Community Reading Project

(2011-2012) Resources

Resources on The Warmth of Other Suns

Chapter Summaries and Discussion Questions
Created by Maureen Wolverton

A Writer’s Long Journey to Trace the Great Migration
Published Sept 8 2010: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/books/09wilkerson.html

‘They were invisible for far too long’
Published Sept 21 2010: Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/09/21/invisible_for_far_too_long/

Someplace Better
Bostonia – also links to video ‘Tracing the Past’ by Alan Wong
http://www.bu.edu/bostonia/fall10/wilkerson/

The Lives Gained from Fleeing Jim Crow
New York Times: published August 30 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/books/31book.html

Book Wins Critic’s Award
The American Prospect: published March 16 2011
http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=03&year=2011&base_name=the_warmth_of_other_suns_wins

The Warmth of Other Suns: Images of Black History
http://www.theroot.com/multimedia/warmth-other-suns

Resources on The Great Migration

The Great Migration
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130291351

The Great Migration
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Third-Great-Migration-Might-be-in-Progress-125347693.html

Map of the Great Migration

The Great Migration: maps
http://www.inmotionaame.org/gallery/?migration=8&topic=10&type=map

Up from the Bottoms: The Search for the American Dream
This documentary explores the struggles of African Americans as they migrated from the old south to the prosperous north.
http://www.upfromthebottoms.com/

James N. Gregory, The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America (University of North Carolina Press, 2005)
http://faculty.washington.edu/gregoryj/diaspora/photos.htm
Website provides sample chapters from the book as well as online photography exhibit focused especially on Henry Ford’s recruitment and employment of African American laborers from the South. The site also contains a bibliography of more than 700 sources on the Great Migration.

Elizabeth Anne Martin, Detroit and the Great Migration, 1916-1929 (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor)
http://bentley.umich.edu/research/publications/migration/
Online link to full book, including many photos and extensive detail on a wide range of topics related to African American migration and Michigan history.

Grand Rapids History Center, “The Great Migration to Grand Rapids”
http://www.historygrandrapids.org/learn.php?id=82
Includes links to supplemental essays and photos about the Great Migration of African Americans to Grand Rapids, including bibliographic information to specific news clippings and other materials in the History and Special Collections Department of the Grand Rapids Public Library.
See also: “Thelma Estelle Garnett: Memphis to Chicago to Grand Rapids” http://www.historygrandrapids.org/explore.php?cat=2&essay=27
Personal stories, memories and photographs featuring the life of one multi-racial woman (Irish, Native American, African American) who moved to Grand Rapids as part of the Great Migration.

“In Motion: The African American Migration Experience,” Electronic Exhibition at the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
http://www.inmotionaame.org/migrations/landing.cfm;jsessionid=f83089471311169670968?migration=8&bhcp=1
Very well designed website, rich with resources and information about all aspects of African American migration over the 20th Century, including image database, texts, maps, and narrative summaries.

“The African American Mosaic: Migration,” Electronic Exhibit at the Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam008.html
Helps to locate “Great Migration” of African Americans to Michigan within larger context of national and international migration of African Americans over more than two centuries.

Jacob Lawrence, “The Migration Series,” an Electronic Exhibition of the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
http://www.phillipscollection.org/migration_series/index.cfm
Site contains many examples of Lawrence’s work as well as contextual information and tools for educators at all levels. This site also includes an interesting interactive component, encouraging visitors to submit their own migration memories and then archiving these stories online by place. Most are short. But taken together they provide additional first-hand recollections from those who moved from the South to Michigan.

Jacob Lawrence, The Great Migration Art
http://www.phillipscollection.org/migration_series/index.cfm
http://whitney.org/Collection/JacobLawrence

Jacob Lawrence Posters from the GVSU Art Gallery Permanent Collection:

African American Artists
http://gvsuartgallery.org/pawtucket/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/9757
Amistad
http://gvsuartgallery.org/pawtucket/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/6938
Barbershop
http://gvsuartgallery.org/pawtucket/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/2592
The Accident
http://gvsuartgallery.org/pawtucket/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/8301
The Library
http://gvsuartgallery.org/pawtucket/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/7264
The Lovers
http://gvsuartgallery.org/pawtucket/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/6952