Searching for Magnolia Trees

I am reading, The Warmth of Other Suns; The Epic Story of America's Great Migration and there was an instant connection to the story told by Isabel Wilkerson.

New York Times Book Review

My reflection after reading the first chapter of The Warmth of Other Suns:
I remember the oral history lesson told by our family griot, my grandmother.  I would ask her to tell me this story over and over again.  I imagined it, I saw it written on pages somewhere.  I always tried to visualize Tennessee and how they must have lived, my granny and her parents, Alfonso and Ethel Lomax.  There is a certain warmth and familiarity with self that us northern Blacks lack.  I longed for the heat of the Southern sun and the feel of red earth between my toes.  I wanted to know a love of family and country that was as sweet as the nectar of a peach tree.  A sense of self that quieted the continuous nagging insecurities I felt as a Black woman, I've been searching this whole time.  We have been searching this whole time.


Where did your family migrate from?  Ask the elders in your family to tell their story of America's Great Migration.