05/04/2026
Hi everyone! For this week’s , I chose The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, which tells the story of the Great Migration, when Black Americans left the South between 1915 and 1970 in search of opportunity and freedom.
Instead of only explaining the Great Migration through facts and numbers, Wilkerson follows Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, who leaves Mississippi for Chicago; George Starling, who leaves Florida for New York; and Robert Foster, who leaves Louisiana for Los Angeles. Their stories show that migration was not just about moving to a new place, but about leaving behind home and familiarity in order to have more control over their own lives.
One of the biggest themes in the book is freedom and self-determination. Wilkerson shows how the Jim Crow South limited almost every part of Black life, including work, education, travel, housing, and safety. For many Black migrants, leaving was one of the only ways they could push back against a system that tried to control their futures. By leaving, they chose the possibility of a better life over staying in a place that denied them basic rights.
What stood out to me most is that Wilkerson does not make freedom seem simple. The North and West were not perfect, and migrants still faced racism, discrimination, and disappointment. But leaving still mattered; it was a way of saying they deserved more than survival and the chance to build their lives on their own terms.
I’ve had the pleasure of working at AASP for the past four years, and as a senior, this is my last Book of the Week. While the stakes of Wilkerson’s book are much greater than anything I have experienced as a student, I still reflected on the idea of pushing back against systems that shape our futures. At Cornell, it can feel like everyone is following the same competitive, career-focused path, where success is measured by internships, resumes, and future plans. This book reminded me that self-determination can also mean having the courage to imagine a different life for yourself. For students, the lesson is smaller, but still important: we should ask what kind of life we actually want, not just what kind we are told to pursue.
Thomas Kuo
