Discover U.S. history through our curated selection of texts and discuss how our nation's history and our understandings of the past inform the present.
This month's text is The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. Please register online here.
From the publisher: "In this beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson presents a definitive and dramatic account of one of the great untold stories of American history: the Great Migration of six million Black citizens who fled the South for the North and West in search of a better life, from World War I to 1970. Wilkerson tells this interwoven story through the lives of three unforgettable protagonists: Ida Mae Gladney, a sharecropper's wife who in 1937 fled Mississippi for Chicago; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem; and Robert Foster, a surgeon who left Louisiana in 1953 in hopes of making it in California."
Schedule:
- 5:30-6 p.m. (optional): Hear a summary of the text and additional historical context - ideal for participants who didn't read the book or who want a refresher
- 6-7 p.m.: Participate in a guided discussion of the selected text
- 7-7:30 p.m. (optional): Socialize and enjoy light refreshments
Ages 16 and up.
Fee: $8 (resident) / $10 (non-resident). Drop-ins are welcome as space permits.
Call the museum at (847) 929-8001 or email eengland@skokieparks.org with questions.
Next month's text will be Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era by Elaine Tyler May.