Nothing is going to Change

Reading Warmth of Other Suns and the poem Escape, I see a lot of connections. The poem Escape talked about blackness and how it sticks with you no matter where you go. In the story titled Disillusionment on page 371, in Warmth of Suns, Ida Mae and her family were having troubles in Chicago. In high school I had this perception that in the North during the 20^th century meant freedom for blacks. People tried to escape the harsh and racist South in order to start their lives all over. The North to them symbolized economic, social, and spiritual freedom. Even though the North had more opportunities for African Americans, they still faced hardships.

Before even getting a chance to move to Chicago, Ida Mae and her family were being discouraged not to move and to stay in the South. During the 1950s, housing officials suggested a plan that would restrict 13,000 new public housing units to people who lived in Chicago for two years. This plan would “affect colored migrants and foreign immigrants alike” (p.372, Wilkerson).  In the same section the Clarks were being spotlighted in “Disillusionment” as well. Harvey Clark and his family were from the South just like Ida Mae.  The Clarks were both college educated and wanted a better life for their six year old son. As soon as they moved into Cicero, and all-white town, white protesters met them as they were unloading the truck.  The protestors told them to “Get out of Cicero” and told not “come back.”

The poem Escape first stanza says:

shadows, shadows,

Hug me round

So that I shall not be found

By Sorrow:

She pursues me

Everywhere,

I can’t lose her

Anywhere.

Ida Mae and Harvey Clark cannot get rid of the fact that they are Black. Their skin color cannot change and they are force to carry the “burden” that all black people must bear.  Nearly every colored family that wanted to live in a “white territory” was greeted with bombings, shootings, riots, or threats.  These were similar obstacles that almost every black family faces up North. No matter how much they try to better themselves for their family they could not “escape” oppression.