Common Text with Isabel Wilkerson

I was excited to go hear Isabel Wilkerson talk about her book "The Warmth Of Other Suns". I wanted to know where she drew her inspiration from and what motivated her to even want to write the book. The first thing she said that really shocked me is that it took her 15 years to finish the book. Thats probably more than half her life but this just shows me how dedicated she was to writing a well thought-out book. Her parents were migrants which was apart of her motivation for writing this book. She also talked about the laws in the south that motivated African-Americans to migrate to the north. She went on to say if they came into interaction with a white person they had to behave a certain for example, if a black person was driving behind a white person they could'nt honk the horn or swerve in front of them to get in front because this sort of behavior could result in harsh consequences such as lynching. Hearing this just melted my heart because we have it so good today that we never really think about this kind of stuff. She then went on to talk about the people she interviewed for the book, who are the main characters, George, Ida Mae, and Robert. She said she took the initiative to travel the same path of migration that some of these characters did, just to get the full effect of what they had to go through. Isabel Wilkerson is really an inspiration of mines. She has showed me anything is possible, it just takes some time.