Ida Mae Gladney was the least “accomplished” person out of the three case-studies, but, as Ms. Wilkerson comments, she was one who also maintained her connection to her family in the South throughout all the years that she and her husband, George, lived in Chicago. She was, in fact, the practical, stalwart center, both of her family and her community. Thanks to hard work, Ida Mae and George were eventually able to buy a three-flat house, which she promptly filled with her grown children and other relatives. She always held a job outside the home, and while the Gladneys were not wealthy or even middle-class, they made do. Ida Mae remained the touchstone for her growing family, and was “loved and respected by her community.”
In 1940 when this picture was taken, blacks were excluded from most clerical, sales, and white collar jobs. Firms that served the black community, such as this Chicago-based insurance company, provided a handful of opportunities for well educated migrants to use their skills. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection)
The stories of these individual lives are brilliantly told, and they serve to soften and humanize the long, carefully researched story Ms. Wilkerson has to tell. In an interesting paragraph of the “Acknowledgements” section at the end of the book, Wilkerson remarks that: “This has been a personal journey that, due to the nature of the work and the loss of the primary subjects, transformed me out of necessity from journalist to unintended historian.” It is as historian that she shines, but enough of the journalist remains to ensure some mighty lively reportage as well. Just don’t enter it expecting a quick survey. What you will find is both real history and real literature.
Isabel Wilkerson was awarded the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award for Narrative Nonfiction for The Warmth of Other Suns, as well as the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work Debut Author. That “Debut Author” refers to the fact that this is her first book, but in no sense was she a novice writer. Back in 1994, she won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for her coverage of the 1993 mid-western floods, when she was the Chicago Bureau Chief of the New York Times. She was then all of 33 years old.
Many of the black migrants who came to Chicago between 1910 and 1930 started businesses and became entrepreneurs. The "Perfect Eat" Shop, a restaurant on 47th street near South Park, is an example of such a business. It was owned by Ernest Morris, seen standing in the rear of the restaurant. April 1942 Jack Delano, Photographer FSA-OWI Collection Prints and Photographs Division (125), Library of Congress
In the ensuing years, she has been all over the place, and the astonishing list of professorships, lectures, essays, etc. seem wondrous, especially when one considers that she was also using her time and energy to create this book, doing research that included interviews with more than 1000 people, producing what is surely a modern masterpiece.
©2012 Julia Sneden for SeniorWomen.com
DVD TIP
The Forsyte Saga, Series 1 and 2; 2003-2004
DVD 5-Disc Boxed Set
Acorn Media Group, 702 minutes
Bonus Features
To MY WIFE
I dedicate the Forsyte Saga in its entirety, believing it to be of all my worth the least unworthy of one without whose encouragement, sympathy and criticism I could never have become even such a writer as I am
— John Galsworthy
Released by Acorn Media this summer, The Forsyte Saga was chosen by viewers of Masterpiece Theatre as their second favorite presentation of all the series shown. The collection is comprised of a DVD two-series set of the unedited UK broadcast edition shown in 2003 and 2004. This 5 disc set includes more than 20 minutes of Series One footage not included in the edited US broadcast. There's also a featurette of the making of the series as well as a booklist. The original 26-part BBC version of the Saga aired in the US in 1969 and prompted WGBH Boston to launch the incredibly popular and literary Masterpiece enterprise.
Series One stars Damien Lewis (also known for Homeland and Band of Brothers), Gina McKee, Rupert Graves, Ioan Gruffudd, Julian Ovenden and Corin Redgrave. The production covers the first two books in the Saga, The Man of Property and In Chancery. The sumptuous costumes were designed by Phoebe De Gaye and the exteriors and interiors were inspired by the famed English and Scottish architects, C.F.A. Voysey and Charles Rennie Macintosh.
The Forsyte Saga reminds us just how compelling and sexy the Victorian and 1920s eras can be. Can a new production of Trollope's The Pallisers be far behind?
— T.G.
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