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- This year’s APHA Annual Meeting theme is “Healthography: How Where You Live Affects Your Health and Well-Being,” which ties in with your book. Based on your research and experiences, how important would you say geography is to health?
- You conducted more than 1,200 interviews for your book. How did you decide your book would come to focus on the narratives of the three people you chose?
- Your book dispels some myths about the Great Migration, such as that the black migrants who came from the South were less educated and that the migration was spurred by changes in cotton farming. Why has there been so much misinformation and lack of general knowledge about the Great Migration?
- The southern United States has continued to lag on many health measures. What do you think the impact on the nation’s health would be now, particularly among minority populations, if the Great Migration had never happened?
- Why is it important for public health workers to have an understanding of this history?
- Part of your inspiration for this book came from seeing a photograph of your mother taken shortly after she moved from Georgia to Washington, D.C. Your mother didn’t seem to want to talk much about why it was necessary to leave or wonder what would have happened if she had stayed. Did you perceive that as being the norm among those you interviewed? And why is it important to share our family stories?
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- You have a background in regional journalism — winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for coverage of a 10-year-old boy and his family living in Chicago’s south side and also for your coverage of the aftermath of Midwest floods that occurred in 1993. How did your experiences covering these types of stories prepare you for writing your book?
- In what ways did the Great Migration influence the Civil Rights Movement?