Migratory History
During the fall 2011 semester of my English 002 class at Howard University our class was required to read The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. The book primarily dealt with the Great Migration and it effects on the African American community. The book is very relatable to my family's story because the movements of my family helped to shape who they were and how their migration affected them. I believe that the moves made by FDH Sr. gave him a better future. His great migration set him up for success.
Migration in my family has had long lasting impacts on the current state of my family. During the "Great Migration" period Frederick D. Haynes Sr. moved from West Virginia to Pennsylvania and lastly to California. Unlike most African Americans in the south, his movements were not a result of racial issues but health problems instead.
There were many other family members that took part in migrating including my grandfather’s wife and my own grandparents. Annete Reid was the wife of FDH. She was born in 1906 and took part in the “Great Migration.” From stories passed down by word of mouth it has been said that she and her sisters were put on a train from Georgia to California because of racism. From many of my family's understanding her house had been set fire to by the Ku Klux Klan. One of the sons of FDH Sr. and Annette was Frederick D. Haynes Jr. At one point in time he and my grandmother were living in Dallas, TX. From an interview that I had with my grandmother she told me that racial issues were horrible in Dallas during the 1960s. She mentioned to me that she was riding in the back of the bus, when going shopping for hats Blacks would have to wear some sort of protection on their heads, and African Americans were only allowed to sit in the balcony of theatres. The racial divide and segregation prompted their movement back to California.
