Isabel Wilkerson Top 100 Instagram Photos and Posts

Most liked photo of Isabel Wilkerson with over 22.3K likes is the following photo

We have around 101 most liked posts and photos of Isabel Wilkerson with the thumbnails listed below. Click on any of them to view the full image along with its caption, like count, and a button to download the photo.

1. 22.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : An unbelievable 30 years ago today, the path of my life changed forever. That afternoon, I was seated at a computer at The New York Times with my editor, Carl Lavin, as the 1994 Pulitzer Prizes were being announced.  I watched the winners and categories scroll down the screen in what felt like slow motion, and then I saw my name.  I called my mother, who insisted she knew I would win all along, and my father, who was too choked up to speak, and then walked into the out-of-body applause of the old newsroom on 43rd Street and to hugs all around, starting with the executive editor and publisher. The previous year had been a huge one as Chicago Bureau Chief — immersion in the life of a 10-year-old boy on the South Side of Chicago and then bearing witness to people trying to survive a 500-year flood that engulfed the Midwest.  A finalist in two categories, I felt as much relief as indescribable joy the moment I won in Feature Writing for “high literary quality and originality.” It would stunningly make me the first Black woman to take home a Pulitzer in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. An honor to be in the company of the great William Raspberry, David Remnick, Annie Proulx, Edward Albee and others whose names were called that day. I heard from Senators, the President, former editors and teachers. The most beautiful, heartfelt letters. My parent’s insurance agent saw the name in the paper, checked his files and called to congratulate them both. I treasured hearing from people I’d written about — the bouquet of roses from a Chicago principal whose high school I’d done a beloved piece on.  The narrative writing that won the Pulitzer would be the foundation of the books I would come to write. The seeds and early cadences of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste can be seen in all of these stories.  After the news, The Times ran a full page ad about my win. For years, my father had run out to get every paper I had a story in and would make note in his engineer’s hand: “Isabel’s story on Page A17.” That day, he went home with a bunch of papers to add to his collection of fatherly pride. Forever grateful he lived to see that day.
Likes : 22299

2. 22.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : An unbelievable 30 years ago today, the path of my life changed forever. That afternoon, I was seated at a computer at The New York Times with my editor, Carl Lavin, as the 1994 Pulitzer Prizes were being announced.  I watched the winners and categories scroll down the screen in what felt like slow motion, and then I saw my name.  I called my mother, who insisted she knew I would win all along, and my father, who was too choked up to speak, and then walked into the out-of-body applause of the old newsroom on 43rd Street and to hugs all around, starting with the executive editor and publisher. The previous year had been a huge one as Chicago Bureau Chief — immersion in the life of a 10-year-old boy on the South Side of Chicago and then bearing witness to people trying to survive a 500-year flood that engulfed the Midwest.  A finalist in two categories, I felt as much relief as indescribable joy the moment I won in Feature Writing for “high literary quality and originality.” It would stunningly make me the first Black woman to take home a Pulitzer in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. An honor to be in the company of the great William Raspberry, David Remnick, Annie Proulx, Edward Albee and others whose names were called that day. I heard from Senators, the President, former editors and teachers. The most beautiful, heartfelt letters. My parent’s insurance agent saw the name in the paper, checked his files and called to congratulate them both. I treasured hearing from people I’d written about — the bouquet of roses from a Chicago principal whose high school I’d done a beloved piece on.  The narrative writing that won the Pulitzer would be the foundation of the books I would come to write. The seeds and early cadences of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste can be seen in all of these stories.  After the news, The Times ran a full page ad about my win. For years, my father had run out to get every paper I had a story in and would make note in his engineer’s hand: “Isabel’s story on Page A17.” That day, he went home with a bunch of papers to add to his collection of fatherly pride. Forever grateful he lived to see that day.
Likes : 22299

3. 22.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : An unbelievable 30 years ago today, the path of my life changed forever. That afternoon, I was seated at a computer at The New York Times with my editor, Carl Lavin, as the 1994 Pulitzer Prizes were being announced.  I watched the winners and categories scroll down the screen in what felt like slow motion, and then I saw my name.  I called my mother, who insisted she knew I would win all along, and my father, who was too choked up to speak, and then walked into the out-of-body applause of the old newsroom on 43rd Street and to hugs all around, starting with the executive editor and publisher. The previous year had been a huge one as Chicago Bureau Chief — immersion in the life of a 10-year-old boy on the South Side of Chicago and then bearing witness to people trying to survive a 500-year flood that engulfed the Midwest.  A finalist in two categories, I felt as much relief as indescribable joy the moment I won in Feature Writing for “high literary quality and originality.” It would stunningly make me the first Black woman to take home a Pulitzer in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. An honor to be in the company of the great William Raspberry, David Remnick, Annie Proulx, Edward Albee and others whose names were called that day. I heard from Senators, the President, former editors and teachers. The most beautiful, heartfelt letters. My parent’s insurance agent saw the name in the paper, checked his files and called to congratulate them both. I treasured hearing from people I’d written about — the bouquet of roses from a Chicago principal whose high school I’d done a beloved piece on.  The narrative writing that won the Pulitzer would be the foundation of the books I would come to write. The seeds and early cadences of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste can be seen in all of these stories.  After the news, The Times ran a full page ad about my win. For years, my father had run out to get every paper I had a story in and would make note in his engineer’s hand: “Isabel’s story on Page A17.” That day, he went home with a bunch of papers to add to his collection of fatherly pride. Forever grateful he lived to see that day.
Likes : 22299

4. 22.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : An unbelievable 30 years ago today, the path of my life changed forever. That afternoon, I was seated at a computer at The New York Times with my editor, Carl Lavin, as the 1994 Pulitzer Prizes were being announced.  I watched the winners and categories scroll down the screen in what felt like slow motion, and then I saw my name.  I called my mother, who insisted she knew I would win all along, and my father, who was too choked up to speak, and then walked into the out-of-body applause of the old newsroom on 43rd Street and to hugs all around, starting with the executive editor and publisher. The previous year had been a huge one as Chicago Bureau Chief — immersion in the life of a 10-year-old boy on the South Side of Chicago and then bearing witness to people trying to survive a 500-year flood that engulfed the Midwest.  A finalist in two categories, I felt as much relief as indescribable joy the moment I won in Feature Writing for “high literary quality and originality.” It would stunningly make me the first Black woman to take home a Pulitzer in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. An honor to be in the company of the great William Raspberry, David Remnick, Annie Proulx, Edward Albee and others whose names were called that day. I heard from Senators, the President, former editors and teachers. The most beautiful, heartfelt letters. My parent’s insurance agent saw the name in the paper, checked his files and called to congratulate them both. I treasured hearing from people I’d written about — the bouquet of roses from a Chicago principal whose high school I’d done a beloved piece on.  The narrative writing that won the Pulitzer would be the foundation of the books I would come to write. The seeds and early cadences of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste can be seen in all of these stories.  After the news, The Times ran a full page ad about my win. For years, my father had run out to get every paper I had a story in and would make note in his engineer’s hand: “Isabel’s story on Page A17.” That day, he went home with a bunch of papers to add to his collection of fatherly pride. Forever grateful he lived to see that day.
Likes : 22299

5. 22.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : An unbelievable 30 years ago today, the path of my life changed forever. That afternoon, I was seated at a computer at The New York Times with my editor, Carl Lavin, as the 1994 Pulitzer Prizes were being announced.  I watched the winners and categories scroll down the screen in what felt like slow motion, and then I saw my name.  I called my mother, who insisted she knew I would win all along, and my father, who was too choked up to speak, and then walked into the out-of-body applause of the old newsroom on 43rd Street and to hugs all around, starting with the executive editor and publisher. The previous year had been a huge one as Chicago Bureau Chief — immersion in the life of a 10-year-old boy on the South Side of Chicago and then bearing witness to people trying to survive a 500-year flood that engulfed the Midwest.  A finalist in two categories, I felt as much relief as indescribable joy the moment I won in Feature Writing for “high literary quality and originality.” It would stunningly make me the first Black woman to take home a Pulitzer in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. An honor to be in the company of the great William Raspberry, David Remnick, Annie Proulx, Edward Albee and others whose names were called that day. I heard from Senators, the President, former editors and teachers. The most beautiful, heartfelt letters. My parent’s insurance agent saw the name in the paper, checked his files and called to congratulate them both. I treasured hearing from people I’d written about — the bouquet of roses from a Chicago principal whose high school I’d done a beloved piece on.  The narrative writing that won the Pulitzer would be the foundation of the books I would come to write. The seeds and early cadences of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste can be seen in all of these stories.  After the news, The Times ran a full page ad about my win. For years, my father had run out to get every paper I had a story in and would make note in his engineer’s hand: “Isabel’s story on Page A17.” That day, he went home with a bunch of papers to add to his collection of fatherly pride. Forever grateful he lived to see that day.
Likes : 22299

6. 22.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : An unbelievable 30 years ago today, the path of my life changed forever. That afternoon, I was seated at a computer at The New York Times with my editor, Carl Lavin, as the 1994 Pulitzer Prizes were being announced.  I watched the winners and categories scroll down the screen in what felt like slow motion, and then I saw my name.  I called my mother, who insisted she knew I would win all along, and my father, who was too choked up to speak, and then walked into the out-of-body applause of the old newsroom on 43rd Street and to hugs all around, starting with the executive editor and publisher. The previous year had been a huge one as Chicago Bureau Chief — immersion in the life of a 10-year-old boy on the South Side of Chicago and then bearing witness to people trying to survive a 500-year flood that engulfed the Midwest.  A finalist in two categories, I felt as much relief as indescribable joy the moment I won in Feature Writing for “high literary quality and originality.” It would stunningly make me the first Black woman to take home a Pulitzer in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. An honor to be in the company of the great William Raspberry, David Remnick, Annie Proulx, Edward Albee and others whose names were called that day. I heard from Senators, the President, former editors and teachers. The most beautiful, heartfelt letters. My parent’s insurance agent saw the name in the paper, checked his files and called to congratulate them both. I treasured hearing from people I’d written about — the bouquet of roses from a Chicago principal whose high school I’d done a beloved piece on.  The narrative writing that won the Pulitzer would be the foundation of the books I would come to write. The seeds and early cadences of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste can be seen in all of these stories.  After the news, The Times ran a full page ad about my win. For years, my father had run out to get every paper I had a story in and would make note in his engineer’s hand: “Isabel’s story on Page A17.” That day, he went home with a bunch of papers to add to his collection of fatherly pride. Forever grateful he lived to see that day.
Likes : 22299

7. 22.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : An unbelievable 30 years ago today, the path of my life changed forever. That afternoon, I was seated at a computer at The New York Times with my editor, Carl Lavin, as the 1994 Pulitzer Prizes were being announced.  I watched the winners and categories scroll down the screen in what felt like slow motion, and then I saw my name.  I called my mother, who insisted she knew I would win all along, and my father, who was too choked up to speak, and then walked into the out-of-body applause of the old newsroom on 43rd Street and to hugs all around, starting with the executive editor and publisher. The previous year had been a huge one as Chicago Bureau Chief — immersion in the life of a 10-year-old boy on the South Side of Chicago and then bearing witness to people trying to survive a 500-year flood that engulfed the Midwest.  A finalist in two categories, I felt as much relief as indescribable joy the moment I won in Feature Writing for “high literary quality and originality.” It would stunningly make me the first Black woman to take home a Pulitzer in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. An honor to be in the company of the great William Raspberry, David Remnick, Annie Proulx, Edward Albee and others whose names were called that day. I heard from Senators, the President, former editors and teachers. The most beautiful, heartfelt letters. My parent’s insurance agent saw the name in the paper, checked his files and called to congratulate them both. I treasured hearing from people I’d written about — the bouquet of roses from a Chicago principal whose high school I’d done a beloved piece on.  The narrative writing that won the Pulitzer would be the foundation of the books I would come to write. The seeds and early cadences of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste can be seen in all of these stories.  After the news, The Times ran a full page ad about my win. For years, my father had run out to get every paper I had a story in and would make note in his engineer’s hand: “Isabel’s story on Page A17.” That day, he went home with a bunch of papers to add to his collection of fatherly pride. Forever grateful he lived to see that day.
Likes : 22299

8. 22.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : An unbelievable 30 years ago today, the path of my life changed forever. That afternoon, I was seated at a computer at The New York Times with my editor, Carl Lavin, as the 1994 Pulitzer Prizes were being announced.  I watched the winners and categories scroll down the screen in what felt like slow motion, and then I saw my name.  I called my mother, who insisted she knew I would win all along, and my father, who was too choked up to speak, and then walked into the out-of-body applause of the old newsroom on 43rd Street and to hugs all around, starting with the executive editor and publisher. The previous year had been a huge one as Chicago Bureau Chief — immersion in the life of a 10-year-old boy on the South Side of Chicago and then bearing witness to people trying to survive a 500-year flood that engulfed the Midwest.  A finalist in two categories, I felt as much relief as indescribable joy the moment I won in Feature Writing for “high literary quality and originality.” It would stunningly make me the first Black woman to take home a Pulitzer in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. An honor to be in the company of the great William Raspberry, David Remnick, Annie Proulx, Edward Albee and others whose names were called that day. I heard from Senators, the President, former editors and teachers. The most beautiful, heartfelt letters. My parent’s insurance agent saw the name in the paper, checked his files and called to congratulate them both. I treasured hearing from people I’d written about — the bouquet of roses from a Chicago principal whose high school I’d done a beloved piece on.  The narrative writing that won the Pulitzer would be the foundation of the books I would come to write. The seeds and early cadences of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste can be seen in all of these stories.  After the news, The Times ran a full page ad about my win. For years, my father had run out to get every paper I had a story in and would make note in his engineer’s hand: “Isabel’s story on Page A17.” That day, he went home with a bunch of papers to add to his collection of fatherly pride. Forever grateful he lived to see that day.
Likes : 22299

9. 22.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : An unbelievable 30 years ago today, the path of my life changed forever. That afternoon, I was seated at a computer at The New York Times with my editor, Carl Lavin, as the 1994 Pulitzer Prizes were being announced.  I watched the winners and categories scroll down the screen in what felt like slow motion, and then I saw my name.  I called my mother, who insisted she knew I would win all along, and my father, who was too choked up to speak, and then walked into the out-of-body applause of the old newsroom on 43rd Street and to hugs all around, starting with the executive editor and publisher. The previous year had been a huge one as Chicago Bureau Chief — immersion in the life of a 10-year-old boy on the South Side of Chicago and then bearing witness to people trying to survive a 500-year flood that engulfed the Midwest.  A finalist in two categories, I felt as much relief as indescribable joy the moment I won in Feature Writing for “high literary quality and originality.” It would stunningly make me the first Black woman to take home a Pulitzer in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. An honor to be in the company of the great William Raspberry, David Remnick, Annie Proulx, Edward Albee and others whose names were called that day. I heard from Senators, the President, former editors and teachers. The most beautiful, heartfelt letters. My parent’s insurance agent saw the name in the paper, checked his files and called to congratulate them both. I treasured hearing from people I’d written about — the bouquet of roses from a Chicago principal whose high school I’d done a beloved piece on.  The narrative writing that won the Pulitzer would be the foundation of the books I would come to write. The seeds and early cadences of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste can be seen in all of these stories.  After the news, The Times ran a full page ad about my win. For years, my father had run out to get every paper I had a story in and would make note in his engineer’s hand: “Isabel’s story on Page A17.” That day, he went home with a bunch of papers to add to his collection of fatherly pride. Forever grateful he lived to see that day.
Likes : 22299

10. 15K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : I so love this image of one of the earliest commemorations of Memorial Day, which arose from the ashes of the Civil War. What we now call Memorial Day was first observed on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, SC, where thousands of newly freed Black people marched, prayed and laid flowers in gratitude to the Union soldiers whose sacrifice had helped liberate them from slavery. After the Confederates evacuated Charleston at the end of the war in April 1865, Black residents cleaned the site of a mass grave of 257 Union soldiers. The laborers dug out the bodies and gave the soldiers a proper burial. That May 1, nearly 10,000 people, most of them formerly enslaved African-Americans, joined by union troops and northern White missionaries, gathered to dedicate the burial ground and honor the fallen. Among the former slaves were 3,000 Black children, like those pictured here, who would become among the first African-Americans ever permitted to go to school in the South with the opening of new Freedom Schools. The people sang and laid flowers on the gravesite. The New York Tribune described it as “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.” A tragedy that so much of our country’s true history has been withheld from us — we don’t know who we are as a nation, don’t know what we’re celebrating, don’t know how we got to where we are, and thus we don’t know how to fix what ails and divides us. It’s time that we learn our history and act upon it for the salvation of our democracy. #memorialday #history #americanhistory
Likes : 15041

11. 11.9K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Just knowing that Tim McGraw, with his Louisiana roots and country music stardom, is reading about Ida Mae, Robert and George….. This brings joy to my soul. Thank you for holding my firstborn book in your arms and in your heart. Repost from @thetimmcgraw: Finally reading @isabelwilkerson’s first book, The Warmth of Other Suns. Such a rich historical piece and inspiring message!! What’s on your summer reading list…. #thewarmthofothersuns #timmcgraw #history
Likes : 11853

12. 9.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : I will never forget taking my firstborn book, The Warmth of Other Suns, out into the world and hearing the most startling endorsement it has ever received. On a community radio show in NYC, we were soberly discussing the impact of the Great Migration and the fortitude of the ancestors when an enthusiastic reader who happened to be a minister cut to the chase: “This book is so important, you have to read it,” he told listeners. “And if you can’t afford to buy the book,” he said, “steal the book.” It may have been metaphorical, but he had made his point. Around the same time, I went to Chicago on book tour and excitedly went into what was then the main book store in Hyde Park — Borders Books on 53rd Street — and was anxious to see my newborn on the shelf. I looked all over for it in Nonfiction and in History and in African-American Studies. I couldn’t find it anywhere and started to get worried that it wasn’t getting the placement it should have gotten. I went to the front desk to ask about it. “Oh that book,” the clerk said. “We had to put it behind the counter. It was walking out on its own.” And so there it was next to Jay Z’s memoir and Terry McMillan’s newest best seller and another of John Grisham’s blockbusters. Never in a million years would I have expected a deeply researched work of narrative nonfiction to need to be locked behind the counter with those commercial heavyweights. Now, 14 years later, The Warmth of Other Suns is available for a limited time for $1.99 on Amazon in Kindle format to kick off Black History Month. Thrilled for every new reader who will now have even more chances to know Ida Mae, Robert and George and the courage of the people of the Great Migration. May we come to a deeper appreciation of our country’s history this month because Black History is American History. _______________ The first photo is of me at the indie bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn, where I signed Warmth and Caste for the holidays, in addition to signings at McNally Jackson, Barnes & Noble, and Cafe Con Libros. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #blackhistorymonth #history
Likes : 9369

13. 9.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : I will never forget taking my firstborn book, The Warmth of Other Suns, out into the world and hearing the most startling endorsement it has ever received. On a community radio show in NYC, we were soberly discussing the impact of the Great Migration and the fortitude of the ancestors when an enthusiastic reader who happened to be a minister cut to the chase: “This book is so important, you have to read it,” he told listeners. “And if you can’t afford to buy the book,” he said, “steal the book.” It may have been metaphorical, but he had made his point. Around the same time, I went to Chicago on book tour and excitedly went into what was then the main book store in Hyde Park — Borders Books on 53rd Street — and was anxious to see my newborn on the shelf. I looked all over for it in Nonfiction and in History and in African-American Studies. I couldn’t find it anywhere and started to get worried that it wasn’t getting the placement it should have gotten. I went to the front desk to ask about it. “Oh that book,” the clerk said. “We had to put it behind the counter. It was walking out on its own.” And so there it was next to Jay Z’s memoir and Terry McMillan’s newest best seller and another of John Grisham’s blockbusters. Never in a million years would I have expected a deeply researched work of narrative nonfiction to need to be locked behind the counter with those commercial heavyweights. Now, 14 years later, The Warmth of Other Suns is available for a limited time for $1.99 on Amazon in Kindle format to kick off Black History Month. Thrilled for every new reader who will now have even more chances to know Ida Mae, Robert and George and the courage of the people of the Great Migration. May we come to a deeper appreciation of our country’s history this month because Black History is American History. _______________ The first photo is of me at the indie bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn, where I signed Warmth and Caste for the holidays, in addition to signings at McNally Jackson, Barnes & Noble, and Cafe Con Libros. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #blackhistorymonth #history
Likes : 9369

14. 9.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : I will never forget taking my firstborn book, The Warmth of Other Suns, out into the world and hearing the most startling endorsement it has ever received. On a community radio show in NYC, we were soberly discussing the impact of the Great Migration and the fortitude of the ancestors when an enthusiastic reader who happened to be a minister cut to the chase: “This book is so important, you have to read it,” he told listeners. “And if you can’t afford to buy the book,” he said, “steal the book.” It may have been metaphorical, but he had made his point. Around the same time, I went to Chicago on book tour and excitedly went into what was then the main book store in Hyde Park — Borders Books on 53rd Street — and was anxious to see my newborn on the shelf. I looked all over for it in Nonfiction and in History and in African-American Studies. I couldn’t find it anywhere and started to get worried that it wasn’t getting the placement it should have gotten. I went to the front desk to ask about it. “Oh that book,” the clerk said. “We had to put it behind the counter. It was walking out on its own.” And so there it was next to Jay Z’s memoir and Terry McMillan’s newest best seller and another of John Grisham’s blockbusters. Never in a million years would I have expected a deeply researched work of narrative nonfiction to need to be locked behind the counter with those commercial heavyweights. Now, 14 years later, The Warmth of Other Suns is available for a limited time for $1.99 on Amazon in Kindle format to kick off Black History Month. Thrilled for every new reader who will now have even more chances to know Ida Mae, Robert and George and the courage of the people of the Great Migration. May we come to a deeper appreciation of our country’s history this month because Black History is American History. _______________ The first photo is of me at the indie bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn, where I signed Warmth and Caste for the holidays, in addition to signings at McNally Jackson, Barnes & Noble, and Cafe Con Libros. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #blackhistorymonth #history
Likes : 9369

15. 9.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : I will never forget taking my firstborn book, The Warmth of Other Suns, out into the world and hearing the most startling endorsement it has ever received. On a community radio show in NYC, we were soberly discussing the impact of the Great Migration and the fortitude of the ancestors when an enthusiastic reader who happened to be a minister cut to the chase: “This book is so important, you have to read it,” he told listeners. “And if you can’t afford to buy the book,” he said, “steal the book.” It may have been metaphorical, but he had made his point. Around the same time, I went to Chicago on book tour and excitedly went into what was then the main book store in Hyde Park — Borders Books on 53rd Street — and was anxious to see my newborn on the shelf. I looked all over for it in Nonfiction and in History and in African-American Studies. I couldn’t find it anywhere and started to get worried that it wasn’t getting the placement it should have gotten. I went to the front desk to ask about it. “Oh that book,” the clerk said. “We had to put it behind the counter. It was walking out on its own.” And so there it was next to Jay Z’s memoir and Terry McMillan’s newest best seller and another of John Grisham’s blockbusters. Never in a million years would I have expected a deeply researched work of narrative nonfiction to need to be locked behind the counter with those commercial heavyweights. Now, 14 years later, The Warmth of Other Suns is available for a limited time for $1.99 on Amazon in Kindle format to kick off Black History Month. Thrilled for every new reader who will now have even more chances to know Ida Mae, Robert and George and the courage of the people of the Great Migration. May we come to a deeper appreciation of our country’s history this month because Black History is American History. _______________ The first photo is of me at the indie bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn, where I signed Warmth and Caste for the holidays, in addition to signings at McNally Jackson, Barnes & Noble, and Cafe Con Libros. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #blackhistorymonth #history
Likes : 9369

16. 9.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : I will never forget taking my firstborn book, The Warmth of Other Suns, out into the world and hearing the most startling endorsement it has ever received. On a community radio show in NYC, we were soberly discussing the impact of the Great Migration and the fortitude of the ancestors when an enthusiastic reader who happened to be a minister cut to the chase: “This book is so important, you have to read it,” he told listeners. “And if you can’t afford to buy the book,” he said, “steal the book.” It may have been metaphorical, but he had made his point. Around the same time, I went to Chicago on book tour and excitedly went into what was then the main book store in Hyde Park — Borders Books on 53rd Street — and was anxious to see my newborn on the shelf. I looked all over for it in Nonfiction and in History and in African-American Studies. I couldn’t find it anywhere and started to get worried that it wasn’t getting the placement it should have gotten. I went to the front desk to ask about it. “Oh that book,” the clerk said. “We had to put it behind the counter. It was walking out on its own.” And so there it was next to Jay Z’s memoir and Terry McMillan’s newest best seller and another of John Grisham’s blockbusters. Never in a million years would I have expected a deeply researched work of narrative nonfiction to need to be locked behind the counter with those commercial heavyweights. Now, 14 years later, The Warmth of Other Suns is available for a limited time for $1.99 on Amazon in Kindle format to kick off Black History Month. Thrilled for every new reader who will now have even more chances to know Ida Mae, Robert and George and the courage of the people of the Great Migration. May we come to a deeper appreciation of our country’s history this month because Black History is American History. _______________ The first photo is of me at the indie bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn, where I signed Warmth and Caste for the holidays, in addition to signings at McNally Jackson, Barnes & Noble, and Cafe Con Libros. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #blackhistorymonth #history
Likes : 9369

17. 9.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : I will never forget taking my firstborn book, The Warmth of Other Suns, out into the world and hearing the most startling endorsement it has ever received. On a community radio show in NYC, we were soberly discussing the impact of the Great Migration and the fortitude of the ancestors when an enthusiastic reader who happened to be a minister cut to the chase: “This book is so important, you have to read it,” he told listeners. “And if you can’t afford to buy the book,” he said, “steal the book.” It may have been metaphorical, but he had made his point. Around the same time, I went to Chicago on book tour and excitedly went into what was then the main book store in Hyde Park — Borders Books on 53rd Street — and was anxious to see my newborn on the shelf. I looked all over for it in Nonfiction and in History and in African-American Studies. I couldn’t find it anywhere and started to get worried that it wasn’t getting the placement it should have gotten. I went to the front desk to ask about it. “Oh that book,” the clerk said. “We had to put it behind the counter. It was walking out on its own.” And so there it was next to Jay Z’s memoir and Terry McMillan’s newest best seller and another of John Grisham’s blockbusters. Never in a million years would I have expected a deeply researched work of narrative nonfiction to need to be locked behind the counter with those commercial heavyweights. Now, 14 years later, The Warmth of Other Suns is available for a limited time for $1.99 on Amazon in Kindle format to kick off Black History Month. Thrilled for every new reader who will now have even more chances to know Ida Mae, Robert and George and the courage of the people of the Great Migration. May we come to a deeper appreciation of our country’s history this month because Black History is American History. _______________ The first photo is of me at the indie bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn, where I signed Warmth and Caste for the holidays, in addition to signings at McNally Jackson, Barnes & Noble, and Cafe Con Libros. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #blackhistorymonth #history
Likes : 9369

18. 9.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : I will never forget taking my firstborn book, The Warmth of Other Suns, out into the world and hearing the most startling endorsement it has ever received. On a community radio show in NYC, we were soberly discussing the impact of the Great Migration and the fortitude of the ancestors when an enthusiastic reader who happened to be a minister cut to the chase: “This book is so important, you have to read it,” he told listeners. “And if you can’t afford to buy the book,” he said, “steal the book.” It may have been metaphorical, but he had made his point. Around the same time, I went to Chicago on book tour and excitedly went into what was then the main book store in Hyde Park — Borders Books on 53rd Street — and was anxious to see my newborn on the shelf. I looked all over for it in Nonfiction and in History and in African-American Studies. I couldn’t find it anywhere and started to get worried that it wasn’t getting the placement it should have gotten. I went to the front desk to ask about it. “Oh that book,” the clerk said. “We had to put it behind the counter. It was walking out on its own.” And so there it was next to Jay Z’s memoir and Terry McMillan’s newest best seller and another of John Grisham’s blockbusters. Never in a million years would I have expected a deeply researched work of narrative nonfiction to need to be locked behind the counter with those commercial heavyweights. Now, 14 years later, The Warmth of Other Suns is available for a limited time for $1.99 on Amazon in Kindle format to kick off Black History Month. Thrilled for every new reader who will now have even more chances to know Ida Mae, Robert and George and the courage of the people of the Great Migration. May we come to a deeper appreciation of our country’s history this month because Black History is American History. _______________ The first photo is of me at the indie bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn, where I signed Warmth and Caste for the holidays, in addition to signings at McNally Jackson, Barnes & Noble, and Cafe Con Libros. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #blackhistorymonth #history
Likes : 9369

19. 9.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : I will never forget taking my firstborn book, The Warmth of Other Suns, out into the world and hearing the most startling endorsement it has ever received. On a community radio show in NYC, we were soberly discussing the impact of the Great Migration and the fortitude of the ancestors when an enthusiastic reader who happened to be a minister cut to the chase: “This book is so important, you have to read it,” he told listeners. “And if you can’t afford to buy the book,” he said, “steal the book.” It may have been metaphorical, but he had made his point. Around the same time, I went to Chicago on book tour and excitedly went into what was then the main book store in Hyde Park — Borders Books on 53rd Street — and was anxious to see my newborn on the shelf. I looked all over for it in Nonfiction and in History and in African-American Studies. I couldn’t find it anywhere and started to get worried that it wasn’t getting the placement it should have gotten. I went to the front desk to ask about it. “Oh that book,” the clerk said. “We had to put it behind the counter. It was walking out on its own.” And so there it was next to Jay Z’s memoir and Terry McMillan’s newest best seller and another of John Grisham’s blockbusters. Never in a million years would I have expected a deeply researched work of narrative nonfiction to need to be locked behind the counter with those commercial heavyweights. Now, 14 years later, The Warmth of Other Suns is available for a limited time for $1.99 on Amazon in Kindle format to kick off Black History Month. Thrilled for every new reader who will now have even more chances to know Ida Mae, Robert and George and the courage of the people of the Great Migration. May we come to a deeper appreciation of our country’s history this month because Black History is American History. _______________ The first photo is of me at the indie bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn, where I signed Warmth and Caste for the holidays, in addition to signings at McNally Jackson, Barnes & Noble, and Cafe Con Libros. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #blackhistorymonth #history
Likes : 9369

20. 8.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : This is one of my most cherished photos of my father, in part, because we didn’t find this one until, tearfully, after he had passed away. He had been so modest that we didn’t know it existed. It was a gift from the universe to see an image of him from a time I could not have known. The Tuskegee Airmen only became household names in the last couple of decades, so my mother had not been especially impressed by this when she and my father were courting. She was looking for a kind, intelligent and hardworking man, preferably, in her words, tall, dark and handsome. And she found him. While Tuskegee wasn’t a source of everyday conversation, he would faithfully attend the local meetings of the Tuskegee Airmen and the Civil Air Patrol, and he kept every scrap of Tuskegee memorabilia, even a propeller from one of their training planes. He did not live to see the near universal acclaim that the very idea of the Tuskegee Airmen now evokes. But one day, in the last years of his life, as I boarded a commercial flight with my parents, we peeked into the cockpit and saw that the captain was Black, a position the airmen sadly could only have dreamt of. I whispered to the captain my father’s history. Once we reached cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement. He said that there was a Tuskegee Airman on board and that the airmen had been pioneers in aviation. The whole cabin of passengers erupted into applause, because on the plane with them was living history. My father hadn’t expected that, and he teared up, as he tended to do when he was overcome with emotion. I will miss him for as long as I live. #FathersDay #tuskegeeairmen
Likes : 8376

21. 8.2K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : 246 years. Nearly two and a half centuries. That is how long slavery lasted in what is now the United States of America. Today, we commemorate Juneteenth, the day in June 1865 — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the Civil War ended — that the last enslaved African-Americans were finally free. This is a day of celebration, of memory and of sober reflection. A time to remember that slavery was not merely a sad, dark chapter in our country’s history, but the foundation of the country’s social, political and economic order, and that it lasted for nearly a quarter of a millennium. Here, survivors of slavery steadfastly observe Juneteenth in their hats, canes and bonnets in Austin, TX, 1900. In the early years, the newly freed people and their descendants took pains to dress up for Juneteenth, as laws had forbidden slaves from dressing “above their station,” above their caste. In honor of the last of African-Americans to finally be set free from chattel slavery…. #juneteenth #freedomday
Likes : 8233

22. 7.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Stunned, floored and honored beyond belief that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson chose to cite The Warmth of Other Suns in her brilliant and seminal dissent to the earth-shattering decision to end affirmative action. In building her case for how African-Americans were legally excluded from every sphere of American life during the quarter-millennium of slavery and the near-century of Jim Crow, Justice Jackson turned to the work of scholars W.E.B. Dubois, Eric Foner, Richard Rothstein, Ira Katznelson, Mehrsa Baradaran and yours truly to document the continuing harm to a people who were enslaved for far longer than they have been free and were only legally permitted into the mainstream a few generations ago, within the lifetime of millions of people alive today. Humbling and awe-inspiring to see this work entered for all time into the history of the Supreme Court and into the record of American jurisprudence. Eternally grateful. #supremecourt #thewarmthofothersuns #affirmativeaction
Likes : 7354

23. 7.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Stunned, floored and honored beyond belief that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson chose to cite The Warmth of Other Suns in her brilliant and seminal dissent to the earth-shattering decision to end affirmative action. In building her case for how African-Americans were legally excluded from every sphere of American life during the quarter-millennium of slavery and the near-century of Jim Crow, Justice Jackson turned to the work of scholars W.E.B. Dubois, Eric Foner, Richard Rothstein, Ira Katznelson, Mehrsa Baradaran and yours truly to document the continuing harm to a people who were enslaved for far longer than they have been free and were only legally permitted into the mainstream a few generations ago, within the lifetime of millions of people alive today. Humbling and awe-inspiring to see this work entered for all time into the history of the Supreme Court and into the record of American jurisprudence. Eternally grateful. #supremecourt #thewarmthofothersuns #affirmativeaction
Likes : 7354

24. 7.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Stunned, floored and honored beyond belief that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson chose to cite The Warmth of Other Suns in her brilliant and seminal dissent to the earth-shattering decision to end affirmative action. In building her case for how African-Americans were legally excluded from every sphere of American life during the quarter-millennium of slavery and the near-century of Jim Crow, Justice Jackson turned to the work of scholars W.E.B. Dubois, Eric Foner, Richard Rothstein, Ira Katznelson, Mehrsa Baradaran and yours truly to document the continuing harm to a people who were enslaved for far longer than they have been free and were only legally permitted into the mainstream a few generations ago, within the lifetime of millions of people alive today. Humbling and awe-inspiring to see this work entered for all time into the history of the Supreme Court and into the record of American jurisprudence. Eternally grateful. #supremecourt #thewarmthofothersuns #affirmativeaction
Likes : 7354

25. 7.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Stunned, floored and honored beyond belief that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson chose to cite The Warmth of Other Suns in her brilliant and seminal dissent to the earth-shattering decision to end affirmative action. In building her case for how African-Americans were legally excluded from every sphere of American life during the quarter-millennium of slavery and the near-century of Jim Crow, Justice Jackson turned to the work of scholars W.E.B. Dubois, Eric Foner, Richard Rothstein, Ira Katznelson, Mehrsa Baradaran and yours truly to document the continuing harm to a people who were enslaved for far longer than they have been free and were only legally permitted into the mainstream a few generations ago, within the lifetime of millions of people alive today. Humbling and awe-inspiring to see this work entered for all time into the history of the Supreme Court and into the record of American jurisprudence. Eternally grateful. #supremecourt #thewarmthofothersuns #affirmativeaction
Likes : 7354

26. 7.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Stunned, floored and honored beyond belief that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson chose to cite The Warmth of Other Suns in her brilliant and seminal dissent to the earth-shattering decision to end affirmative action. In building her case for how African-Americans were legally excluded from every sphere of American life during the quarter-millennium of slavery and the near-century of Jim Crow, Justice Jackson turned to the work of scholars W.E.B. Dubois, Eric Foner, Richard Rothstein, Ira Katznelson, Mehrsa Baradaran and yours truly to document the continuing harm to a people who were enslaved for far longer than they have been free and were only legally permitted into the mainstream a few generations ago, within the lifetime of millions of people alive today. Humbling and awe-inspiring to see this work entered for all time into the history of the Supreme Court and into the record of American jurisprudence. Eternally grateful. #supremecourt #thewarmthofothersuns #affirmativeaction
Likes : 7354

27. 7.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Stunned, floored and honored beyond belief that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson chose to cite The Warmth of Other Suns in her brilliant and seminal dissent to the earth-shattering decision to end affirmative action. In building her case for how African-Americans were legally excluded from every sphere of American life during the quarter-millennium of slavery and the near-century of Jim Crow, Justice Jackson turned to the work of scholars W.E.B. Dubois, Eric Foner, Richard Rothstein, Ira Katznelson, Mehrsa Baradaran and yours truly to document the continuing harm to a people who were enslaved for far longer than they have been free and were only legally permitted into the mainstream a few generations ago, within the lifetime of millions of people alive today. Humbling and awe-inspiring to see this work entered for all time into the history of the Supreme Court and into the record of American jurisprudence. Eternally grateful. #supremecourt #thewarmthofothersuns #affirmativeaction
Likes : 7354

28. 7.4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Stunned, floored and honored beyond belief that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson chose to cite The Warmth of Other Suns in her brilliant and seminal dissent to the earth-shattering decision to end affirmative action. In building her case for how African-Americans were legally excluded from every sphere of American life during the quarter-millennium of slavery and the near-century of Jim Crow, Justice Jackson turned to the work of scholars W.E.B. Dubois, Eric Foner, Richard Rothstein, Ira Katznelson, Mehrsa Baradaran and yours truly to document the continuing harm to a people who were enslaved for far longer than they have been free and were only legally permitted into the mainstream a few generations ago, within the lifetime of millions of people alive today. Humbling and awe-inspiring to see this work entered for all time into the history of the Supreme Court and into the record of American jurisprudence. Eternally grateful. #supremecourt #thewarmthofothersuns #affirmativeaction
Likes : 7354

29. 7.1K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : This is one of the starkest images of segregation and caste in 20th Century America. George W. McLaurin, a retired professor, was denied entry to the University of Oklahoma under Jim Crow and had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to gain admittance as a grad student in 1948. Once he enrolled, he was forced to sit conspicuously alone in an anteroom on the other side of a wall, apart from the white students. He was forced to sit by himself in the cafeteria. When he needed to study in the library, he was forced to sit at a designated desk behind a stack of newspapers so that the white students would not have to see him. This was a humiliating example of a central pillar of caste — the fundamental belief in the purity of the dominant caste and the fear of pollution from the castes deemed beneath it. Until the civil rights era, the subordinated caste was quarantined in every sphere of life in much of the U.S., made untouchable on American terms, well into the 20th Century. This treatment fell under the doctrine of “Separate but Equal” asserted in the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson — “equality” belied by the stark visibility of the humiliation he endured. McLaurin sued again, and the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in his favor in June 1950. Chief Justice Fred Vinson wrote that the treatment of McLaurin was a violation of the 14th Amendment: “Such restrictions impair and inhibit his ability to study,” Vinson wrote, “to engage in discussions and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profession.” His case, argued by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP, laid the groundwork for the landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. McLaurin spoke of the dehumanization he endured, a hallmark of caste, and how he had to fight to overcome: “Some colleagues would look at me like I was an animal,” he said. “No one would give me a word, the teachers seemed like they were not even there for me, nor did they always take my questions when I asked. But I devoted myself so much that afterwards, they began to look for me to give them explanations and to clear their questions.” Let us honor his courage. #blackhistory
Likes : 7110

30. 7.1K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : This is one of the starkest images of segregation and caste in 20th Century America. George W. McLaurin, a retired professor, was denied entry to the University of Oklahoma under Jim Crow and had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to gain admittance as a grad student in 1948. Once he enrolled, he was forced to sit conspicuously alone in an anteroom on the other side of a wall, apart from the white students. He was forced to sit by himself in the cafeteria. When he needed to study in the library, he was forced to sit at a designated desk behind a stack of newspapers so that the white students would not have to see him. This was a humiliating example of a central pillar of caste — the fundamental belief in the purity of the dominant caste and the fear of pollution from the castes deemed beneath it. Until the civil rights era, the subordinated caste was quarantined in every sphere of life in much of the U.S., made untouchable on American terms, well into the 20th Century. This treatment fell under the doctrine of “Separate but Equal” asserted in the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson — “equality” belied by the stark visibility of the humiliation he endured. McLaurin sued again, and the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in his favor in June 1950. Chief Justice Fred Vinson wrote that the treatment of McLaurin was a violation of the 14th Amendment: “Such restrictions impair and inhibit his ability to study,” Vinson wrote, “to engage in discussions and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profession.” His case, argued by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP, laid the groundwork for the landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. McLaurin spoke of the dehumanization he endured, a hallmark of caste, and how he had to fight to overcome: “Some colleagues would look at me like I was an animal,” he said. “No one would give me a word, the teachers seemed like they were not even there for me, nor did they always take my questions when I asked. But I devoted myself so much that afterwards, they began to look for me to give them explanations and to clear their questions.” Let us honor his courage. #blackhistory
Likes : 7110

31. 7.1K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : This is one of the starkest images of segregation and caste in 20th Century America. George W. McLaurin, a retired professor, was denied entry to the University of Oklahoma under Jim Crow and had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to gain admittance as a grad student in 1948. Once he enrolled, he was forced to sit conspicuously alone in an anteroom on the other side of a wall, apart from the white students. He was forced to sit by himself in the cafeteria. When he needed to study in the library, he was forced to sit at a designated desk behind a stack of newspapers so that the white students would not have to see him. This was a humiliating example of a central pillar of caste — the fundamental belief in the purity of the dominant caste and the fear of pollution from the castes deemed beneath it. Until the civil rights era, the subordinated caste was quarantined in every sphere of life in much of the U.S., made untouchable on American terms, well into the 20th Century. This treatment fell under the doctrine of “Separate but Equal” asserted in the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson — “equality” belied by the stark visibility of the humiliation he endured. McLaurin sued again, and the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in his favor in June 1950. Chief Justice Fred Vinson wrote that the treatment of McLaurin was a violation of the 14th Amendment: “Such restrictions impair and inhibit his ability to study,” Vinson wrote, “to engage in discussions and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profession.” His case, argued by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP, laid the groundwork for the landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. McLaurin spoke of the dehumanization he endured, a hallmark of caste, and how he had to fight to overcome: “Some colleagues would look at me like I was an animal,” he said. “No one would give me a word, the teachers seemed like they were not even there for me, nor did they always take my questions when I asked. But I devoted myself so much that afterwards, they began to look for me to give them explanations and to clear their questions.” Let us honor his courage. #blackhistory
Likes : 7110

32. 6.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : It is beyond ironic that, in a book about rock & roll history, the co-founder of Rolling Stone purposely chose to exclude the very people who originated the work he extols. In a NY Times interview about the White men he calls rock & roll “masters,” Jann Wenner actually said that Black musicians “just didn’t articulate at that level.” It is beyond ironic coming from an editor whose magazine shares its name with a rock band that took its name from the blues legend Muddy Waters. These scenes are from one of the most iconic moments in music history. It was the night in Chicago in 1981 when The Rolling Stones took the stage with their idol Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side. The Stones were in town for a concert of their own and stopped at the Checkerboard where Muddy Waters was playing. They took a seat in the audience. But Muddy Waters called them to the stage one by one. Mick Jagger made his way through the crowd, followed by Keith Richards and the rest. They performed Muddy Waters classics like “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Stones knew the songs by heart because they had been obsessed with them since adolescence. Muddy Waters was a part of how the band came to be: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had grown up together in grade school, but the Jaggers moved away. The boys pursued music on their own. Then on October 17, 1961, they ran into each other on the railway platform in Dartford Station, south of London. Mick Jagger was carrying records by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and the two picked up a conversation over their shared love of the blues. They would later name their band after a song by the blues musician who had migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and whose music had brought them together. Wenner has since been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and issued an apology. But on that Chicago night in 1981, there was no question. One of the most influential rock bands of all time paid tribute to the musician who had inspired them, and it was clear that night who the master was. The video of that night is exhilarating, a historical treasure that I urge you to watch. So far, it has 24 million views on YouTube.
Likes : 6633

33. 6.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : It is beyond ironic that, in a book about rock & roll history, the co-founder of Rolling Stone purposely chose to exclude the very people who originated the work he extols. In a NY Times interview about the White men he calls rock & roll “masters,” Jann Wenner actually said that Black musicians “just didn’t articulate at that level.” It is beyond ironic coming from an editor whose magazine shares its name with a rock band that took its name from the blues legend Muddy Waters. These scenes are from one of the most iconic moments in music history. It was the night in Chicago in 1981 when The Rolling Stones took the stage with their idol Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side. The Stones were in town for a concert of their own and stopped at the Checkerboard where Muddy Waters was playing. They took a seat in the audience. But Muddy Waters called them to the stage one by one. Mick Jagger made his way through the crowd, followed by Keith Richards and the rest. They performed Muddy Waters classics like “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Stones knew the songs by heart because they had been obsessed with them since adolescence. Muddy Waters was a part of how the band came to be: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had grown up together in grade school, but the Jaggers moved away. The boys pursued music on their own. Then on October 17, 1961, they ran into each other on the railway platform in Dartford Station, south of London. Mick Jagger was carrying records by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and the two picked up a conversation over their shared love of the blues. They would later name their band after a song by the blues musician who had migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and whose music had brought them together. Wenner has since been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and issued an apology. But on that Chicago night in 1981, there was no question. One of the most influential rock bands of all time paid tribute to the musician who had inspired them, and it was clear that night who the master was. The video of that night is exhilarating, a historical treasure that I urge you to watch. So far, it has 24 million views on YouTube.
Likes : 6633

34. 6.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : It is beyond ironic that, in a book about rock & roll history, the co-founder of Rolling Stone purposely chose to exclude the very people who originated the work he extols. In a NY Times interview about the White men he calls rock & roll “masters,” Jann Wenner actually said that Black musicians “just didn’t articulate at that level.” It is beyond ironic coming from an editor whose magazine shares its name with a rock band that took its name from the blues legend Muddy Waters. These scenes are from one of the most iconic moments in music history. It was the night in Chicago in 1981 when The Rolling Stones took the stage with their idol Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side. The Stones were in town for a concert of their own and stopped at the Checkerboard where Muddy Waters was playing. They took a seat in the audience. But Muddy Waters called them to the stage one by one. Mick Jagger made his way through the crowd, followed by Keith Richards and the rest. They performed Muddy Waters classics like “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Stones knew the songs by heart because they had been obsessed with them since adolescence. Muddy Waters was a part of how the band came to be: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had grown up together in grade school, but the Jaggers moved away. The boys pursued music on their own. Then on October 17, 1961, they ran into each other on the railway platform in Dartford Station, south of London. Mick Jagger was carrying records by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and the two picked up a conversation over their shared love of the blues. They would later name their band after a song by the blues musician who had migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and whose music had brought them together. Wenner has since been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and issued an apology. But on that Chicago night in 1981, there was no question. One of the most influential rock bands of all time paid tribute to the musician who had inspired them, and it was clear that night who the master was. The video of that night is exhilarating, a historical treasure that I urge you to watch. So far, it has 24 million views on YouTube.
Likes : 6633

35. 6.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : It is beyond ironic that, in a book about rock & roll history, the co-founder of Rolling Stone purposely chose to exclude the very people who originated the work he extols. In a NY Times interview about the White men he calls rock & roll “masters,” Jann Wenner actually said that Black musicians “just didn’t articulate at that level.” It is beyond ironic coming from an editor whose magazine shares its name with a rock band that took its name from the blues legend Muddy Waters. These scenes are from one of the most iconic moments in music history. It was the night in Chicago in 1981 when The Rolling Stones took the stage with their idol Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side. The Stones were in town for a concert of their own and stopped at the Checkerboard where Muddy Waters was playing. They took a seat in the audience. But Muddy Waters called them to the stage one by one. Mick Jagger made his way through the crowd, followed by Keith Richards and the rest. They performed Muddy Waters classics like “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Stones knew the songs by heart because they had been obsessed with them since adolescence. Muddy Waters was a part of how the band came to be: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had grown up together in grade school, but the Jaggers moved away. The boys pursued music on their own. Then on October 17, 1961, they ran into each other on the railway platform in Dartford Station, south of London. Mick Jagger was carrying records by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and the two picked up a conversation over their shared love of the blues. They would later name their band after a song by the blues musician who had migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and whose music had brought them together. Wenner has since been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and issued an apology. But on that Chicago night in 1981, there was no question. One of the most influential rock bands of all time paid tribute to the musician who had inspired them, and it was clear that night who the master was. The video of that night is exhilarating, a historical treasure that I urge you to watch. So far, it has 24 million views on YouTube.
Likes : 6633

36. 6.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : It is beyond ironic that, in a book about rock & roll history, the co-founder of Rolling Stone purposely chose to exclude the very people who originated the work he extols. In a NY Times interview about the White men he calls rock & roll “masters,” Jann Wenner actually said that Black musicians “just didn’t articulate at that level.” It is beyond ironic coming from an editor whose magazine shares its name with a rock band that took its name from the blues legend Muddy Waters. These scenes are from one of the most iconic moments in music history. It was the night in Chicago in 1981 when The Rolling Stones took the stage with their idol Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side. The Stones were in town for a concert of their own and stopped at the Checkerboard where Muddy Waters was playing. They took a seat in the audience. But Muddy Waters called them to the stage one by one. Mick Jagger made his way through the crowd, followed by Keith Richards and the rest. They performed Muddy Waters classics like “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Stones knew the songs by heart because they had been obsessed with them since adolescence. Muddy Waters was a part of how the band came to be: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had grown up together in grade school, but the Jaggers moved away. The boys pursued music on their own. Then on October 17, 1961, they ran into each other on the railway platform in Dartford Station, south of London. Mick Jagger was carrying records by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and the two picked up a conversation over their shared love of the blues. They would later name their band after a song by the blues musician who had migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and whose music had brought them together. Wenner has since been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and issued an apology. But on that Chicago night in 1981, there was no question. One of the most influential rock bands of all time paid tribute to the musician who had inspired them, and it was clear that night who the master was. The video of that night is exhilarating, a historical treasure that I urge you to watch. So far, it has 24 million views on YouTube.
Likes : 6633

37. 6.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : It is beyond ironic that, in a book about rock & roll history, the co-founder of Rolling Stone purposely chose to exclude the very people who originated the work he extols. In a NY Times interview about the White men he calls rock & roll “masters,” Jann Wenner actually said that Black musicians “just didn’t articulate at that level.” It is beyond ironic coming from an editor whose magazine shares its name with a rock band that took its name from the blues legend Muddy Waters. These scenes are from one of the most iconic moments in music history. It was the night in Chicago in 1981 when The Rolling Stones took the stage with their idol Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side. The Stones were in town for a concert of their own and stopped at the Checkerboard where Muddy Waters was playing. They took a seat in the audience. But Muddy Waters called them to the stage one by one. Mick Jagger made his way through the crowd, followed by Keith Richards and the rest. They performed Muddy Waters classics like “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Stones knew the songs by heart because they had been obsessed with them since adolescence. Muddy Waters was a part of how the band came to be: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had grown up together in grade school, but the Jaggers moved away. The boys pursued music on their own. Then on October 17, 1961, they ran into each other on the railway platform in Dartford Station, south of London. Mick Jagger was carrying records by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and the two picked up a conversation over their shared love of the blues. They would later name their band after a song by the blues musician who had migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and whose music had brought them together. Wenner has since been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and issued an apology. But on that Chicago night in 1981, there was no question. One of the most influential rock bands of all time paid tribute to the musician who had inspired them, and it was clear that night who the master was. The video of that night is exhilarating, a historical treasure that I urge you to watch. So far, it has 24 million views on YouTube.
Likes : 6633

38. 6.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : It is beyond ironic that, in a book about rock & roll history, the co-founder of Rolling Stone purposely chose to exclude the very people who originated the work he extols. In a NY Times interview about the White men he calls rock & roll “masters,” Jann Wenner actually said that Black musicians “just didn’t articulate at that level.” It is beyond ironic coming from an editor whose magazine shares its name with a rock band that took its name from the blues legend Muddy Waters. These scenes are from one of the most iconic moments in music history. It was the night in Chicago in 1981 when The Rolling Stones took the stage with their idol Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side. The Stones were in town for a concert of their own and stopped at the Checkerboard where Muddy Waters was playing. They took a seat in the audience. But Muddy Waters called them to the stage one by one. Mick Jagger made his way through the crowd, followed by Keith Richards and the rest. They performed Muddy Waters classics like “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Stones knew the songs by heart because they had been obsessed with them since adolescence. Muddy Waters was a part of how the band came to be: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had grown up together in grade school, but the Jaggers moved away. The boys pursued music on their own. Then on October 17, 1961, they ran into each other on the railway platform in Dartford Station, south of London. Mick Jagger was carrying records by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and the two picked up a conversation over their shared love of the blues. They would later name their band after a song by the blues musician who had migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and whose music had brought them together. Wenner has since been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and issued an apology. But on that Chicago night in 1981, there was no question. One of the most influential rock bands of all time paid tribute to the musician who had inspired them, and it was clear that night who the master was. The video of that night is exhilarating, a historical treasure that I urge you to watch. So far, it has 24 million views on YouTube.
Likes : 6633

39. 6.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : It is beyond ironic that, in a book about rock & roll history, the co-founder of Rolling Stone purposely chose to exclude the very people who originated the work he extols. In a NY Times interview about the White men he calls rock & roll “masters,” Jann Wenner actually said that Black musicians “just didn’t articulate at that level.” It is beyond ironic coming from an editor whose magazine shares its name with a rock band that took its name from the blues legend Muddy Waters. These scenes are from one of the most iconic moments in music history. It was the night in Chicago in 1981 when The Rolling Stones took the stage with their idol Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side. The Stones were in town for a concert of their own and stopped at the Checkerboard where Muddy Waters was playing. They took a seat in the audience. But Muddy Waters called them to the stage one by one. Mick Jagger made his way through the crowd, followed by Keith Richards and the rest. They performed Muddy Waters classics like “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Stones knew the songs by heart because they had been obsessed with them since adolescence. Muddy Waters was a part of how the band came to be: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had grown up together in grade school, but the Jaggers moved away. The boys pursued music on their own. Then on October 17, 1961, they ran into each other on the railway platform in Dartford Station, south of London. Mick Jagger was carrying records by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and the two picked up a conversation over their shared love of the blues. They would later name their band after a song by the blues musician who had migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and whose music had brought them together. Wenner has since been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and issued an apology. But on that Chicago night in 1981, there was no question. One of the most influential rock bands of all time paid tribute to the musician who had inspired them, and it was clear that night who the master was. The video of that night is exhilarating, a historical treasure that I urge you to watch. So far, it has 24 million views on YouTube.
Likes : 6633

40. 6.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : It is beyond ironic that, in a book about rock & roll history, the co-founder of Rolling Stone purposely chose to exclude the very people who originated the work he extols. In a NY Times interview about the White men he calls rock & roll “masters,” Jann Wenner actually said that Black musicians “just didn’t articulate at that level.” It is beyond ironic coming from an editor whose magazine shares its name with a rock band that took its name from the blues legend Muddy Waters. These scenes are from one of the most iconic moments in music history. It was the night in Chicago in 1981 when The Rolling Stones took the stage with their idol Muddy Waters at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side. The Stones were in town for a concert of their own and stopped at the Checkerboard where Muddy Waters was playing. They took a seat in the audience. But Muddy Waters called them to the stage one by one. Mick Jagger made his way through the crowd, followed by Keith Richards and the rest. They performed Muddy Waters classics like “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The Stones knew the songs by heart because they had been obsessed with them since adolescence. Muddy Waters was a part of how the band came to be: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had grown up together in grade school, but the Jaggers moved away. The boys pursued music on their own. Then on October 17, 1961, they ran into each other on the railway platform in Dartford Station, south of London. Mick Jagger was carrying records by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, and the two picked up a conversation over their shared love of the blues. They would later name their band after a song by the blues musician who had migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and whose music had brought them together. Wenner has since been removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and issued an apology. But on that Chicago night in 1981, there was no question. One of the most influential rock bands of all time paid tribute to the musician who had inspired them, and it was clear that night who the master was. The video of that night is exhilarating, a historical treasure that I urge you to watch. So far, it has 24 million views on YouTube.
Likes : 6633

41. 6.1K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record and just to be clear, Jim Crow was an authoritarian, totalitarian regime that was so repressive that six million Black people defected to the North and West seeking political asylum to escape it, so intractable that those who stayed had to risk their lives to overturn it and so patently evil that the Nazis sent researchers to study it. This does not sound like Black-family-thriving to people who know what it was. All Americans deserve to know our country’s true and full history. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Likes : 6094

42. 6.1K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record and just to be clear, Jim Crow was an authoritarian, totalitarian regime that was so repressive that six million Black people defected to the North and West seeking political asylum to escape it, so intractable that those who stayed had to risk their lives to overturn it and so patently evil that the Nazis sent researchers to study it. This does not sound like Black-family-thriving to people who know what it was. All Americans deserve to know our country’s true and full history. #thewarmthofothersuns #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Likes : 6094

43. 5.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : The time that the legend-goddess-queen Tina Turner took “60 Minutes” on a tour of her villa in France, and correspondent Mike Wallace actually asked her, “You feel like you deserve all of this?” Even at the height of her fame, caste tried to put her in her place. She did not skip a beat. Her response is everything….. She was everything. It is so hard to imagine her not being in this world. Thank you, Tina Turner, for showing humanity how to survive anything and to come out on the other side more powerful and more glorious than ever. 🕊️ #tinaturner #youresimplythebest
Likes : 5326

44. 5K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Sixty years ago today, the largest demonstration in U.S. history to date occurred at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — officially called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. No one knew how many people would converge on the nation’s capital. Leaders hoped for 100,000. Fears of rioting ran so high that the government banned all alcohol sales for 24 hours leading up to the march, shifted prisoners to increase jail capacity for mass arrests, prohibited elective surgeries so that hospitals could handle riot casualties and prepared more than 17,000 troops to quell the expected violence. More reporters showed up to cover the march than had covered the inauguration of John F. Kennedy two years before. Celebrities like Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and many others joined in the demonstration. Civil rights leaders like John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins took to the dais. Martin Luther King Jr. would veer from his prepared remarks to give the most famous speech of the 20th Century, concluding with the exhortation to “let freedom ring….” But perhaps the most important people at the March were the 250,000 people of all creeds and colors, who came on buses and trains and hitchhiked to peacefully ask their country to live up to its creed. The troops were not needed that day. It was my honor that a photograph from that historic march graces the cover of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which explores the history of the divisions and injustices that we have inherited as a nation and which the marchers were protesting. How tragic that, as we commemorate, we are reminded of the enduring urgency of that day’s message, as we reconcile the fateful shootings of Black customers at a Dollar Tree Store in Jacksonville, FL, at the hands of a white supremacist this past weekend. The hatreds and inequities that were being protested 60 years ago have not gone away and still have not been fully addressed. There is so much more work to be done. #marchonwashington #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #caste #history
Likes : 4977

45. 5K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Sixty years ago today, the largest demonstration in U.S. history to date occurred at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — officially called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. No one knew how many people would converge on the nation’s capital. Leaders hoped for 100,000. Fears of rioting ran so high that the government banned all alcohol sales for 24 hours leading up to the march, shifted prisoners to increase jail capacity for mass arrests, prohibited elective surgeries so that hospitals could handle riot casualties and prepared more than 17,000 troops to quell the expected violence. More reporters showed up to cover the march than had covered the inauguration of John F. Kennedy two years before. Celebrities like Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and many others joined in the demonstration. Civil rights leaders like John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins took to the dais. Martin Luther King Jr. would veer from his prepared remarks to give the most famous speech of the 20th Century, concluding with the exhortation to “let freedom ring….” But perhaps the most important people at the March were the 250,000 people of all creeds and colors, who came on buses and trains and hitchhiked to peacefully ask their country to live up to its creed. The troops were not needed that day. It was my honor that a photograph from that historic march graces the cover of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which explores the history of the divisions and injustices that we have inherited as a nation and which the marchers were protesting. How tragic that, as we commemorate, we are reminded of the enduring urgency of that day’s message, as we reconcile the fateful shootings of Black customers at a Dollar Tree Store in Jacksonville, FL, at the hands of a white supremacist this past weekend. The hatreds and inequities that were being protested 60 years ago have not gone away and still have not been fully addressed. There is so much more work to be done. #marchonwashington #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #caste #history
Likes : 4977

46. 5K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Sixty years ago today, the largest demonstration in U.S. history to date occurred at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — officially called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. No one knew how many people would converge on the nation’s capital. Leaders hoped for 100,000. Fears of rioting ran so high that the government banned all alcohol sales for 24 hours leading up to the march, shifted prisoners to increase jail capacity for mass arrests, prohibited elective surgeries so that hospitals could handle riot casualties and prepared more than 17,000 troops to quell the expected violence. More reporters showed up to cover the march than had covered the inauguration of John F. Kennedy two years before. Celebrities like Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and many others joined in the demonstration. Civil rights leaders like John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins took to the dais. Martin Luther King Jr. would veer from his prepared remarks to give the most famous speech of the 20th Century, concluding with the exhortation to “let freedom ring….” But perhaps the most important people at the March were the 250,000 people of all creeds and colors, who came on buses and trains and hitchhiked to peacefully ask their country to live up to its creed. The troops were not needed that day. It was my honor that a photograph from that historic march graces the cover of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which explores the history of the divisions and injustices that we have inherited as a nation and which the marchers were protesting. How tragic that, as we commemorate, we are reminded of the enduring urgency of that day’s message, as we reconcile the fateful shootings of Black customers at a Dollar Tree Store in Jacksonville, FL, at the hands of a white supremacist this past weekend. The hatreds and inequities that were being protested 60 years ago have not gone away and still have not been fully addressed. There is so much more work to be done. #marchonwashington #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #caste #history
Likes : 4977

47. 5K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Sixty years ago today, the largest demonstration in U.S. history to date occurred at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — officially called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. No one knew how many people would converge on the nation’s capital. Leaders hoped for 100,000. Fears of rioting ran so high that the government banned all alcohol sales for 24 hours leading up to the march, shifted prisoners to increase jail capacity for mass arrests, prohibited elective surgeries so that hospitals could handle riot casualties and prepared more than 17,000 troops to quell the expected violence. More reporters showed up to cover the march than had covered the inauguration of John F. Kennedy two years before. Celebrities like Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and many others joined in the demonstration. Civil rights leaders like John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins took to the dais. Martin Luther King Jr. would veer from his prepared remarks to give the most famous speech of the 20th Century, concluding with the exhortation to “let freedom ring….” But perhaps the most important people at the March were the 250,000 people of all creeds and colors, who came on buses and trains and hitchhiked to peacefully ask their country to live up to its creed. The troops were not needed that day. It was my honor that a photograph from that historic march graces the cover of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which explores the history of the divisions and injustices that we have inherited as a nation and which the marchers were protesting. How tragic that, as we commemorate, we are reminded of the enduring urgency of that day’s message, as we reconcile the fateful shootings of Black customers at a Dollar Tree Store in Jacksonville, FL, at the hands of a white supremacist this past weekend. The hatreds and inequities that were being protested 60 years ago have not gone away and still have not been fully addressed. There is so much more work to be done. #marchonwashington #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #caste #history
Likes : 4977

48. 5K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Sixty years ago today, the largest demonstration in U.S. history to date occurred at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — officially called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. No one knew how many people would converge on the nation’s capital. Leaders hoped for 100,000. Fears of rioting ran so high that the government banned all alcohol sales for 24 hours leading up to the march, shifted prisoners to increase jail capacity for mass arrests, prohibited elective surgeries so that hospitals could handle riot casualties and prepared more than 17,000 troops to quell the expected violence. More reporters showed up to cover the march than had covered the inauguration of John F. Kennedy two years before. Celebrities like Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and many others joined in the demonstration. Civil rights leaders like John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins took to the dais. Martin Luther King Jr. would veer from his prepared remarks to give the most famous speech of the 20th Century, concluding with the exhortation to “let freedom ring….” But perhaps the most important people at the March were the 250,000 people of all creeds and colors, who came on buses and trains and hitchhiked to peacefully ask their country to live up to its creed. The troops were not needed that day. It was my honor that a photograph from that historic march graces the cover of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which explores the history of the divisions and injustices that we have inherited as a nation and which the marchers were protesting. How tragic that, as we commemorate, we are reminded of the enduring urgency of that day’s message, as we reconcile the fateful shootings of Black customers at a Dollar Tree Store in Jacksonville, FL, at the hands of a white supremacist this past weekend. The hatreds and inequities that were being protested 60 years ago have not gone away and still have not been fully addressed. There is so much more work to be done. #marchonwashington #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #caste #history
Likes : 4977

49. 4.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record, the cause of the Civil War was slavery. This is according to the secessionists themselves. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, in the aftermath of the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was widely seen as anti-slavery. The SC General Assembly cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery,” which threatened their right to own human property. Weeks later, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi joined South Carolina in secession and was even more explicit: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world….” The Confederates were clear as to their motivations even if people in our era choose not to be. ————— Slide 7: The Mississippi Statehouse in Jackson, MS, where members of the Convention of Secession voted on January 9, 1861, to leave the Union. Slide 8: The South Carolina General Assembly in Charleston after a unanimous vote by the delegates to secede from the Union, December 20, 1860, setting in motion the Civil War. #history #civilwarhistory #americanhistory
Likes : 4696

50. 4.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record, the cause of the Civil War was slavery. This is according to the secessionists themselves. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, in the aftermath of the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was widely seen as anti-slavery. The SC General Assembly cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery,” which threatened their right to own human property. Weeks later, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi joined South Carolina in secession and was even more explicit: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world….” The Confederates were clear as to their motivations even if people in our era choose not to be. ————— Slide 7: The Mississippi Statehouse in Jackson, MS, where members of the Convention of Secession voted on January 9, 1861, to leave the Union. Slide 8: The South Carolina General Assembly in Charleston after a unanimous vote by the delegates to secede from the Union, December 20, 1860, setting in motion the Civil War. #history #civilwarhistory #americanhistory
Likes : 4696

51. 4.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record, the cause of the Civil War was slavery. This is according to the secessionists themselves. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, in the aftermath of the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was widely seen as anti-slavery. The SC General Assembly cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery,” which threatened their right to own human property. Weeks later, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi joined South Carolina in secession and was even more explicit: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world….” The Confederates were clear as to their motivations even if people in our era choose not to be. ————— Slide 7: The Mississippi Statehouse in Jackson, MS, where members of the Convention of Secession voted on January 9, 1861, to leave the Union. Slide 8: The South Carolina General Assembly in Charleston after a unanimous vote by the delegates to secede from the Union, December 20, 1860, setting in motion the Civil War. #history #civilwarhistory #americanhistory
Likes : 4696

52. 4.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record, the cause of the Civil War was slavery. This is according to the secessionists themselves. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, in the aftermath of the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was widely seen as anti-slavery. The SC General Assembly cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery,” which threatened their right to own human property. Weeks later, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi joined South Carolina in secession and was even more explicit: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world….” The Confederates were clear as to their motivations even if people in our era choose not to be. ————— Slide 7: The Mississippi Statehouse in Jackson, MS, where members of the Convention of Secession voted on January 9, 1861, to leave the Union. Slide 8: The South Carolina General Assembly in Charleston after a unanimous vote by the delegates to secede from the Union, December 20, 1860, setting in motion the Civil War. #history #civilwarhistory #americanhistory
Likes : 4696

53. 4.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record, the cause of the Civil War was slavery. This is according to the secessionists themselves. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, in the aftermath of the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was widely seen as anti-slavery. The SC General Assembly cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery,” which threatened their right to own human property. Weeks later, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi joined South Carolina in secession and was even more explicit: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world….” The Confederates were clear as to their motivations even if people in our era choose not to be. ————— Slide 7: The Mississippi Statehouse in Jackson, MS, where members of the Convention of Secession voted on January 9, 1861, to leave the Union. Slide 8: The South Carolina General Assembly in Charleston after a unanimous vote by the delegates to secede from the Union, December 20, 1860, setting in motion the Civil War. #history #civilwarhistory #americanhistory
Likes : 4696

54. 4.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record, the cause of the Civil War was slavery. This is according to the secessionists themselves. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, in the aftermath of the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was widely seen as anti-slavery. The SC General Assembly cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery,” which threatened their right to own human property. Weeks later, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi joined South Carolina in secession and was even more explicit: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world….” The Confederates were clear as to their motivations even if people in our era choose not to be. ————— Slide 7: The Mississippi Statehouse in Jackson, MS, where members of the Convention of Secession voted on January 9, 1861, to leave the Union. Slide 8: The South Carolina General Assembly in Charleston after a unanimous vote by the delegates to secede from the Union, December 20, 1860, setting in motion the Civil War. #history #civilwarhistory #americanhistory
Likes : 4696

55. 4.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record, the cause of the Civil War was slavery. This is according to the secessionists themselves. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, in the aftermath of the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was widely seen as anti-slavery. The SC General Assembly cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery,” which threatened their right to own human property. Weeks later, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi joined South Carolina in secession and was even more explicit: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world….” The Confederates were clear as to their motivations even if people in our era choose not to be. ————— Slide 7: The Mississippi Statehouse in Jackson, MS, where members of the Convention of Secession voted on January 9, 1861, to leave the Union. Slide 8: The South Carolina General Assembly in Charleston after a unanimous vote by the delegates to secede from the Union, December 20, 1860, setting in motion the Civil War. #history #civilwarhistory #americanhistory
Likes : 4696

56. 4.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : For the record, the cause of the Civil War was slavery. This is according to the secessionists themselves. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, in the aftermath of the election of Abraham Lincoln, who was widely seen as anti-slavery. The SC General Assembly cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery,” which threatened their right to own human property. Weeks later, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi joined South Carolina in secession and was even more explicit: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world….” The Confederates were clear as to their motivations even if people in our era choose not to be. ————— Slide 7: The Mississippi Statehouse in Jackson, MS, where members of the Convention of Secession voted on January 9, 1861, to leave the Union. Slide 8: The South Carolina General Assembly in Charleston after a unanimous vote by the delegates to secede from the Union, December 20, 1860, setting in motion the Civil War. #history #civilwarhistory #americanhistory
Likes : 4696

57. 4.6K Likes

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Caption : What a thrill to have gotten the chance to spend time with James Earl Jones, who turns 93 today, and to hear firsthand that the most iconic voice of our time — the voice of Darth Vader in “Star Wars” and the voice of CNN — almost didn’t make it out to the world. He was born on this day in 1931, in Arkabutla, Mississippi, to artistically inclined but struggling domestic workers who separated after he was born. He was four years old when his grandparents, under the pressures of caste, spirited him out of Mississippi and settled in Michigan, on land the grandfather bought sight unseen, during the Great Migration. But James Earl Jones was so traumatized by the loss of all he had known and of especially his mother, who had gone off to find work elsewhere, that he developed a debilitating stutter and then went more than five years without speaking. “In Sunday school,” he once told the Daily Mail of London, “I’d try to read my lessons and the children behind me were falling on the floor with laughter.” So he talked to the hogs and the cows and the chickens on the farm. “They don’t care how you sound,” he once said. “They just want to hear your voice.” He was still virtually mute when he entered high school. There, an English teacher took an interest and had him recite poems in class and helped cure him of his silence. He went on to the University of Michigan for pre-med but switched to theater after taking acting classes. He would go on to play King Lear and Othello, win Tony Awards for his work in August Wilson’s “Fences” and in “The Great White Hope” and appear in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” and Kevin Costner’s “Field of Dreams.” It was an honor to sit down with him a few years ago for Smithsonian Magazine as an extension of The Warmth of Other Suns, the book that set me on my journey to understand caste in America and the ways it still haunts us as Americans, and to situate this legend of our culture in the timeline of American history. #caste #thewarmthofothersuns #history #jamesearljones
Likes : 4639

58. 4.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : As if there were not enough heartbreak in the case of an Indian graduate student who was tragically killed by a speeding police car in Seattle last January, now body cam footage released this week shows an officer laughing at her death, saying that her life had “limited value” and that the city could “just write a check.” Caste is the arbitrary assigning of value and of roles to people in a ranked hierarchy and the diminishment of those assigned beneath the dominant group. We know the groups that fall into the least valued categories in our society, based on what they look like or are assumed to be. And nothing could be starker than this literal computation over the loss of Jaahnavi Kandula’s life. The officer’s side of a conversation with a police union leader was caught accidentally and surfaced this week after a department employee heard it and sent it up the chain of command. The case is under investigation. The officer describes the horrific circumstances when a police car going 74 miles an hour struck her at a pedestrian crosswalk and killed her. He makes light of it, saying she wasn’t hurled as far some were reporting. “But she is dead,” the officer tells the union leader. He laughs and says, “No, it’s a regular person.” Then he says, “Yeah, just write a check,” and laughs again. “Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway,” the officer says, though she was actually 23. “She had limited value.” Kandula was scheduled to receive a master’s degree in information systems in December. She had been working to take care of her mother back in India. Her uncle told The Seattle Times: “The family has nothing to say. Except I wonder if these men’s daughters or granddaughters have value. A life is a life.” #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Likes : 4626

59. 4.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Anytime that violence visits a pregnant mother, it is beyond our comprehension. Thus the tragic case of Ta’Kiya Young, an Ohio mother who was seven months pregnant and fatally shot in her car by police last month, defies explanation in a country that has elevated birth to a national raison d’etre. That is, unless you take into consideration caste. It was the seeming contradiction that propelled me to write the Afterword to the paperback edition of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, to open people’s eyes to how caste has dangerously played out since the book was first released. There is a throughline from January 6 to mass shootings of people of color to bans on abortion, on books and on affirmative action. They can be seen as connected to the perceived threat to the primacy of those assigned to the dominant caste for most of our country’s history. The 2020 census revealed that the white population, while still the majority, fell for the first time in American history, while other groups rose. Suddenly, rightward policies that had been in the wings for decades, sped forward. Near-total bans on abortion in nearly half the country went into effect, compelling tens of thousands of people to give birth when they otherwise wouldn’t and endangering the lives of those who miscarry. The result: a higher birth rate that favors the dominant group. That’s in part because childbirth is deadlier for Black people. Black mothers are three times more likely to die in childbirth than White mothers and Black babies are twice as likely to die than White babies. And then there is the higher rate of state-sponsored violence against pregnant Black mothers, as caught on video of Ta’Kiya Young, that would be almost unfathomable against a pregnant White mother in our racial hierarchy, as it should be for everyone. There’s much more to this, which is why I spent six months researching the Afterword alone and knew I had to write it, not because it was required or because anyone told me to, but, as with the book itself, circumstances called for it. And I hope people will be inspired to read it to better understand the tragedies we are seeing unfold before our eyes.
Likes : 4566

60. 4.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Anytime that violence visits a pregnant mother, it is beyond our comprehension. Thus the tragic case of Ta’Kiya Young, an Ohio mother who was seven months pregnant and fatally shot in her car by police last month, defies explanation in a country that has elevated birth to a national raison d’etre. That is, unless you take into consideration caste. It was the seeming contradiction that propelled me to write the Afterword to the paperback edition of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, to open people’s eyes to how caste has dangerously played out since the book was first released. There is a throughline from January 6 to mass shootings of people of color to bans on abortion, on books and on affirmative action. They can be seen as connected to the perceived threat to the primacy of those assigned to the dominant caste for most of our country’s history. The 2020 census revealed that the white population, while still the majority, fell for the first time in American history, while other groups rose. Suddenly, rightward policies that had been in the wings for decades, sped forward. Near-total bans on abortion in nearly half the country went into effect, compelling tens of thousands of people to give birth when they otherwise wouldn’t and endangering the lives of those who miscarry. The result: a higher birth rate that favors the dominant group. That’s in part because childbirth is deadlier for Black people. Black mothers are three times more likely to die in childbirth than White mothers and Black babies are twice as likely to die than White babies. And then there is the higher rate of state-sponsored violence against pregnant Black mothers, as caught on video of Ta’Kiya Young, that would be almost unfathomable against a pregnant White mother in our racial hierarchy, as it should be for everyone. There’s much more to this, which is why I spent six months researching the Afterword alone and knew I had to write it, not because it was required or because anyone told me to, but, as with the book itself, circumstances called for it. And I hope people will be inspired to read it to better understand the tragedies we are seeing unfold before our eyes.
Likes : 4566

61. 4.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Anytime that violence visits a pregnant mother, it is beyond our comprehension. Thus the tragic case of Ta’Kiya Young, an Ohio mother who was seven months pregnant and fatally shot in her car by police last month, defies explanation in a country that has elevated birth to a national raison d’etre. That is, unless you take into consideration caste. It was the seeming contradiction that propelled me to write the Afterword to the paperback edition of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, to open people’s eyes to how caste has dangerously played out since the book was first released. There is a throughline from January 6 to mass shootings of people of color to bans on abortion, on books and on affirmative action. They can be seen as connected to the perceived threat to the primacy of those assigned to the dominant caste for most of our country’s history. The 2020 census revealed that the white population, while still the majority, fell for the first time in American history, while other groups rose. Suddenly, rightward policies that had been in the wings for decades, sped forward. Near-total bans on abortion in nearly half the country went into effect, compelling tens of thousands of people to give birth when they otherwise wouldn’t and endangering the lives of those who miscarry. The result: a higher birth rate that favors the dominant group. That’s in part because childbirth is deadlier for Black people. Black mothers are three times more likely to die in childbirth than White mothers and Black babies are twice as likely to die than White babies. And then there is the higher rate of state-sponsored violence against pregnant Black mothers, as caught on video of Ta’Kiya Young, that would be almost unfathomable against a pregnant White mother in our racial hierarchy, as it should be for everyone. There’s much more to this, which is why I spent six months researching the Afterword alone and knew I had to write it, not because it was required or because anyone told me to, but, as with the book itself, circumstances called for it. And I hope people will be inspired to read it to better understand the tragedies we are seeing unfold before our eyes.
Likes : 4566

62. 4.6K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Anytime that violence visits a pregnant mother, it is beyond our comprehension. Thus the tragic case of Ta’Kiya Young, an Ohio mother who was seven months pregnant and fatally shot in her car by police last month, defies explanation in a country that has elevated birth to a national raison d’etre. That is, unless you take into consideration caste. It was the seeming contradiction that propelled me to write the Afterword to the paperback edition of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, to open people’s eyes to how caste has dangerously played out since the book was first released. There is a throughline from January 6 to mass shootings of people of color to bans on abortion, on books and on affirmative action. They can be seen as connected to the perceived threat to the primacy of those assigned to the dominant caste for most of our country’s history. The 2020 census revealed that the white population, while still the majority, fell for the first time in American history, while other groups rose. Suddenly, rightward policies that had been in the wings for decades, sped forward. Near-total bans on abortion in nearly half the country went into effect, compelling tens of thousands of people to give birth when they otherwise wouldn’t and endangering the lives of those who miscarry. The result: a higher birth rate that favors the dominant group. That’s in part because childbirth is deadlier for Black people. Black mothers are three times more likely to die in childbirth than White mothers and Black babies are twice as likely to die than White babies. And then there is the higher rate of state-sponsored violence against pregnant Black mothers, as caught on video of Ta’Kiya Young, that would be almost unfathomable against a pregnant White mother in our racial hierarchy, as it should be for everyone. There’s much more to this, which is why I spent six months researching the Afterword alone and knew I had to write it, not because it was required or because anyone told me to, but, as with the book itself, circumstances called for it. And I hope people will be inspired to read it to better understand the tragedies we are seeing unfold before our eyes.
Likes : 4566

63. 4.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps the most transformative visionary in American history, would have been 95 years old today. He devoted his life to what he ultimately realized was a caste system in his own country, which has tragically reasserted itself in our era of rupture. How reassuring it was, before my trip to India, to learn from the archives of the King Institute at Stanford that Dr. King had made this connection during his own historic trip to India. It was exactly 65 years ago next month that he and Coretta Scott King journeyed to the land of Gandhi, the inspiration for nonviolent protest, and visited a school for students then known as untouchables, now known as Dalits. The principal introduced Dr. King. “Young people,” the principal said, “I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from the United States of America.” Dr. King was floored. “For a moment,” he would later recall, “I was a bit shocked and peeved that I would be referred to as an untouchable.” Then he thought about the lives of the people he was fighting for—20 million souls consigned to the lowest rank in America for centuries, “still smothering in an airtight cage of poverty,” quarantined in isolated ghettoes, exiled in their own country. And he said to himself, “Yes, I am an untouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an untouchable.” In that moment, he realized that the Land of the Free had imposed a caste system not that far removed from the caste system of India and that it lurked beneath the forces he was fighting in America. He later described this awakening in his 1965 Fourth of July sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. India had a profound effect. “These experiences,” he said, “will remain dear to me as long as the cords of memory shall lengthen.” Listen to his stirring voice as he recounts hearing ‘caste’ applied to him and how he came to the recognition of the applicability of this ancient concept to understanding our country. _____ Video clip from my Aug 2020 interview about Caste, with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. To watch in full: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o3C1HItZI8k #history #caste #MLK #MLKDay
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64. 4.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps the most transformative visionary in American history, would have been 95 years old today. He devoted his life to what he ultimately realized was a caste system in his own country, which has tragically reasserted itself in our era of rupture. How reassuring it was, before my trip to India, to learn from the archives of the King Institute at Stanford that Dr. King had made this connection during his own historic trip to India. It was exactly 65 years ago next month that he and Coretta Scott King journeyed to the land of Gandhi, the inspiration for nonviolent protest, and visited a school for students then known as untouchables, now known as Dalits. The principal introduced Dr. King. “Young people,” the principal said, “I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from the United States of America.” Dr. King was floored. “For a moment,” he would later recall, “I was a bit shocked and peeved that I would be referred to as an untouchable.” Then he thought about the lives of the people he was fighting for—20 million souls consigned to the lowest rank in America for centuries, “still smothering in an airtight cage of poverty,” quarantined in isolated ghettoes, exiled in their own country. And he said to himself, “Yes, I am an untouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an untouchable.” In that moment, he realized that the Land of the Free had imposed a caste system not that far removed from the caste system of India and that it lurked beneath the forces he was fighting in America. He later described this awakening in his 1965 Fourth of July sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. India had a profound effect. “These experiences,” he said, “will remain dear to me as long as the cords of memory shall lengthen.” Listen to his stirring voice as he recounts hearing ‘caste’ applied to him and how he came to the recognition of the applicability of this ancient concept to understanding our country. _____ Video clip from my Aug 2020 interview about Caste, with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. To watch in full: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o3C1HItZI8k #history #caste #MLK #MLKDay
Likes : 4345

65. 4.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : No sooner had we begun to reconcile the one-year anniversary of the end of Roe v. Wade than the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action — a major route to education for the only people in this country legally prohibited from learning to read and write during the quarter millennium of enslavement, followed by nearly a century of intentionally inferior schools during Jim Crow. Both rulings uphold the centuries-old caste system by (1) all but ensuring a higher birth rate at a time of a decreasing population among White Americans and (2) making it harder for marginalized Black and Latino Americans to improve their lot through a college education. This decision on affirmative action reinforces a major pillar of caste — the presumed roles and occupations considered preordained by the original racial hierarchy: It specifically prohibits affirmative action in college admissions, except at institutions that prepare citizens for the military, reinforcing the long history of Black people seen as fit to be soldiers rather scholars and surgeons. As Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson wrote in her dissent, “The Court has come to rest on the bottom-line conclusion that racial diversity in higher education is only worth potentially preserving insofar as it might be needed to prepare Black Americans and other underrepresented minorities for success in the bunker, not the boardroom (a particularly awkward place to land, in light of the history the majority opts to ignore).” The ruling further magnifies racial caste divisions by distinctly targeting race rather than gender or other attributes, while remaining silent on, and thus preserving, affirmative action for white women, whom multiple studies have shown have been the prime beneficiaries, in part due to their numbers and their proximity to those in power. This decision tragically feeds into the destructive perception of manufactured scarcity that pits groups against one another and which a caste system depends upon to survive, hurting all of us in society as a whole. #caste #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #affirmativeaction #supremecourt
Likes : 4251

66. 4.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : No sooner had we begun to reconcile the one-year anniversary of the end of Roe v. Wade than the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action — a major route to education for the only people in this country legally prohibited from learning to read and write during the quarter millennium of enslavement, followed by nearly a century of intentionally inferior schools during Jim Crow. Both rulings uphold the centuries-old caste system by (1) all but ensuring a higher birth rate at a time of a decreasing population among White Americans and (2) making it harder for marginalized Black and Latino Americans to improve their lot through a college education. This decision on affirmative action reinforces a major pillar of caste — the presumed roles and occupations considered preordained by the original racial hierarchy: It specifically prohibits affirmative action in college admissions, except at institutions that prepare citizens for the military, reinforcing the long history of Black people seen as fit to be soldiers rather scholars and surgeons. As Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson wrote in her dissent, “The Court has come to rest on the bottom-line conclusion that racial diversity in higher education is only worth potentially preserving insofar as it might be needed to prepare Black Americans and other underrepresented minorities for success in the bunker, not the boardroom (a particularly awkward place to land, in light of the history the majority opts to ignore).” The ruling further magnifies racial caste divisions by distinctly targeting race rather than gender or other attributes, while remaining silent on, and thus preserving, affirmative action for white women, whom multiple studies have shown have been the prime beneficiaries, in part due to their numbers and their proximity to those in power. This decision tragically feeds into the destructive perception of manufactured scarcity that pits groups against one another and which a caste system depends upon to survive, hurting all of us in society as a whole. #caste #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #affirmativeaction #supremecourt
Likes : 4251

67. 4.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : No sooner had we begun to reconcile the one-year anniversary of the end of Roe v. Wade than the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action — a major route to education for the only people in this country legally prohibited from learning to read and write during the quarter millennium of enslavement, followed by nearly a century of intentionally inferior schools during Jim Crow. Both rulings uphold the centuries-old caste system by (1) all but ensuring a higher birth rate at a time of a decreasing population among White Americans and (2) making it harder for marginalized Black and Latino Americans to improve their lot through a college education. This decision on affirmative action reinforces a major pillar of caste — the presumed roles and occupations considered preordained by the original racial hierarchy: It specifically prohibits affirmative action in college admissions, except at institutions that prepare citizens for the military, reinforcing the long history of Black people seen as fit to be soldiers rather scholars and surgeons. As Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson wrote in her dissent, “The Court has come to rest on the bottom-line conclusion that racial diversity in higher education is only worth potentially preserving insofar as it might be needed to prepare Black Americans and other underrepresented minorities for success in the bunker, not the boardroom (a particularly awkward place to land, in light of the history the majority opts to ignore).” The ruling further magnifies racial caste divisions by distinctly targeting race rather than gender or other attributes, while remaining silent on, and thus preserving, affirmative action for white women, whom multiple studies have shown have been the prime beneficiaries, in part due to their numbers and their proximity to those in power. This decision tragically feeds into the destructive perception of manufactured scarcity that pits groups against one another and which a caste system depends upon to survive, hurting all of us in society as a whole. #caste #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #affirmativeaction #supremecourt
Likes : 4251

68. 4.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : No sooner had we begun to reconcile the one-year anniversary of the end of Roe v. Wade than the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action — a major route to education for the only people in this country legally prohibited from learning to read and write during the quarter millennium of enslavement, followed by nearly a century of intentionally inferior schools during Jim Crow. Both rulings uphold the centuries-old caste system by (1) all but ensuring a higher birth rate at a time of a decreasing population among White Americans and (2) making it harder for marginalized Black and Latino Americans to improve their lot through a college education. This decision on affirmative action reinforces a major pillar of caste — the presumed roles and occupations considered preordained by the original racial hierarchy: It specifically prohibits affirmative action in college admissions, except at institutions that prepare citizens for the military, reinforcing the long history of Black people seen as fit to be soldiers rather scholars and surgeons. As Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson wrote in her dissent, “The Court has come to rest on the bottom-line conclusion that racial diversity in higher education is only worth potentially preserving insofar as it might be needed to prepare Black Americans and other underrepresented minorities for success in the bunker, not the boardroom (a particularly awkward place to land, in light of the history the majority opts to ignore).” The ruling further magnifies racial caste divisions by distinctly targeting race rather than gender or other attributes, while remaining silent on, and thus preserving, affirmative action for white women, whom multiple studies have shown have been the prime beneficiaries, in part due to their numbers and their proximity to those in power. This decision tragically feeds into the destructive perception of manufactured scarcity that pits groups against one another and which a caste system depends upon to survive, hurting all of us in society as a whole. #caste #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #affirmativeaction #supremecourt
Likes : 4251

69. 4.3K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : No sooner had we begun to reconcile the one-year anniversary of the end of Roe v. Wade than the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action — a major route to education for the only people in this country legally prohibited from learning to read and write during the quarter millennium of enslavement, followed by nearly a century of intentionally inferior schools during Jim Crow. Both rulings uphold the centuries-old caste system by (1) all but ensuring a higher birth rate at a time of a decreasing population among White Americans and (2) making it harder for marginalized Black and Latino Americans to improve their lot through a college education. This decision on affirmative action reinforces a major pillar of caste — the presumed roles and occupations considered preordained by the original racial hierarchy: It specifically prohibits affirmative action in college admissions, except at institutions that prepare citizens for the military, reinforcing the long history of Black people seen as fit to be soldiers rather scholars and surgeons. As Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson wrote in her dissent, “The Court has come to rest on the bottom-line conclusion that racial diversity in higher education is only worth potentially preserving insofar as it might be needed to prepare Black Americans and other underrepresented minorities for success in the bunker, not the boardroom (a particularly awkward place to land, in light of the history the majority opts to ignore).” The ruling further magnifies racial caste divisions by distinctly targeting race rather than gender or other attributes, while remaining silent on, and thus preserving, affirmative action for white women, whom multiple studies have shown have been the prime beneficiaries, in part due to their numbers and their proximity to those in power. This decision tragically feeds into the destructive perception of manufactured scarcity that pits groups against one another and which a caste system depends upon to survive, hurting all of us in society as a whole. #caste #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents #affirmativeaction #supremecourt
Likes : 4251

70. 4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : We need to open our eyes to the resurgence of caste all around us — the targeted attempt to block advancement when marginalized people, formally excluded for generations, seek to rise. This is a return of the centuries-old campaign to keep those assigned to the bottom of the hierarchy in their place at all costs. “It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. “Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. “Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash. “The scholar W.E.B. Du Bois recognized this phenomenon in his research into what happened after the end of the Civil War: ‘The masters feared their former slaves’ success,” he wrote, “far more than their anticipated failure.’ ” — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Page 224
Likes : 3953

71. 4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : We need to open our eyes to the resurgence of caste all around us — the targeted attempt to block advancement when marginalized people, formally excluded for generations, seek to rise. This is a return of the centuries-old campaign to keep those assigned to the bottom of the hierarchy in their place at all costs. “It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. “Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. “Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash. “The scholar W.E.B. Du Bois recognized this phenomenon in his research into what happened after the end of the Civil War: ‘The masters feared their former slaves’ success,” he wrote, “far more than their anticipated failure.’ ” — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Page 224
Likes : 3953

72. 4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : We need to open our eyes to the resurgence of caste all around us — the targeted attempt to block advancement when marginalized people, formally excluded for generations, seek to rise. This is a return of the centuries-old campaign to keep those assigned to the bottom of the hierarchy in their place at all costs. “It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. “Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. “Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash. “The scholar W.E.B. Du Bois recognized this phenomenon in his research into what happened after the end of the Civil War: ‘The masters feared their former slaves’ success,” he wrote, “far more than their anticipated failure.’ ” — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Page 224
Likes : 3953

73. 4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : We need to open our eyes to the resurgence of caste all around us — the targeted attempt to block advancement when marginalized people, formally excluded for generations, seek to rise. This is a return of the centuries-old campaign to keep those assigned to the bottom of the hierarchy in their place at all costs. “It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. “Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. “Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash. “The scholar W.E.B. Du Bois recognized this phenomenon in his research into what happened after the end of the Civil War: ‘The masters feared their former slaves’ success,” he wrote, “far more than their anticipated failure.’ ” — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Page 224
Likes : 3953

74. 4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : We need to open our eyes to the resurgence of caste all around us — the targeted attempt to block advancement when marginalized people, formally excluded for generations, seek to rise. This is a return of the centuries-old campaign to keep those assigned to the bottom of the hierarchy in their place at all costs. “It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. “Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. “Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash. “The scholar W.E.B. Du Bois recognized this phenomenon in his research into what happened after the end of the Civil War: ‘The masters feared their former slaves’ success,” he wrote, “far more than their anticipated failure.’ ” — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Page 224
Likes : 3953

75. 4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : We need to open our eyes to the resurgence of caste all around us — the targeted attempt to block advancement when marginalized people, formally excluded for generations, seek to rise. This is a return of the centuries-old campaign to keep those assigned to the bottom of the hierarchy in their place at all costs. “It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. “Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. “Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash. “The scholar W.E.B. Du Bois recognized this phenomenon in his research into what happened after the end of the Civil War: ‘The masters feared their former slaves’ success,” he wrote, “far more than their anticipated failure.’ ” — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Page 224
Likes : 3953

76. 4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : We need to open our eyes to the resurgence of caste all around us — the targeted attempt to block advancement when marginalized people, formally excluded for generations, seek to rise. This is a return of the centuries-old campaign to keep those assigned to the bottom of the hierarchy in their place at all costs. “It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. “Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. “Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash. “The scholar W.E.B. Du Bois recognized this phenomenon in his research into what happened after the end of the Civil War: ‘The masters feared their former slaves’ success,” he wrote, “far more than their anticipated failure.’ ” — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Page 224
Likes : 3953

77. 4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : We need to open our eyes to the resurgence of caste all around us — the targeted attempt to block advancement when marginalized people, formally excluded for generations, seek to rise. This is a return of the centuries-old campaign to keep those assigned to the bottom of the hierarchy in their place at all costs. “It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. “Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. “Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash. “The scholar W.E.B. Du Bois recognized this phenomenon in his research into what happened after the end of the Civil War: ‘The masters feared their former slaves’ success,” he wrote, “far more than their anticipated failure.’ ” — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Page 224
Likes : 3953

78. 4K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : We need to open our eyes to the resurgence of caste all around us — the targeted attempt to block advancement when marginalized people, formally excluded for generations, seek to rise. This is a return of the centuries-old campaign to keep those assigned to the bottom of the hierarchy in their place at all costs. “It turns out that the greatest threat to a caste system is not lower-caste failure, which, in a caste system, is expected and perhaps even counted upon, but lower-caste success, which is not. “Achievement by those in the lowest caste goes against the script handed down to us all. It undermines the core assumptions upon which a caste system is constructed and to which the identities of people on all rungs of the hierarchy are linked. “Achievement by marginalized people who step outside the roles expected of them puts things out of order and triggers primeval and often violent backlash. “The scholar W.E.B. Du Bois recognized this phenomenon in his research into what happened after the end of the Civil War: ‘The masters feared their former slaves’ success,” he wrote, “far more than their anticipated failure.’ ” — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Page 224
Likes : 3953

79. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : The joy of a lifetime to share the stage with the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” the retired Texas schoolteacher and survivor of Jim Crow, Mrs. Opal Lee, who led the movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, who finally got her wish in 2021 and was awarded the Medal of Freedom at the White House for making it happen. Juneteenth was seared into her memory in childhood. She was 12 years old when a white mob stormed and burned down her family’s home right after they moved into an all-white neighborhood in Ft. Worth, TX. They managed to escaped with their lives. It was June 19, 1939. She has dedicated her life to memorializing the day that the last enslaved African-Americans were finally liberated — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and months after the end of the Civil War. She made a historic walk from Ft. Worth to Washington in 2016, at the age of 89, to dramatize its significance. Now, at 97, she has set her sights on a museum dedicated to this history. It was my honor to deliver an address in Ft. Worth in support of the Juneteenth Museum, which is still in the planning stages, and to trade insights with the woman behind the Federal holiday and, one day soon, a place to honor and learn more about it. But the trauma of the razing of her family home has never left her. She looked into what happened to the land her family once owned at 940 East Annie Street in Ft. Worth and discovered that it was in the hands of Habitat for Humanity. She went to them to buy the land back for her family. Habitat for Humanity would not sell it to her. “They gave it to me,” Mrs. Lee said. “God is so good.” Now she has just completed building her new house on the land that her family was forced to flee back on this historic day, 85 years ago, fulfilling her parents’ dream. #juneteenth
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80. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : The joy of a lifetime to share the stage with the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” the retired Texas schoolteacher and survivor of Jim Crow, Mrs. Opal Lee, who led the movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, who finally got her wish in 2021 and was awarded the Medal of Freedom at the White House for making it happen. Juneteenth was seared into her memory in childhood. She was 12 years old when a white mob stormed and burned down her family’s home right after they moved into an all-white neighborhood in Ft. Worth, TX. They managed to escaped with their lives. It was June 19, 1939. She has dedicated her life to memorializing the day that the last enslaved African-Americans were finally liberated — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and months after the end of the Civil War. She made a historic walk from Ft. Worth to Washington in 2016, at the age of 89, to dramatize its significance. Now, at 97, she has set her sights on a museum dedicated to this history. It was my honor to deliver an address in Ft. Worth in support of the Juneteenth Museum, which is still in the planning stages, and to trade insights with the woman behind the Federal holiday and, one day soon, a place to honor and learn more about it. But the trauma of the razing of her family home has never left her. She looked into what happened to the land her family once owned at 940 East Annie Street in Ft. Worth and discovered that it was in the hands of Habitat for Humanity. She went to them to buy the land back for her family. Habitat for Humanity would not sell it to her. “They gave it to me,” Mrs. Lee said. “God is so good.” Now she has just completed building her new house on the land that her family was forced to flee back on this historic day, 85 years ago, fulfilling her parents’ dream. #juneteenth
Likes : 3841

81. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : The joy of a lifetime to share the stage with the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” the retired Texas schoolteacher and survivor of Jim Crow, Mrs. Opal Lee, who led the movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, who finally got her wish in 2021 and was awarded the Medal of Freedom at the White House for making it happen. Juneteenth was seared into her memory in childhood. She was 12 years old when a white mob stormed and burned down her family’s home right after they moved into an all-white neighborhood in Ft. Worth, TX. They managed to escaped with their lives. It was June 19, 1939. She has dedicated her life to memorializing the day that the last enslaved African-Americans were finally liberated — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and months after the end of the Civil War. She made a historic walk from Ft. Worth to Washington in 2016, at the age of 89, to dramatize its significance. Now, at 97, she has set her sights on a museum dedicated to this history. It was my honor to deliver an address in Ft. Worth in support of the Juneteenth Museum, which is still in the planning stages, and to trade insights with the woman behind the Federal holiday and, one day soon, a place to honor and learn more about it. But the trauma of the razing of her family home has never left her. She looked into what happened to the land her family once owned at 940 East Annie Street in Ft. Worth and discovered that it was in the hands of Habitat for Humanity. She went to them to buy the land back for her family. Habitat for Humanity would not sell it to her. “They gave it to me,” Mrs. Lee said. “God is so good.” Now she has just completed building her new house on the land that her family was forced to flee back on this historic day, 85 years ago, fulfilling her parents’ dream. #juneteenth
Likes : 3841

82. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : The joy of a lifetime to share the stage with the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” the retired Texas schoolteacher and survivor of Jim Crow, Mrs. Opal Lee, who led the movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, who finally got her wish in 2021 and was awarded the Medal of Freedom at the White House for making it happen. Juneteenth was seared into her memory in childhood. She was 12 years old when a white mob stormed and burned down her family’s home right after they moved into an all-white neighborhood in Ft. Worth, TX. They managed to escaped with their lives. It was June 19, 1939. She has dedicated her life to memorializing the day that the last enslaved African-Americans were finally liberated — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and months after the end of the Civil War. She made a historic walk from Ft. Worth to Washington in 2016, at the age of 89, to dramatize its significance. Now, at 97, she has set her sights on a museum dedicated to this history. It was my honor to deliver an address in Ft. Worth in support of the Juneteenth Museum, which is still in the planning stages, and to trade insights with the woman behind the Federal holiday and, one day soon, a place to honor and learn more about it. But the trauma of the razing of her family home has never left her. She looked into what happened to the land her family once owned at 940 East Annie Street in Ft. Worth and discovered that it was in the hands of Habitat for Humanity. She went to them to buy the land back for her family. Habitat for Humanity would not sell it to her. “They gave it to me,” Mrs. Lee said. “God is so good.” Now she has just completed building her new house on the land that her family was forced to flee back on this historic day, 85 years ago, fulfilling her parents’ dream. #juneteenth
Likes : 3841

83. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : The joy of a lifetime to share the stage with the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” the retired Texas schoolteacher and survivor of Jim Crow, Mrs. Opal Lee, who led the movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, who finally got her wish in 2021 and was awarded the Medal of Freedom at the White House for making it happen. Juneteenth was seared into her memory in childhood. She was 12 years old when a white mob stormed and burned down her family’s home right after they moved into an all-white neighborhood in Ft. Worth, TX. They managed to escaped with their lives. It was June 19, 1939. She has dedicated her life to memorializing the day that the last enslaved African-Americans were finally liberated — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and months after the end of the Civil War. She made a historic walk from Ft. Worth to Washington in 2016, at the age of 89, to dramatize its significance. Now, at 97, she has set her sights on a museum dedicated to this history. It was my honor to deliver an address in Ft. Worth in support of the Juneteenth Museum, which is still in the planning stages, and to trade insights with the woman behind the Federal holiday and, one day soon, a place to honor and learn more about it. But the trauma of the razing of her family home has never left her. She looked into what happened to the land her family once owned at 940 East Annie Street in Ft. Worth and discovered that it was in the hands of Habitat for Humanity. She went to them to buy the land back for her family. Habitat for Humanity would not sell it to her. “They gave it to me,” Mrs. Lee said. “God is so good.” Now she has just completed building her new house on the land that her family was forced to flee back on this historic day, 85 years ago, fulfilling her parents’ dream. #juneteenth
Likes : 3841

84. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : The joy of a lifetime to share the stage with the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” the retired Texas schoolteacher and survivor of Jim Crow, Mrs. Opal Lee, who led the movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, who finally got her wish in 2021 and was awarded the Medal of Freedom at the White House for making it happen. Juneteenth was seared into her memory in childhood. She was 12 years old when a white mob stormed and burned down her family’s home right after they moved into an all-white neighborhood in Ft. Worth, TX. They managed to escaped with their lives. It was June 19, 1939. She has dedicated her life to memorializing the day that the last enslaved African-Americans were finally liberated — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and months after the end of the Civil War. She made a historic walk from Ft. Worth to Washington in 2016, at the age of 89, to dramatize its significance. Now, at 97, she has set her sights on a museum dedicated to this history. It was my honor to deliver an address in Ft. Worth in support of the Juneteenth Museum, which is still in the planning stages, and to trade insights with the woman behind the Federal holiday and, one day soon, a place to honor and learn more about it. But the trauma of the razing of her family home has never left her. She looked into what happened to the land her family once owned at 940 East Annie Street in Ft. Worth and discovered that it was in the hands of Habitat for Humanity. She went to them to buy the land back for her family. Habitat for Humanity would not sell it to her. “They gave it to me,” Mrs. Lee said. “God is so good.” Now she has just completed building her new house on the land that her family was forced to flee back on this historic day, 85 years ago, fulfilling her parents’ dream. #juneteenth
Likes : 3841

85. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : On this last day of #BlackHistoryMonth, may we honor the centennial of the nation’s oldest Black student newspaper, The Hilltop, which debuted in January 1924, and was co-founded at Howard University by then-student Zora Neale Hurston herself. Overjoyed to be named with her as an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame. It was a bold and radical act for Black students to break caste 100 years ago and step outside the roles forced upon the ancestors. For most of American history, Black people were not permitted even to learn to read and write. Yet, here they were, students in the era of Jim Crow, in the segregated city of Washington, with the audacity to start a newspaper of their own. What did they write about? The first issue reported on registration obstacles and student fees. (Some things really don’t change!) By 1946, the paper was an established fixture on campus and was featured in Life Magazine. I loved The Hilltop before I ever set foot in its old row-house on 4th Street. It was the main reason I went to Howard. I showed up at the Hilltop office my freshman year before classes started. The editors were busy with the first issue. Someone waved me to the 2nd floor where the features editor was. She was busy, too, trying to fill her section, so she welcomed me with a story assignment. My first piece ran before I started my journalism classes. I later became editor-in-chief. I lived and breathed it. It was a puzzle to be assembled every week, a work of art conceived like a family member that we brought to life every Thursday night. We took a day’s break and started from scratch all over again. True to form, I designed and laid out every single page of the paper the year I was editor. Our grades suffered, assignments got delayed. We forewent sleep. We did not care. It was a part of our being. When people ask me if I pledged a sorority, I proudly say I pledged Hilltop Phi Hilltop. It is the legendary beating heart of life at Howard and has connected every person on campus for generations. Now, HU’s Moorland Spingarn Library has digitized The Hilltop, to preserve and uphold its mission, so that this historic paper can thrive for the next 100 years.
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86. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : On this last day of #BlackHistoryMonth, may we honor the centennial of the nation’s oldest Black student newspaper, The Hilltop, which debuted in January 1924, and was co-founded at Howard University by then-student Zora Neale Hurston herself. Overjoyed to be named with her as an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame. It was a bold and radical act for Black students to break caste 100 years ago and step outside the roles forced upon the ancestors. For most of American history, Black people were not permitted even to learn to read and write. Yet, here they were, students in the era of Jim Crow, in the segregated city of Washington, with the audacity to start a newspaper of their own. What did they write about? The first issue reported on registration obstacles and student fees. (Some things really don’t change!) By 1946, the paper was an established fixture on campus and was featured in Life Magazine. I loved The Hilltop before I ever set foot in its old row-house on 4th Street. It was the main reason I went to Howard. I showed up at the Hilltop office my freshman year before classes started. The editors were busy with the first issue. Someone waved me to the 2nd floor where the features editor was. She was busy, too, trying to fill her section, so she welcomed me with a story assignment. My first piece ran before I started my journalism classes. I later became editor-in-chief. I lived and breathed it. It was a puzzle to be assembled every week, a work of art conceived like a family member that we brought to life every Thursday night. We took a day’s break and started from scratch all over again. True to form, I designed and laid out every single page of the paper the year I was editor. Our grades suffered, assignments got delayed. We forewent sleep. We did not care. It was a part of our being. When people ask me if I pledged a sorority, I proudly say I pledged Hilltop Phi Hilltop. It is the legendary beating heart of life at Howard and has connected every person on campus for generations. Now, HU’s Moorland Spingarn Library has digitized The Hilltop, to preserve and uphold its mission, so that this historic paper can thrive for the next 100 years.
Likes : 3774

87. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : On this last day of #BlackHistoryMonth, may we honor the centennial of the nation’s oldest Black student newspaper, The Hilltop, which debuted in January 1924, and was co-founded at Howard University by then-student Zora Neale Hurston herself. Overjoyed to be named with her as an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame. It was a bold and radical act for Black students to break caste 100 years ago and step outside the roles forced upon the ancestors. For most of American history, Black people were not permitted even to learn to read and write. Yet, here they were, students in the era of Jim Crow, in the segregated city of Washington, with the audacity to start a newspaper of their own. What did they write about? The first issue reported on registration obstacles and student fees. (Some things really don’t change!) By 1946, the paper was an established fixture on campus and was featured in Life Magazine. I loved The Hilltop before I ever set foot in its old row-house on 4th Street. It was the main reason I went to Howard. I showed up at the Hilltop office my freshman year before classes started. The editors were busy with the first issue. Someone waved me to the 2nd floor where the features editor was. She was busy, too, trying to fill her section, so she welcomed me with a story assignment. My first piece ran before I started my journalism classes. I later became editor-in-chief. I lived and breathed it. It was a puzzle to be assembled every week, a work of art conceived like a family member that we brought to life every Thursday night. We took a day’s break and started from scratch all over again. True to form, I designed and laid out every single page of the paper the year I was editor. Our grades suffered, assignments got delayed. We forewent sleep. We did not care. It was a part of our being. When people ask me if I pledged a sorority, I proudly say I pledged Hilltop Phi Hilltop. It is the legendary beating heart of life at Howard and has connected every person on campus for generations. Now, HU’s Moorland Spingarn Library has digitized The Hilltop, to preserve and uphold its mission, so that this historic paper can thrive for the next 100 years.
Likes : 3774

88. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : On this last day of #BlackHistoryMonth, may we honor the centennial of the nation’s oldest Black student newspaper, The Hilltop, which debuted in January 1924, and was co-founded at Howard University by then-student Zora Neale Hurston herself. Overjoyed to be named with her as an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame. It was a bold and radical act for Black students to break caste 100 years ago and step outside the roles forced upon the ancestors. For most of American history, Black people were not permitted even to learn to read and write. Yet, here they were, students in the era of Jim Crow, in the segregated city of Washington, with the audacity to start a newspaper of their own. What did they write about? The first issue reported on registration obstacles and student fees. (Some things really don’t change!) By 1946, the paper was an established fixture on campus and was featured in Life Magazine. I loved The Hilltop before I ever set foot in its old row-house on 4th Street. It was the main reason I went to Howard. I showed up at the Hilltop office my freshman year before classes started. The editors were busy with the first issue. Someone waved me to the 2nd floor where the features editor was. She was busy, too, trying to fill her section, so she welcomed me with a story assignment. My first piece ran before I started my journalism classes. I later became editor-in-chief. I lived and breathed it. It was a puzzle to be assembled every week, a work of art conceived like a family member that we brought to life every Thursday night. We took a day’s break and started from scratch all over again. True to form, I designed and laid out every single page of the paper the year I was editor. Our grades suffered, assignments got delayed. We forewent sleep. We did not care. It was a part of our being. When people ask me if I pledged a sorority, I proudly say I pledged Hilltop Phi Hilltop. It is the legendary beating heart of life at Howard and has connected every person on campus for generations. Now, HU’s Moorland Spingarn Library has digitized The Hilltop, to preserve and uphold its mission, so that this historic paper can thrive for the next 100 years.
Likes : 3774

89. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : On this last day of #BlackHistoryMonth, may we honor the centennial of the nation’s oldest Black student newspaper, The Hilltop, which debuted in January 1924, and was co-founded at Howard University by then-student Zora Neale Hurston herself. Overjoyed to be named with her as an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame. It was a bold and radical act for Black students to break caste 100 years ago and step outside the roles forced upon the ancestors. For most of American history, Black people were not permitted even to learn to read and write. Yet, here they were, students in the era of Jim Crow, in the segregated city of Washington, with the audacity to start a newspaper of their own. What did they write about? The first issue reported on registration obstacles and student fees. (Some things really don’t change!) By 1946, the paper was an established fixture on campus and was featured in Life Magazine. I loved The Hilltop before I ever set foot in its old row-house on 4th Street. It was the main reason I went to Howard. I showed up at the Hilltop office my freshman year before classes started. The editors were busy with the first issue. Someone waved me to the 2nd floor where the features editor was. She was busy, too, trying to fill her section, so she welcomed me with a story assignment. My first piece ran before I started my journalism classes. I later became editor-in-chief. I lived and breathed it. It was a puzzle to be assembled every week, a work of art conceived like a family member that we brought to life every Thursday night. We took a day’s break and started from scratch all over again. True to form, I designed and laid out every single page of the paper the year I was editor. Our grades suffered, assignments got delayed. We forewent sleep. We did not care. It was a part of our being. When people ask me if I pledged a sorority, I proudly say I pledged Hilltop Phi Hilltop. It is the legendary beating heart of life at Howard and has connected every person on campus for generations. Now, HU’s Moorland Spingarn Library has digitized The Hilltop, to preserve and uphold its mission, so that this historic paper can thrive for the next 100 years.
Likes : 3774

90. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : On this last day of #BlackHistoryMonth, may we honor the centennial of the nation’s oldest Black student newspaper, The Hilltop, which debuted in January 1924, and was co-founded at Howard University by then-student Zora Neale Hurston herself. Overjoyed to be named with her as an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame. It was a bold and radical act for Black students to break caste 100 years ago and step outside the roles forced upon the ancestors. For most of American history, Black people were not permitted even to learn to read and write. Yet, here they were, students in the era of Jim Crow, in the segregated city of Washington, with the audacity to start a newspaper of their own. What did they write about? The first issue reported on registration obstacles and student fees. (Some things really don’t change!) By 1946, the paper was an established fixture on campus and was featured in Life Magazine. I loved The Hilltop before I ever set foot in its old row-house on 4th Street. It was the main reason I went to Howard. I showed up at the Hilltop office my freshman year before classes started. The editors were busy with the first issue. Someone waved me to the 2nd floor where the features editor was. She was busy, too, trying to fill her section, so she welcomed me with a story assignment. My first piece ran before I started my journalism classes. I later became editor-in-chief. I lived and breathed it. It was a puzzle to be assembled every week, a work of art conceived like a family member that we brought to life every Thursday night. We took a day’s break and started from scratch all over again. True to form, I designed and laid out every single page of the paper the year I was editor. Our grades suffered, assignments got delayed. We forewent sleep. We did not care. It was a part of our being. When people ask me if I pledged a sorority, I proudly say I pledged Hilltop Phi Hilltop. It is the legendary beating heart of life at Howard and has connected every person on campus for generations. Now, HU’s Moorland Spingarn Library has digitized The Hilltop, to preserve and uphold its mission, so that this historic paper can thrive for the next 100 years.
Likes : 3774

91. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : On this last day of #BlackHistoryMonth, may we honor the centennial of the nation’s oldest Black student newspaper, The Hilltop, which debuted in January 1924, and was co-founded at Howard University by then-student Zora Neale Hurston herself. Overjoyed to be named with her as an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame. It was a bold and radical act for Black students to break caste 100 years ago and step outside the roles forced upon the ancestors. For most of American history, Black people were not permitted even to learn to read and write. Yet, here they were, students in the era of Jim Crow, in the segregated city of Washington, with the audacity to start a newspaper of their own. What did they write about? The first issue reported on registration obstacles and student fees. (Some things really don’t change!) By 1946, the paper was an established fixture on campus and was featured in Life Magazine. I loved The Hilltop before I ever set foot in its old row-house on 4th Street. It was the main reason I went to Howard. I showed up at the Hilltop office my freshman year before classes started. The editors were busy with the first issue. Someone waved me to the 2nd floor where the features editor was. She was busy, too, trying to fill her section, so she welcomed me with a story assignment. My first piece ran before I started my journalism classes. I later became editor-in-chief. I lived and breathed it. It was a puzzle to be assembled every week, a work of art conceived like a family member that we brought to life every Thursday night. We took a day’s break and started from scratch all over again. True to form, I designed and laid out every single page of the paper the year I was editor. Our grades suffered, assignments got delayed. We forewent sleep. We did not care. It was a part of our being. When people ask me if I pledged a sorority, I proudly say I pledged Hilltop Phi Hilltop. It is the legendary beating heart of life at Howard and has connected every person on campus for generations. Now, HU’s Moorland Spingarn Library has digitized The Hilltop, to preserve and uphold its mission, so that this historic paper can thrive for the next 100 years.
Likes : 3774

92. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : On this last day of #BlackHistoryMonth, may we honor the centennial of the nation’s oldest Black student newspaper, The Hilltop, which debuted in January 1924, and was co-founded at Howard University by then-student Zora Neale Hurston herself. Overjoyed to be named with her as an inaugural inductee to its Hall of Fame. It was a bold and radical act for Black students to break caste 100 years ago and step outside the roles forced upon the ancestors. For most of American history, Black people were not permitted even to learn to read and write. Yet, here they were, students in the era of Jim Crow, in the segregated city of Washington, with the audacity to start a newspaper of their own. What did they write about? The first issue reported on registration obstacles and student fees. (Some things really don’t change!) By 1946, the paper was an established fixture on campus and was featured in Life Magazine. I loved The Hilltop before I ever set foot in its old row-house on 4th Street. It was the main reason I went to Howard. I showed up at the Hilltop office my freshman year before classes started. The editors were busy with the first issue. Someone waved me to the 2nd floor where the features editor was. She was busy, too, trying to fill her section, so she welcomed me with a story assignment. My first piece ran before I started my journalism classes. I later became editor-in-chief. I lived and breathed it. It was a puzzle to be assembled every week, a work of art conceived like a family member that we brought to life every Thursday night. We took a day’s break and started from scratch all over again. True to form, I designed and laid out every single page of the paper the year I was editor. Our grades suffered, assignments got delayed. We forewent sleep. We did not care. It was a part of our being. When people ask me if I pledged a sorority, I proudly say I pledged Hilltop Phi Hilltop. It is the legendary beating heart of life at Howard and has connected every person on campus for generations. Now, HU’s Moorland Spingarn Library has digitized The Hilltop, to preserve and uphold its mission, so that this historic paper can thrive for the next 100 years.
Likes : 3774

93. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : In honor of my beloved and unshakeable mother, who inspired The Warmth of Other Suns. I found this photo as a young girl and was captivated from the moment I laid eyes on it, beguiled by who she was before she had me and how and why she had made it out of small-town Georgia to Washington, DC. There she is on the left, with a grade school friend from back home who would settle in Baltimore. It planted a seed of wonderment that would abide within me and emerge decades later in my devotion to understanding the Great Migration. Warmth is an ode to her and to the six million souls who journeyed out of the Jim Crow South. The idea started, unbeknownst to me in the moment, with this: “The picture is sepia, 2 by 3 inches, from the forties. Two young women sit on the front steps of a rowhouse on R Street, looking very Bette Davis. Stacked heels and padded shoulders, wool coats brushing their knees. They are new in town. Childhood friends from Georgia meeting up now in the big city. Their faces give no hint of whatever indignities the South had visited upon them. That was over now. Their faces are all smiles and optimism. The one in the pearls would become a teacher and, years later, my mother…. “As a girl, I found the picture in a drawer in the living room, where many of those artifacts of migration likely ended up. I stared into the faces, searched the light in their eyes, the width of their smiles for clues as to how they got there. “Why did they go? What were they looking for? How did they gather the courage to leave all they ever knew for a place they had never seen, the will be more than the South said they had a right to be? What would have happened had all those people raised under Jim Crow not spilled out of the South looking for something better?….” — From The Warmth of Other Suns #thewarmthofothersuns #thegreatmigration
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94. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : In honor of my beloved and unshakeable mother, who inspired The Warmth of Other Suns. I found this photo as a young girl and was captivated from the moment I laid eyes on it, beguiled by who she was before she had me and how and why she had made it out of small-town Georgia to Washington, DC. There she is on the left, with a grade school friend from back home who would settle in Baltimore. It planted a seed of wonderment that would abide within me and emerge decades later in my devotion to understanding the Great Migration. Warmth is an ode to her and to the six million souls who journeyed out of the Jim Crow South. The idea started, unbeknownst to me in the moment, with this: “The picture is sepia, 2 by 3 inches, from the forties. Two young women sit on the front steps of a rowhouse on R Street, looking very Bette Davis. Stacked heels and padded shoulders, wool coats brushing their knees. They are new in town. Childhood friends from Georgia meeting up now in the big city. Their faces give no hint of whatever indignities the South had visited upon them. That was over now. Their faces are all smiles and optimism. The one in the pearls would become a teacher and, years later, my mother…. “As a girl, I found the picture in a drawer in the living room, where many of those artifacts of migration likely ended up. I stared into the faces, searched the light in their eyes, the width of their smiles for clues as to how they got there. “Why did they go? What were they looking for? How did they gather the courage to leave all they ever knew for a place they had never seen, the will be more than the South said they had a right to be? What would have happened had all those people raised under Jim Crow not spilled out of the South looking for something better?….” — From The Warmth of Other Suns #thewarmthofothersuns #thegreatmigration
Likes : 3751

95. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : In honor of my beloved and unshakeable mother, who inspired The Warmth of Other Suns. I found this photo as a young girl and was captivated from the moment I laid eyes on it, beguiled by who she was before she had me and how and why she had made it out of small-town Georgia to Washington, DC. There she is on the left, with a grade school friend from back home who would settle in Baltimore. It planted a seed of wonderment that would abide within me and emerge decades later in my devotion to understanding the Great Migration. Warmth is an ode to her and to the six million souls who journeyed out of the Jim Crow South. The idea started, unbeknownst to me in the moment, with this: “The picture is sepia, 2 by 3 inches, from the forties. Two young women sit on the front steps of a rowhouse on R Street, looking very Bette Davis. Stacked heels and padded shoulders, wool coats brushing their knees. They are new in town. Childhood friends from Georgia meeting up now in the big city. Their faces give no hint of whatever indignities the South had visited upon them. That was over now. Their faces are all smiles and optimism. The one in the pearls would become a teacher and, years later, my mother…. “As a girl, I found the picture in a drawer in the living room, where many of those artifacts of migration likely ended up. I stared into the faces, searched the light in their eyes, the width of their smiles for clues as to how they got there. “Why did they go? What were they looking for? How did they gather the courage to leave all they ever knew for a place they had never seen, the will be more than the South said they had a right to be? What would have happened had all those people raised under Jim Crow not spilled out of the South looking for something better?….” — From The Warmth of Other Suns #thewarmthofothersuns #thegreatmigration
Likes : 3751

96. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : In honor of my beloved and unshakeable mother, who inspired The Warmth of Other Suns. I found this photo as a young girl and was captivated from the moment I laid eyes on it, beguiled by who she was before she had me and how and why she had made it out of small-town Georgia to Washington, DC. There she is on the left, with a grade school friend from back home who would settle in Baltimore. It planted a seed of wonderment that would abide within me and emerge decades later in my devotion to understanding the Great Migration. Warmth is an ode to her and to the six million souls who journeyed out of the Jim Crow South. The idea started, unbeknownst to me in the moment, with this: “The picture is sepia, 2 by 3 inches, from the forties. Two young women sit on the front steps of a rowhouse on R Street, looking very Bette Davis. Stacked heels and padded shoulders, wool coats brushing their knees. They are new in town. Childhood friends from Georgia meeting up now in the big city. Their faces give no hint of whatever indignities the South had visited upon them. That was over now. Their faces are all smiles and optimism. The one in the pearls would become a teacher and, years later, my mother…. “As a girl, I found the picture in a drawer in the living room, where many of those artifacts of migration likely ended up. I stared into the faces, searched the light in their eyes, the width of their smiles for clues as to how they got there. “Why did they go? What were they looking for? How did they gather the courage to leave all they ever knew for a place they had never seen, the will be more than the South said they had a right to be? What would have happened had all those people raised under Jim Crow not spilled out of the South looking for something better?….” — From The Warmth of Other Suns #thewarmthofothersuns #thegreatmigration
Likes : 3751

97. 3.8K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : In honor of my beloved and unshakeable mother, who inspired The Warmth of Other Suns. I found this photo as a young girl and was captivated from the moment I laid eyes on it, beguiled by who she was before she had me and how and why she had made it out of small-town Georgia to Washington, DC. There she is on the left, with a grade school friend from back home who would settle in Baltimore. It planted a seed of wonderment that would abide within me and emerge decades later in my devotion to understanding the Great Migration. Warmth is an ode to her and to the six million souls who journeyed out of the Jim Crow South. The idea started, unbeknownst to me in the moment, with this: “The picture is sepia, 2 by 3 inches, from the forties. Two young women sit on the front steps of a rowhouse on R Street, looking very Bette Davis. Stacked heels and padded shoulders, wool coats brushing their knees. They are new in town. Childhood friends from Georgia meeting up now in the big city. Their faces give no hint of whatever indignities the South had visited upon them. That was over now. Their faces are all smiles and optimism. The one in the pearls would become a teacher and, years later, my mother…. “As a girl, I found the picture in a drawer in the living room, where many of those artifacts of migration likely ended up. I stared into the faces, searched the light in their eyes, the width of their smiles for clues as to how they got there. “Why did they go? What were they looking for? How did they gather the courage to leave all they ever knew for a place they had never seen, the will be more than the South said they had a right to be? What would have happened had all those people raised under Jim Crow not spilled out of the South looking for something better?….” — From The Warmth of Other Suns #thewarmthofothersuns #thegreatmigration
Likes : 3751

98. 3.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : This is the history they want to keep out of the schools. This is what they want us to forget. It was this week in 1957 that the Little Rock Nine had to be escorted by Army paratroopers in riot gear in order to finally walk through the front doors of Little Rock Central High School. All month, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had used the Arkansas National Guard to keep the nine black students from enrolling, and mobs of white citizens had surrounded and taunted the students to block their entry. The nine were chosen to be among the first African-Americans to attend a segregated school in the South after the Supreme Court banned racial segregation in 1954. They were: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls. They were to have arrived together to enroll on the first day of school. But 15-year-old Eckford, whose family did not have a phone, did not get word of a last-minute change in meeting plans. In her starched dress and sunglasses, she arrived alone. A mob of white students surrounded and stalked her as they hurled epithets (as captured in a legendary UPI photograph by Johnny Jenkins). The nine would be forced to study at home for the next two weeks. Under international pressure, President Eisenhower finally intervened and pressed Governor Faubus to withdraw his troops. On Sept. 23, 1957, the nine students, this time with city police officers, managed to get in by the side door. But when the crowd of enraged white citizens got wind that the black students had made it into the building, they broke into the school to hunt them down. The students had to escape yet again. On Sept. 24, 1957, President Eisenhower had to send the 101st Airborne division of the United States Army so that the Nine could finally begin their classes. But the resentments could not so easily be quelled. The Little Rock Nine would endure a year of taunts and harassment. They were spat upon, isolated and assaulted. This is not ancient history. Many of the people in these photos are alive, influencing current generations. #caste #history
Likes : 3725

99. 3.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : This is the history they want to keep out of the schools. This is what they want us to forget. It was this week in 1957 that the Little Rock Nine had to be escorted by Army paratroopers in riot gear in order to finally walk through the front doors of Little Rock Central High School. All month, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had used the Arkansas National Guard to keep the nine black students from enrolling, and mobs of white citizens had surrounded and taunted the students to block their entry. The nine were chosen to be among the first African-Americans to attend a segregated school in the South after the Supreme Court banned racial segregation in 1954. They were: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls. They were to have arrived together to enroll on the first day of school. But 15-year-old Eckford, whose family did not have a phone, did not get word of a last-minute change in meeting plans. In her starched dress and sunglasses, she arrived alone. A mob of white students surrounded and stalked her as they hurled epithets (as captured in a legendary UPI photograph by Johnny Jenkins). The nine would be forced to study at home for the next two weeks. Under international pressure, President Eisenhower finally intervened and pressed Governor Faubus to withdraw his troops. On Sept. 23, 1957, the nine students, this time with city police officers, managed to get in by the side door. But when the crowd of enraged white citizens got wind that the black students had made it into the building, they broke into the school to hunt them down. The students had to escape yet again. On Sept. 24, 1957, President Eisenhower had to send the 101st Airborne division of the United States Army so that the Nine could finally begin their classes. But the resentments could not so easily be quelled. The Little Rock Nine would endure a year of taunts and harassment. They were spat upon, isolated and assaulted. This is not ancient history. Many of the people in these photos are alive, influencing current generations. #caste #history
Likes : 3725

100. 3.7K Likes

Isabel Wilkerson Instagram
Caption : This is the history they want to keep out of the schools. This is what they want us to forget. It was this week in 1957 that the Little Rock Nine had to be escorted by Army paratroopers in riot gear in order to finally walk through the front doors of Little Rock Central High School. All month, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had used the Arkansas National Guard to keep the nine black students from enrolling, and mobs of white citizens had surrounded and taunted the students to block their entry. The nine were chosen to be among the first African-Americans to attend a segregated school in the South after the Supreme Court banned racial segregation in 1954. They were: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls. They were to have arrived together to enroll on the first day of school. But 15-year-old Eckford, whose family did not have a phone, did not get word of a last-minute change in meeting plans. In her starched dress and sunglasses, she arrived alone. A mob of white students surrounded and stalked her as they hurled epithets (as captured in a legendary UPI photograph by Johnny Jenkins). The nine would be forced to study at home for the next two weeks. Under international pressure, President Eisenhower finally intervened and pressed Governor Faubus to withdraw his troops. On Sept. 23, 1957, the nine students, this time with city police officers, managed to get in by the side door. But when the crowd of enraged white citizens got wind that the black students had made it into the building, they broke into the school to hunt them down. The students had to escape yet again. On Sept. 24, 1957, President Eisenhower had to send the 101st Airborne division of the United States Army so that the Nine could finally begin their classes. But the resentments could not so easily be quelled. The Little Rock Nine would endure a year of taunts and harassment. They were spat upon, isolated and assaulted. This is not ancient history. Many of the people in these photos are alive, influencing current generations. #caste #history
Likes : 3725