The Great Migration and the power of a single decision | Isabel Wilkerson

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sometimes, a single decision can change the course of history. Join journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson as she tells the story of the Great Migration, the outpouring of six million African Americans from the Jim Crow South to cities in the North and West between World War I and the 1970s. This was the first time in American history that the lowest caste people signaled they had options and were willing to take them -- and the first time they had a chance to choose for themselves what they would do with their innate talents, Wilkerson explains. "These people, by their actions, were able to do what the powers that be, North and South, could not or would not do," she says. "They freed themselves."

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0:00.0	I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. What must it be like to leave the only home you've known and to everyone you've loved for a chance at a better life? For those of us in the U.S., it's the kind of sacrifice that nearly all of our ancestors must have made. In this archive talk from Ted Women 2017, author
0:22.9	Isabel Wilkerson recounts one of these migration strains known as the Great Migration. Why it stands out,
0:28.8	and its historical significance today, is in this moving talk. And if you want to learn more about
0:33.8	her work, check out Oprah's Book Club podcast, where they feature Isabel's new book,
0:37.9	Cast, The Origins of Our Discontents. Oprah and Isabel discuss each of the eight pillars of cast
0:44.0	outlined in the book with a diverse group of people who have experienced this hierarchy.
0:49.1	Those conversations and more on Oprah's Book Club, available on Apple Podcasts.
0:56.5	Imagine with me this scene.
1:00.5	It's a scene that played out in nearly all of our families.
1:06.2	It's a scene in which a young person,
1:10.1	somewhere in our family tree,
1:13.0	somewhere in our lineage,
1:15.5	had a heartbreaking decision to make.
1:19.7	It was a decision to leave all that they had known
1:24.4	and all of the people that they had loved and to set out for a place far, far away,
1:31.8	that they had never seen in hopes that life might be better.
1:37.6	Migration is usually a young person's endeavor.
1:42.8	It's the kind of thing that you do when you're on the cusp
1:45.7	of life. And so there is, in all of our families, this young person somewhere in our background.
1:55.7	That person is standing at a dock about to board a ship that will cross the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean.
2:04.5	That person is loading up a truck that will cross the Rio Grande.
2:10.5	Or that person is standing at a railroad platform,
	...

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