in 1945 after standing up to racism and started anew in Harlem, New York.

• Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to become a doctor and ultimately served as Ray Charles’s personal physician.

This is one of the most compelling books I’ve read this year. It’s still in high demand at the Free Library of Philadelphia and is a perfect choice for book clubs of all ages. Reading it answered some of my own questions about my family's migration—on my grandmother’s side, from Maysville, South Carolina to Philadelphia, and on my grandfather’s side, from Dendron, Virginia (Surry County), also to Philadelphia.

Wilkerson also makes it clear that not everyone left the South simply looking for opportunity many were forced out. Under the brutality of Jim Crow, people fled for their lives, sometimes abandoning land, homes, and everything familiar in the middle of the night to escape violence and protect loved ones.

Overall, this book is a classic.

— Mr. Philly Librarian

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER

LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE WINNER

HEARTLAND AWARD WINNER

DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALIST

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New York Times • USA Today • O: The Oprah Magazine • Amazon • Publishers Weekly • Salon • Newsday • The Daily Beast

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New Yorker • The Washington Post • The Economist • Boston Globe • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • Entertainment Weekly • Philadelphia Inquirer • The Guardian • The Seattle Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Christian Science Monitor



A family from Florida moving to the North