Isabel Wilkerson: The Great Migration and the power of a single decision
伊莎贝尔·威尔克森: 大移民以及一个决定的力量
The author of "The Warmth of Other Suns," the story of the Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer-winning journalist who uses narrative history to bring to light our shared humanity. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
in nearly all of our families.
that they had known.
a young person's endeavor.
when you're on the cusp of life.
somewhere in our background.
or the Pacific Ocean.
that will cross rivers and mountains
will be freedom in the North.
their grandparents,
who had gotten them to this point.
to make the crossing with them.
of the people who had raised them,
telephone service.
did not even have telephones.
about the people who had raised them
"Your father has passed away."
“你的父亲已经去世。”
if you are to see her alive again."
in nearly all of our families
that changed the course of families
改变了家庭的轨迹,
国家和历史的轨迹,
that we may not realize.
可能我们还没有意识到。
of six million African Americans
until the 1970s.
持续到70年代。
was the first time in American history
是因为这是美国历史上第一次,
had to flee the land of their birth
that they had always been.
公民身份得到承认。
并不是搬个家那么简单。
of political asylum
寻求政治避难的过程,
known as Jim Crow.
种族制度中逃离,
that you could and could not do
that it was actually against the law
以致于出现下面这种情况:
和一个白人,
together in Birmingham.
with a person of a different race.
一起下西洋棋。
a black person and a white person
in some town square.
and this white person playing checkers,
of Southern civilization was in peril.
都处于危险的境地。
taking the time
there was actually a black Bible
都会有一本黑色的圣经,
by hands of different races.
human desires to be free,
of violence to maintain.
somewhere in the American South,
在几十年的时间内,
an African American was lynched
非裔美国人被私刑处死,
in this caste system
种族制度的某些条款,
to the start of the Great Migration.
for many, many reasons.
the economic order of the South,
a supply of cheap labor
to work at the will of the land.
来满足土地的需求。
when the North had a labor problem.
正是北方出现了劳动力问题。
on cheap labor from Europe --
and the steel mills.
came to a virtual halt.
and find the cheapest labor in the land
in the South,
for their hard work.
that they were farming.
在自己耕种的土地上生活。
and not even being paid.
to this poaching of its cheap labor.
觊觎他们廉价劳动力的行为。
to keep the people from leaving.
from the railroad platforms.
American citizens.
名义上自由的美国公民。
from their train seats.
people to arrest,
to get to freedom
How now will we get out?
现在该怎么逃出去?
out of the South,
beautifully predictable streams
throughout human history.
there were three streams.
the Carolinas and Virginia
南北卡罗莱纳和维吉尼亚
and on up the East coast.
from Mississippi, Alabama,
to Cleveland and the entire Midwest.
克里夫兰和整个中西部地区。
from Louisiana and Texas
wanted to get away,
within the borders of the United States
were living in the South.
this Great Migration was over,
all over the rest of the country.
nearly a complete redistribution
in American history
and were willing to take them.
他们也希望抓住机会。
in the three centuries
踏上这片土地以来,
had been on that soil at that time.
in 12 generations of enslavement
和 12 代奴隶制,
nearly a century of Jim Crow.
to the word "grandparent"
enslavement lasted in the United States?
在美国存在了多长时间?
was the first time in American history
to choose for themselves
with their God-given talents
what they and their children
他们的孩子,
and even great-grandchildren
to choose for themselves
with their God-given talents.
a Toni Morrison as we now know her to be.
熟悉的托妮·莫里森。
and from Georgia.
阿拉巴马和乔治亚。
would get to do something
at this point,
and against protocol for African Americans
growing up in the South,
the single decision to leave,
would get access to books.
a Nobel laureate,
by the Great Migration.
they brought with them,
也将音乐带了过去,
the ancestors --
and the gospel music
through the generations.
into whole new genres of music.
转变成了全新的形式。
"Motown" would not have existed.
摩城唱片将不会存在。
his parents were from Georgia.
来自乔治亚州。
he decided he wanted to go into music.
to go all over the country
of the Great Migration
with them during the journey.
were these three girls,
had there been no Great Migration.
我们可能不会知道黛安娜·罗斯。
and a lot of human beings in general,
和许多普通人一样,
because her parents might not have met.
因为她的父母可能都无法相遇。
of the Great Migration.
of the Great Migration.
who was born in Louisiana
出生于路易斯安那,
Central Railroad to Chicago,
移民到了芝加哥,
to build on the talent
to build on the talents
in the cotton country of Arkansas.
阿肯色州的棉花地里。
he got his first alto sax.
他得到了第一支中音萨克斯。
who cannot imagine a world
having gotten a hold of a saxophone.
这世界将会怎样。
of the millions of people
移民后代中的一小部分,
of the single decision to migrate.
resistance in the North.
all social injustice.
of the civil rights movement.
that they had been forced to flee.
of the United States,
Proclamation could not do.
也无法完成的事情。
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Isabel Wilkerson - Journalist, authorThe author of "The Warmth of Other Suns," the story of the Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer-winning journalist who uses narrative history to bring to light our shared humanity.
Why you should listen
Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson devoted 15 years to the research and writing of The Warmth of Other Suns. She interviewed more than 1,200 people, unearthed archival works and gathered the voices of the famous and the unknown to tell the epic story of the Great Migration, one of the biggest underreported stories of the 20th century and one of the largest migrations in American history.
The book was named to more than 30 Best of the Year lists, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, among other honors, and made national news when President Obama chose it for summer reading in 2011. In 2012, the New York Times named The Warmth of Other Suns to its list of the best nonfiction books of all time.
Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of the New York Times, making her the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer and the first African-American to win for individual reporting.
Isabel Wilkerson | Speaker | TED.com