Blaire Mann
9/6/15
AAST 395:Migrations and Borders

Blog 1

This week in our readings and class discussions from the Warmth of other Suns mainly focused on the motives each character and the people of the times had, which contributed to the Great Migration, their plans to migrate, their new lives and adjustments that had to be made.Chapters prior to this week's readers we got a glimpse of who the characters are, where they come from, how they were brought up and what made them different from each other.  The two sections that were read in class this week: Exodus and the Kinder Mistress, I would say were the most significant parts of what we have read so far because now we are familiar with the characters, and we can receive a better understanding for each of their moves out of the segregated south.

On Tuesday we split into separate groups, in which talked about a certain character and questions that we had from Exodus. The person I discussed was George Swanson Starling. George to me, was not like the other two characters because he held a diverse background for the times. You'd rarely hear about black from the south moving back and fourth to the north and even attend college back 1930-40s Florida.
I learned a lot just from reading Georges story in particular. One of the most important things that I picked up, is how history likes to cover up the bad things that could possibly give something a lesser reputation. For example, Florida was one of--if not, the strictest state during the Jim Crow and Reconstructions eras. Today's generation know Florida to be the vacation, Spring break or retirement state. George's story and untold stories like his let us know otherwise.

Thursday, our class discussion on the Kinder Mistress was very interesting. This section of the book is when each individual's journey to the North, Midwest and West are described through an objective lens. George, Robert and Ida's descriptions of their journey are described like their destinations were the promise land and each had some adjusting to do to get out of their forbidden freedoms each have been deprived of their entire life. There was a part that stuck out to me which was Ida Mae's birth of her third child. By today's standards one may call her crazy for not wanting to see a doctor and have a normal birth in the hospital. Yet, she was still stuck in her ways she was brought up and having a midwife deliver the baby instead. That part in particular showed how people still hold on to what they know, even if it's not 'with the times.'