From the First World War to the 1970s, a mass exodus ensued of Blacks leaving the South and settling in northern and western cities. Wilkerson's book highlights three stories from The Great Migration: Ida Mae Gladney who left sharecropping in 1937 for a blue-collar life in Chicago; George Starling, who left orange-picking in Florida in 1945 for Harlem; and Robert Foster, who moved from Louisiana in 1953 to become a personal physician in Los Angeles.

Isabel Wilkerson's history of the Great Migration is simply outstanding. Impeccably written, The Warmth of Other Suns brilliantly uses the three narratives to pull you into history while Wilkerson gives you a fuller understanding of the broader context. With great insights into the complex and complicated history of race in America in the 19th century, The Warmth of Other Suns shines a light on many of our current race issues today.