The book is about the migration experiences of three people, who become representative of the larger whole, which was, essentially the defection of 60 million africanamericans from the south to the north, to the midwest and the west, from 1915, world war i, until 1970, when the south began truly to change. I went to a movie last weekend and they handed me this as im going into the movie. Wont tell you what it was but i want to read it to you. Every day more migrants are coming into the cities to seek a better life for their children. The scale of this massive migration from the poor countryside to the burgeoning cities is unprecedented in human history. The migrants provide a constant and cheap source of labor for excountries booming cities and the thriving economy is built on the backs of those citizens. Do you have any idea what country that is . Well it could be almost any, it could be any country but im thinking the United States and southerners. But i wrote this book with the idea
The park so its been with me all this time. But i think when it comes to the actual writing of the book it probably started very likely after i had gotten out and then a reporter for the New York Times and started to talk to people in other parts of the country. I was the Chicago Bureau chief for the New York Times and i would be in chicago and cleveland and detroit in that began to hear there were similar experiences people head. Nobody talked about it as a migration experience. There was just talk about it as well i cant talk about it. This weekend we will have to go back to mississippi where theres a Family Reunion or a funeral i have to go to. We began to connect the dots and realize it was so much bigger than my connection to their experience in chicago with an national outpouring of people. Cspan give us a brief synopsis of what the book is about. Guest the book is about the migration experiences of three people who become representative of a larger whole which was essentially th
this is to keep the president from making recess appointments. senators return to capitol hill monday and will resume on defense programs and policy for next year. also a vote on the judicial nomination, our live coverage when the senate returns here on c-span. now back to her booktv schedule. that is why it spoke to me and if this book were a human being, it would be in highg. school and dating which is quite frightening but there you have it. [laughter] the reason why i wanted to immerse myself in we know but really, truly don t something questions. where did we come from and what did it take for us to get here? what was the world that the seem in this book left? what would propel six million americans to leave the only place that they d ever known for a place that they d never seen in hopes that life might be better? what did it take for them to get out? be how did they choose the places that they went? how did they make a way for themselves where they landed? and why di
isabel wilkerson. [applause] thank you so much for that beautiful introduction, and thank you so much for every one of you here you should this tent under this tent to hear me speak. it means so much to me, it s so emotional, actually, for me to be here in washington d.c. i m a daughter of washington d.c. i would not exist, literally, if it were not for washington d.c. washington, d.c. was the other sun for my participants, s-u-n. it was the other sun, and it s what drew my parents from the south, deep south, to here in the hopes that life might be better for them. and so washington, d.c. n many respects, was the inspiration for this book. this is the book, this is my copy. this is my copy of the book. you can see it s very well worn. it s called the salad, actually. it has been all over the country and to europe. and it is my version of it. this book took me 15 years to write, to research and to write. it took me 15 years to get to the point where i could stand before yo
washington, d.c. was the other sun for my participants, s-u-n. it was the other sun, and it s what drew my parents from the south, deep south, to here in the hopes that life might be better for them. and so washington, d.c. n many respects, was the inspiration for this book. this is the book, this is my copy. this is my copy of the book. you can see it s very well worn. it s called the salad, actually. it has been all over the country and to europe. and it is my version of it. this book took me 15 years to write, to research and to write. it took me 15 years to get to the point where i could stand before you today and talk about it. and that s why it s so special to me. and if this book were a human being, it would be in high school and dating which is quite frightening. [laughter] but there you have it. that s what it took. the reason why i wanted to immerse myself in something that a lot of us think we know but really, truly don t is because almost every book begins with a