The Warmth Of Other Suns: Racial Violence

1. Lynching and racial violence in the American South Even after being freed from slavery, black Americans struggled to gain equal rights to whites. There was a large presence of racial violence in the South for hundreds of years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Racism was a large part of Southern life where slavery used to exist. If black Americans committed the smallest crime or inconvenience to a white person, they were brutally beat or lynched. These lynchings were large public events, where communities including small children would gather to view, mock, and beat the lynched blacks. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan became part of the Southern culture. This group persecuted black Americans, beating, lynching, and killing countless black Americans.
This racial violence and lynching were evident in both the movie Selma and Wilkerson’s book The Warmth of Other Suns. Selma showcased the bombing of churches, the beating of innocent blacks who were peacefully protesting, and blacks not being allowed to register to vote. In the Warmth of Other Suns, migrants were leaving the South to head North to escape the racial violence. The violence was also shown in the newspaper the Chicago Defender. Black Americans were struggling to gain equal rights and be successful in the South because they were in constant fear of racism,

“The Migrant Advantage” as portrayed in the Wilkerson’s characters
During the Great Migration, thousands of black Americans left the South and headed to Northern states. They did this for many reasons to escape racial violence, obtain employment, but overall to gain a better life for themselves and their families. Many of these migrants found what they were looking for, had more opportunities, and gained a better life in the North compared to those who stayed in the South. This became known as the “migrant advantage.” In Wilkerson’s book, The Warmth of Other Suns, it follows three people and their families as they migrated to the