The Warmth of Other Suns Part Five: More North and West Than South Summary & Analysis

Chicago, 1978. After George’s death, Ida Mae retires and becomes her extended family’s “sweet-natured but no-nonsense matriarch.” Her neighborhood is much poorer and more dangerous than it was when she moved in, so she doesn’t go out much, although she enjoys watching the drama between the drug dealers and sex workers down on the street. There’s always news to keep track of in the family and holidays to plan for. In fact, in 1977, the supermarket chain Jewel Food Stores does a photo shoot of Ida Mae’s family to represent “the typical Chicago family at Thanksgiving.” Jewel runs a photo of them in a full-page advertisement in the Chicago Metro News.

Ida Mae grows into the congenial grandmother whom readers first met at the beginning of the book. As this chapter’s title suggests, by the end of her life, Ida Mae has unquestionably made Chicago her home. And the converse is true, too: she is also a typical Chicagoan, as the Jewel photo shoot literally declares. And it also recalls the other significant photos that have appeared throughout the book, most importantly the photo of Wilkerson’s mother shortly after her arrival in Washington, D.C. As bookends to the story of the Great Migration, these two photos are a testament to how profoundly the Great Migration has shaped Black identity and the geography of race in the U.S.

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New York, 1978. After Inez’s death, George Starling becomes another old Southern man imparting wisdom to the local Harlem youngsters. Like many other migrants, he never expected his children to get caught up in the city’s dangers and vices, and he didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. To his great disappointment, his son Gerard becomes a major drug dealer in Miami, while his daughter Sonya moves back to Eustis. George keeps working on the railroad, but in 35 years, he never gets promoted. He never achieved his full potential, but he did get to see the Great Migration and its aftermath up close.

George’s story is the most tragic of the entire book. Personally and professionally, Ida Mae and Robert have relatively good luck throughout their lives, and they live out their days with few regrets. But George’s luck is terrible: he sees the ugliest side of the Great Migration and watches his children live far worse lives than his own, rather than the better, freer lives that he always wanted for them. He never regrets leaving Florida, which certainly did improve his life, but he sees migrating as the single excellent decision in a life full of misfortunes and mistakes.

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Los Angeles, 1978. Robert finally has the hospital job that he always dreamed about as a young man in the South. In fact, his job is to treat the rest of the hospital staff, so he no longer has to worry about the business side of medicine at all. He relishes the chance to socialize with his coworkers, especially the Black staff members who also migrated from the South. But he clashes with other staff members and the hospital bureaucracy, which moves him to a rundown office next to a stinking bathroom. After a lifetime of devoting himself to medicine, he feels humiliated: this reminds him of all the sleights he suffered as a young man in the South.

Ironically, Robert experiences his greatest professional failure when he finally gets his dream job. At first, he cherishes the opportunity to make a new and exciting career move so late in life. And his relationships with his coworkers at the hospital attest to the Great Migration’s enduring legacy in California. But eventually, it becomes clear that the hospital doesn’t value his contributions or autonomy. This reminds him of his childhood because it’s another instance when prejudice prevents him from getting what he knows he deserves.

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Robert formally complains to the Labor Department, but the stress of the process ruins his life. Out of pride, he refuses to quit—until he suffers a heart attack and agrees to retire for the sake of his health. Even though his reputation survives and he maintains his wide network of friends and patients, the situation permanently taints his optimism about California.

Readers have known Robert and his pride for some 500 pages, so they won’t find it surprising that he refuses to go down without a fight. His life after the hospital job is not much different from his life before it, but it affects his perception of California because it confirms that prejudice, whether racist or ageist, exists there all the same. This shows that Robert was probably right to spend his career running his own private practice. Others—especially white-run institutions like hospitals—would never recognize his brilliance in the same way as fellow Black Southerners (including his patients) could.

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The Warmth of Other Suns

Isabel Wilkerson

The Warmth of Other Suns: Part Five: More North and West Than South Summary & Analysis