South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

Birmingham, Alabama is Perry’s place of birth thanks to her grandmother and the Great Migration that drew Black Americans not only to Northern cities but also to areas of the urban South. The city is well known as the heart of the freedom movement of the 1960s, which spawned other movements for civil rights, including the second-wave feminist movement. As the chapter title indicates, however, there is much more to this city. Mining steel and coal historically dominated the city’s economy. After these industries collapsed, and white flight set in, Mayor Richard Arrington managed to keep Birmingham “afloat” and his office scandal-free (155).

Perry again questions the meaning of “home.” Though Alabama is home, a place of comfort and belonging, for many African Americans, “home” can also kill. Alabama, for instance, has the “highest rate of mental illnesses” in the US and substandard access to healthcare (155). Moreover, historically, enslaved Black people there were separated from their families and sold, lynched, or separated from their families via the criminal justice system: “The way life kills, with unapologetic abandon, is precisely why we hold each other so close” (156).

Perry’s parents were organizers in the freedom movement, first in Alabama and then moving north.