The Warmth Of Other Suns

George Swanson Starling was an agricultural worker in the orange groves of Florida who aspired to a college education but ended up never able to finish his degree. Marrying young and rashly, George’s life was a rollercoaster that never seemed to allow him much peace or the chance to settle down. Having stood up to orange grove owners by leading a strike for fairer wages for the workers George was forced to flee Florida to avoid being the target a lynch mob. After arriving in Harlem in 1945, he worked as a train porter on the eastern seaboard. Throughout his life, George worked for equality for those in the black community, despite the dangers. A strong and passionate man, George eventually became a bastion in his community and the type of elder well-respected by young and old alike. His example was one to be aspired to, for although it would have been easy for a man like George to have become embittered by his situation, he never truly let life beat him

Born into a large and somewhat influential family in small-town Louisiana, Robert Joseph Pershing Foster was an ambitious and flashy young man who desired to make the best for himself. Having trained as a doctor, Pershing spent time abroad in the United States Army, where he still managed to feel the grip of segregation, as he was not allowed to practice medicine as widely as his white counterparts. After returning to America, Pershing decides to leave the South and move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in medicine. The move set him at odds with his father-in-law, Rufus Clement, who believed the idea foolish and wanted Pershing, now calling himself Robert, to move to Atlanta and work in the South.

On his drive to California, Robert’s romantic notions of the freedoms he might have in the west are dashed when he must first drive three states before being able to find a hotel that will let him stay for the night. Nevertheless, Robert works tirelessly to build up a practice in Los Angeles, such that he eventually becomes the personal physician to musician Ray Charles. Despite his success, Robert never seems comfortable with himself. He feels a need to control all aspects of his life and is obsessed with status, clothing, cars, and gambling—things that will all show that he has wealth that he can easily part with if he wants to. Of the three central figures in the text, Robert is by far the most financially successful. Still, Robert seems haunted until the end of his life that he just doesn’t manage to fit in enough. 

The sixth president of Atlanta University and the first African-American to hold a major office in the South since the Reconstruction Era, Rufus Clement was the father-in-law of Robert Pershing Foster. Clement was a paragon of the black southern elite in Atlanta and often a foil for Robert, who viewed Clement as competition for the affections of his wife and as a challenge to his stature as head of the family. Moreover, more than just a personal rivalry, the divide between Clement and Robert speaks to the heart of a greater debate within the black community of the South: was it better to leave the south to achieve great things, or attempt to work for change from within? While Robert chose to leave and strike out on his own, Clement is a stark example of black success for those who stayed in the South and managed to carve out successful lives in business, academia, and politics. 

Born in Georgia in 1923, Ray Charles was a well-known pianist and singer in popular American culture, amassing numerous hits during his career. Seen as a music pioneer who fused blues, soul, and gospel music together, Charles was a prominent example of a black migrant from the South who went on to greatly influence mainstream American culture. Also a close friend of Robert Pershing Foster, Charles wrote a song about the doctor, which Foster credited with helping further establish his practice in Los Angeles. 

Perhaps the most famous civil rights leader in the history of the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a preacher from Atlanta famous for leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, the March on Washington, and the Selma to Montgomery Marches. His “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most profound ever given. King was a proponent of civil rights and equality for African-Americans throughout the South and the rest of America, though most of his successes came in the South. He was a proponent of non-violent protest and civil disobedience as the best ways for African-Americans to achieve their goals. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray in 1968.

The sheriff of Lake County, Florida, McCall was elected to seven terms between the years of 1944 and 1972. An infamous figure both in the South and nationally, McCall gained nationwide notoriety after an incident in 1951 when he allegedly shot two African-Americans, Sam Shepherd and Walter Irvin, who were in his custody. Irvin, who survived the shooting, later testified that McCall gunned the men down in cold blood, not, as McCall claimed, because they were attempting to escape. McCall was ultimately acquitted by a jury and continued to serve as sheriff.

Although a tangential character in the book, McCall is a notable stand-in for many lawmen in the South who harbored racist attitudes towards the African-American community and who acted with impunity during the Jim Crow years in the South. 

Wright was an American novelist and short story writer who took as his subjects African-Americans and the prejudices and injustices they faced in society. Born in the South, he later emigrated to Chicago, thus being a member of both worlds inhabited by the African-American community of the early 20th Century. Most of Wright’s work is vaguely autobiographical and attempts to humanize the daily lives of African-Americans as they try to survive in America. His work is often credited with helping to change and improve race relations. 

An American novelist, playwright, essayist, and social critic, James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York in 1924. Baldwin’s writing explored the intricacies of race, sexuality, and class distinction within Western society, especially in relation to blacks and whites in the United States. His work led him to become one of the leading intellectual leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, where he was known for his support of socialism and positioning himself between the pacifism of Martin Luther King Jr. and the strength-based approach advocated by Malcom X.