'The Warmth of Other Suns' by Isabel Wilkerson

The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson (3.5)

The book spans the migration of African Americans from the Jim Crow south to the north from the early 1910’s to the 1990’s. This was a difficult book to read. Not only long but reading through the details of the many years of racism made one so disappointed in our history. That said, it was worth reading to acquaint oneself with the details of the three representative people who moved from the South LA, Chicago and NYC. Getting to know these people made their stories that much more real. Humans can distance themselves from generic groups, it is much harder from actual people. Ms. Wilkerson did a very good job of attempting to get empathy from her readers, if possible, sympathy at a minimum. She also addresses many fallacies attributed to the new migrants in their northern homes (such as negative things they brought with them).  I wasn’t thrilled with the degree of repetition and had to stop at times as my disappointment with people, in general, was overwhelming.