I joined a book club!
It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time and I finally got off my lazy butt and did it. This is the very first book I read for this group and it was amazing. It’s a nonfiction book by Isabel Wilkerson about the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North.
I had heard about the Great Migration in school, but none of my teachers spent a lot of time on it. I was under the impression that blacks fled to the North largely because of the increased job opportunities in the cities in the North.
Turns out that’s only part of the story. I’m pretty sure every American knows about the Jim Crow laws of the South, but for some reason, they were left out of my education as a major reason blacks left the South. Now that I’ve read this book, it seems obvious, but I don’t think any of my teachers ever mentioned it.
Of course, Jim Crow affected everyone differently. It’s not an understatement to say no black person was safe in the South. On average, a lynching happened every four days, and of course a lynching wasn’t just an execution. The victim was tortured, often for hours, before they died. Family members were sometimes forced to watch. There was absolutely nothing they could do.
So it should come as no surprise that those who could leave did. There were no lynchings in the North (although there were race riots), black people could sit wherever they want without having to say “yes sir” and “yes ma’am” to every single white person they saw. Black men who moved to the North were no longer called “boy”. They had greater opportunities for jobs, and they earned much more than they earned in the South, though still significantly less than their white counterparts.
I had never equated the Great Migration with the Civil Rights Movement. Of course I knew about MLK Jr. and his marches, but I hadn’t thought about the effect of a huge section of the South’s labor force emigrating. Of course the efforts of those who stayed in the South should not be underestimated, but there’s no doubt the mass emigration of blacks forced the South to reconsider some of its practices.
This book looks at the Great Migration through the experiences of three people: George Swanson Starling, who moved from Florida to NYC in the 40s, Ida Mae Gladney, who moved from Mississippi to Chicago in the 30s, and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster, who moved from Louisiana to L.A. in the 50s. None of them saw themselves as part of a greater movement. They all had different experiences, levels of education, and their own reasons for moving. What they all had in common was they didn’t feel safe in the South and they all knew someone who had moved north (or west, in California’s case) and had made a better life for themselves.
That’s not to say their lives in the North were ideal. Racism is still very real and that was as true in the North as it was in the South. It just manifested itself in different ways. When they tried to get a hotel room, they were told there were no vacancies. Blacks were not expressly forbidden from buying homes in certain neighborhoods, but they faced discrimination, threats, and bombings if they tried to move in. When a few blacks succeeded in moving into a neighborhood, the whites quickly cleared out.
What amused me most about this book was the way the white people screwed themselves over again and again. First of all, segregation benefits no one. Keeping an entire section of the population in a subservient position benefits no one. That’s an entire section of your labor force that could accomplish just about anything, given the proper means and motivation, and the Great Migration is proof of that. The Harlem Renaissance is proof.
The whites predicted that having black people move into their neighborhoods would destroy their property values, but it turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Their property values only declined when the white people freaked out and started selling their homes as quickly as they could.
My favorite part was when the white people in the South were confused as to why all the black people were leaving. Seriously? Would you stick around if you knew your daughter could be raped and your son could be lynched and there was absolutely nothing you could do about it? They blamed the North, which did send recruiters to talk up the opportunities for jobs and higher pay in the North. But their blatant refusal to see why anyone whose life was in danger every day they were in the South wouldn’t want to leave is mind boggling.
Despite the fact this is a history book, I’m afraid it’s more relevant now than ever. We should totally be able to say that black people are as safe everywhere in the country as white people, but of course they aren’t. One look at the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag is enough to wonder what century we’re living in. So I’ll say it again: marginalizing entire populations helps no one.
What did you guys read this week? Any other great book club reads out there? I want to hear all about it!
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