He was disheartened, he was crestfallen and he was sleepy and dog-tired and so he had to push through. So then he had to drive through the mountains and the desert, at night, and that was even more exhausting than it otherwise would have been because he had been planning his trip so that he would sleep from the long drive. And, he tried, and was crushed to have discovered that after all of this long drive, he still was, in that moment, no better off than if he had even have been in Louisiana at that point. He knew not to even think about getting a room there.īut, by the time he got to Arizona he felt that it would be open enough to get a room anywhere. He wouldn’t have even have dreamed to try in Louisiana, or Texas, which was a huge state. He had been preparing and knew that would be difficult. When he got to Arizona, he thought that he’d be able to stop and get a room wherever he chose. Robert Joseph Pershing Foster, migrated from Monroe, Louisiana to California and it was a heartbreaking journey through the desert. Q: How is San Diego such a significant part of the Great Migration and your journey in writing “The Warmth of Other Suns”?Ī: It’s significant for this book in particular because one of the main protagonists, Dr. On February 23 Wilkerson gave a rousing, thought provoking keynote speech at UCSD’s annual Black History Month Scholarship Luncheon. Isabel Wilkerson, author of “The Warmth of Other Suns,” recently discussed her novel, the Great Migration, and San Diego’s role in her the epic tale of the Great Migration of African Americans from the American South to northern cities across the U.S.

By Latanya West, San Diego Voice & Viewpoint

The warmth of other suns author