Isabel Wilkerson

An epic history covering the period from the end of World War I through the 1970s chronicles the decades-long migration of African Americans from the South to the North and West through the stories of three individuals and their families.

The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

The Warmth of Other Suns

Cece Page

Probably the most comprehensive historical nonfiction book I’ve ever read. I loved the narrative element and way this book followed 3 stories on a micro level while also offering macro/overarching information too. It really brought the entire string of events to life. The time and research spent on this book alone makes it worthy of reading but the narrative and beautiful writing really makes it a must-read. 5 stars.

Ron Bronson

Really interesting, informative and unlike most books of this ilk; more of a narrative than a true recalling of a different time in America. Often when I read stories like this, I wish there were a broader awareness of some of the facets that make up how we've arrived at this particular point in our history. The Warmth of Other Suns deserves to be part of a list of books such as Leon Litwack's "Trouble In Mind", James D. Anderson's "Education of Blacks in the South" and others I can't think of right this second as part of a broader telling of modern America's story.

Scordatura

Although it is good to read about people's personal encounters with living under Jim Crow, about the difficulties in leaving the South and settling somewhere else, this book is still inherently flawed: the author makes many factual mistakes that any decent editor or fact-checker could have corrected, she relies heavily on very outdates sources for statistical data and focuses too much on three individuals. If she instead had focused on about a dozen people, she could have given a much broader and diverse view of the Great Migration and spared the reader her overwritten language and inane descriptions of matters that are insignificant to the larger background of the Migration. 
Still, there are important stories in this book: challenges migrants overcame while moving out of the South, starting life anew, but also descriptions of lynchings that are too important to not describe, even in a flawed, and only semi-historical work.

Stephanie Ridiculous

History made personal is the very best kind of history book. This is an exceptional look at a portion of American history woefully looked over. I highly recommend it!

Dana Kraft

It's striking how little of this subject I've ever learned about. Definitely not a part of the curriculum growing up, but I hope it's something that becomes more commonly recognized.. Loved the individual stories. The author generally did a good job of weaving individual stories into more general data-based observations and conclusions although there was some repetition. 

This makes me wonder about generational differences between first and second generation migrants in any mass migration. I wonder whether there are similarities to what is described here.

Cindy Lieberman

Important but often repetitive and quite long. Interesting how migrations from specific states or counties in the South led to specific cities in the North. And how the train had to reset itself (on the backs of the black porters) when it crossed the Mason-Dixon line.

Melody Izard

I remember that even we, with as little money as we had, had three members of a local black family working for us down in Alabama on Chickadale Farm. John helped daddy with the chickens, Essie came and cleaned on Saturdays (when her "sugar" wasn't bothering her). And when she was down with her sugar, she sent Juliet. I was enchanted with Juliet. I don't remember specifically why I was enamored with her - I think it was that she was so young and these three were the only black people I knew (other than Vera who would prick your finger if you went to see Dr. Hubbard). Then suddenly, Juliet was gone. Mother said she had moved to Detroit. I wanted to know why. She said that is just what young Negros do. "The South has nothing for a young colored girl" my mother told me. Detroit, Chicago, New York - they move there so they can make more money and be treated better than they are treated in the south.

I have thought so much about that. Wondered about Juliet. Hoped she found something better than ironing our napkins and shirts and washing our dishes. This book is about that massive migration from the South to the hope of something better. 

The author uses 3 of the many people she interviewed for this book to make the point that black southerners were really just like the many immigrants to the major Northern cities who came from Italy, Ireland and Greece after WW I. The migration stretches over many years - from the 30s to the 60s. Blacks fled the south hoping to escape the "white's only" Jim Crow laws and mentality facing them in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and the rest of the South - only to find that things were still tough and not all they thought it would be.

The reason I couldn't rate the book higher was because at times it felt that the author was being paid by the number of pages. She repeated things that she had already said over and over. But the story was still important and the research seemed thourough and accurate. Glad I read it. But I have to admit, I read (or listened to since this was the audio book) with anticipation that she might mention Juliet from Alabama so I could finally know what happened to her, and it didn't happen.

Presents an epic history that covers the period from the end of World War I through the 1970s, chronicling the decades-long migration of African Americans from the South to the North and West through the stories of three individuals and their families.

Rose Stanley

By the bittersweet ending, you not only have a better awareness of the Great Migration, you feel as if you know each of the three main players (Ida Mae, George and Robert) personally. Impressive.

This, along with A People's History of the United States, should be required reading for everyone.

Salam Kabbani

A must read for everyone. This historical narrative is moving, enlightening, and at times jarring with the brutal recollections of the many grievances that African Americans faced through the 1970s. 

Dr. Wilkerson takes us along three separate journeys of Dr. Robert Foster, George Starling, and Ida Mae Gladney and the harrowing Jim Crow south that they lived in. We follow these three protagonists on their respective migration journeys to the North and West, along with six million other African Americans in the mass exodus from the South between 1915-1970. 

We learn about the perils and discrimination they continued to face in what was supposed to be post-Jim Crow in the north and west, something that we quickly learn oftentimes did not hold true. We learn about the sacrifices they made after leaving the South, their acclimation to their new cities as well as the discrimination they faced from African Americans who had previously lived in those cities long before they had. Dr. Wilkerson brings us full circle as we revisit the South towards the end of our protagonists' respective lives, and we are left to ponder what may have been had they stayed in the South. 

There is so much more that I want to say but will not, because I cannot speak to any of the experiences these brave stalwart men and women faced, nor am I versed enough in Black history to have the right to analyze beyond what is given to me. I will say that this book is incredible, and it behooves us all to read it time and again, and to disseminate these accurate stories as best as we can so that we can be a positive beacon of continuous progress and change towards ending discrimination and racism in our country. 

Favorite Quote: "And so when blacks who had migrated north and west showed resentment at being considered immigrants, it was perhaps because they knew in their bones that their ancestors had been here before there was a United States of America and that it took their leaving the South to achieve the citizenship they deserved by their ancestry and labors alone. That freedom and those rights had not come automatically, as they should have, but centuries late and of the migrants' own accord." 

Precautions: this book is very heavy emotionally and has vivid descriptions of horrendous acts of violence that were committed against the characters in this narrative.

Kyra Ann Dawkins

This book is everything I'd hoped it would be and more. It took me so long to read it because I wanted to be careful to pay close attention to the interwoven nature of the narratives. In her Note on Methodology, Wilkerson shares that this book was in part shaped to be a dynamic oral history of the Great Migration. As someone who is inspired by oral history in her own work and hopes to study it more formally, the rich intentionality of leaning into three key accounts throughout The Warmth of Other Suns especially resonated with me. I could feel the stories stirring something in my bones, knowing that my grandparents were products of the Great Migration. I think this should be required reading for high school students across the nation so that this crucial era of American history can finally receive the caliber of consideration it deserves.

Jeni Enjaian

I found this book fascinating. Wilkerson deftly weaves together her personal history as the daughter of two of these migrants, the oral history she obtained from so many, and the history of the actual movement into an amazing book. She balances the threads of three different "protagonists" whose journeys take place all at slightly different time periods of this migration along with the chronological history of this movement. Even with its nearly 550 pages, Wilkerson barely scratches the surface of everything this story has to tell. 
I highly recommend this book.

Sheryl Levitt

The most beautifully-written nonfiction I've read to date.

The three individuals whose stories are woven throughout this book are completely unlike one another. All migrated from the South, but were born and went North in different decades, to different cities, and experienced racism and discrimination in different ways. Their stories are diverse and touching. 

Along with these stories, clippings from newspapers and are sprinkled in that paint a picture of how the white, upper-caste population reacted to the migration. Wilkerson also adds notes from scholarly studies that reveal how that sentiment was typically unwarranted and downright incorrect.

My only complaint would be that Wilkerson often repeated facts or summarized stories told earlier in the book. I imagine this would be helpful to someone reading the book over a long stretch of time, but it was unnecessary for me. Think of binge watching a show and wanting to fast-forward through the recap at the beginning of every episode.

I read this right after reading novels by Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin - who were were part of the Great Migration themselves. I'd recommend reading some of their works if you're interested in diving further into this topic or if you just want to read some spectacular writing.

Michael Hessling

Epic. A former sharecropper, who, 60 years later, actually meets Barack Obama. At first, I struggled with the shifting timelines, but, Ms. Wilkerson is wiser than me: she was going by the age of her protagonists.

The Warmth of Other Suns The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Reviews