The Warmth of Other Suns gives contextual details to the very world from which my figurative works are inspired. Isabel Wilkerson masterfully chronicles the unique situations and experiences of three families that led them to embark on life in a different land. The US Census in the early 1900s noted that 90% of Blacks lived in the Southern states. With only a generation or two from slavery, the narrative of life for Black folks was defined by their maneuvering within the post-slavery Jim Crow laws and the sanctioned violence that could be acted upon them for various unlawful reasons.

The greatest migration in U.S. history was the migration of Blacks (descendants of American slavery) leaving the Southern states in hopes for a better life… up North and out West.

This migration has led to the establishment of the Black Urban centers found in cities like St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit; Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York; Los Angeles and Oakland California. Each of these urban centers have a uniting thread that stretches back to the homes of their Southern ancestors… It was the railroad routes nearest their Southern homes that mostly dictated the destination of the migrating families.

There are past experiences and stories that were lived in the non-urban existence of many African American families. These stories and experiences give reason to why generations of African Americans today call specific American cities their home.

THEY SEND BACK FOR US 

This work portrays a dynamic for which many Black women found themselves… waiting for the promised return of their husband or lover. Once a dependable prospect for work was established and arrangements could be made to sustain a family, the migrating men would return or send for their families. This could take weeks, months, or in extreme cases… years. What were the desires or dreams of the women waiting back home? What was the hope that the new world could bring for them? Their fantasies and expectations were dependent on a successful return or invitation to join their migrating partner. It was often the case that women wondered if their significant others would return at all… because every community rumored stories of the ones that didn’t send back for them.

SENTIMENTS OF HOME 

Not all Southern Blacks lived hopelessly desperate for social change. Far from it!  There were many who managed to carve paths of progress and excel to accomplish greater lifestyles than their fellow White Southerners. Whether it was the professional class of educated Blacks who excelled in business and professional practices; or simply hard working individuals who used what they had to grow an honest and sustainable life.

Despite Jim Crow, many Blacks prospered and thrived; establishing flourishing communities, which gave argument to the need for integration. A decision to stay in the South was made by many in maintaining their historical home. A history full of significant experiences, rich in cultural legacies spreads across the American South. Sentiments of a grandmother’s song and the resolve of a grandfather’s perseverance… With many, those cultural significants journeyed from the South… up North and out West. They quietly remind of the past that is never far gone.

Though they are miles and even generations away, some things will always preserve the sentiments of home.

A BLACK BOY TOO!

Richard Wright’s memoir “Black Boy” speaks of his upbringing… experiences likely shared by many other gifted and talented minds that were potentially handicapped by the institutional indifferences and social constructs of a racist American society.

A young boy confused by the conditional cruelties of life, being unable to give reason for the things his eyes had seen, and the hunger his body felt. He existed in places of which he didn’t want to be; and places that didn’t want him to be… The lands of the North, as seemed to many Southern Blacks, was thought of as another world by many contemplating the migration from the South. Wright’s journey led him to Chicago; his new world, having the promise of a better life. The Black Boy from the Deep South becomes a man and discovers that his Blackness follows wherever his journey lands him.

My interest in Wright’s “Black Boy” goes beyond his comprehensive survey of being a Negro kid in the early 1900s. His life and accounts bring familiarities to the places he walked and lived. From Mississippi to Memphis; to Elaine Arkansas – just minutes from where I grew up; to Helena Arkansas – where I was born; “Black Boy” gives me a historical, but personal account of the social conditions along the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta – which is my family’s home. I often think of the hardships similar individuals may have faced; void of the resources to navigate the obstacles placed before them. But there’s inspiration when one prevails… many Black Boys do… and I’m a Black Boy too!