A crucial archive of Black culture and history that's unfortunately weakened at times by its liberal academic sensibilities, particularly with its adherence to respectability politics and the lionization of war criminal Barack Obama.

The Warmth of Other Suns chronicled the Great Migration of African Americans moving to free themselves from the Jim Crow laws in the South. Their journeys began around 1910 and were thought to be mostly completed by 1970. Prior to 1910, only one percent of African Americans lived outside of the South. Afterward, approximately forty-seven percent of this population lived in the North or West. Those in power did whatever they could to deter people from leaving. Once those who left arrived at their intended new city, they found that additional roadblocks made it difficult to begin their new lives. Isabel Wilkerson’s detailed saga told the stories of some of those who were able to make the change for a better life. She focused on the lives of three people, one woman and two men. They came from different states and moved to different parts of the country, but their reasons for leaving were the same. Ms. Wilkerson told their stories starting from their teenage years and followed them throughout their lives. Woven between their stories were additional anecdotes of those who migrated north and west.

I had never heard of the Great Migration. The bravery and tenacity of the people in these stories were written in these pages. Parts of the book were painful to read because of the cruelty inflicted by those who held the power. Ms. Wilkerson masterfully crafted her words to convey their pain and struggle. This book is 793 pages (Kindle edition), but I flew through their stories. I wanted to read the account of their move and hoped they found the life they wanted. Many of the stories told here will stick with me for a very long time. This is a very important part of American history that should be taught and studied.

It’s extremely fitting that this novel won a Pulitzer Prize. Isabelle Wilkerson is amazing and I’ll read anything she writes.