Much has been written about this historical movement; this phenomenon has been the subject of plays, oral histories, books, movies, paintings, poems, and other scholarly works. However, comparatively little research and writing exists that explores the experiences and challenges faced by the first-generation Northern-born children of those who uprooted themselves from points South.

This creative dissertation, through poetry, fiction, plays, essays, and memoirs, explores the challenges of the children of Albert and Anita Foster. This couple traveled to Chicago during the Great Migration because the North represented hope for the future; Albert and Anita saw the future in the eyes of their five children. This dissertation focuses primarily on the fourth-born child, Joan. The work chronicles her attempts to create identity and find a safe space, indeed a home, amidst the post-World War II conservatism, racism, and sexism. The work traces her involvement during the turbulent and radical 1960s and 1970s. The writing highlights her political growth, work in the Black Panther Party, and feminist work. The last chapter examines her return to the South as a teacher at Spelman College, a historically Black college. This work employs autoethnography, feminist standpoint theory, and autobiographic narrative as methodologies of inquiry.

Unlike those who traveled North seeking the "warmth of other suns," this daughter of the Great Migration works to create a transformative different sun. She discovers that a safe place, a home, is earned by each person and each generation that struggles to answer the call to make revolutionary change.