Wilkerson reminds the reader about the key commonalities and differences among the book’s three protagonists, whom she chose to represent the Great Migration as a whole. Her overarching message is simple: no matter how much the migrants differed in class, occupation, gender, age, luck, hometown, destination city, and precise life experiences, they all made the harrowing, risky decision to leave the South because they believed—usually correctly—that they could live better, freer lives elsewhere. While some of them may have regretted it, on the whole, the Great Migration had tremendously positive impacts on both Black Americans in particular and the U.S. as a whole.