No student of civil rights history should fail to read this book. As much as I love Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, this book is better. It brings the entire post-Civil War experience of African Americans down to a personal level. Wilkerson’s book details the Great Migration by following the family histories of three southern Blacks who made the migration out, escaping (a relative term) to Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
This is an incredible book, for any reader insterested in American history. It tells the stories of different people, different journeys, and different outcomes, yet somehow manages to pull them all together. It is not a "Black" book any more than "The Grapes of Wrath" is a "White" book. Its themes of humiliation and loss leading to a desire for a better life are universal. it makes me wish I was ina Book Club so that I could discuss it with others!
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