On the Move: A Black Family's Western Saga (review)

S. R. Martin Jr., an African American who resides in the West, became "a black westerner" as he adopted western attributes, attitudes, ideas, and values while "on the move." This adaptation was not by chance, as he relates in his delightful On the Move: A Black Family's Western Saga. Martin's ancestors had earlier moved westward to Texas, settling in places such as Mexia and Palestine before many ended up in Fort Worth. Fort Worth emphasized its particular place with its slogan, "Where the West Begins," and this is where S. R. Martin Jr. and his brother were born. During the late 1930s, some of Martin's extended family began moving further west, to Montana, San Francisco, and the Monterey Bay peninsula, where Martin's parents settled. The author ultimately settled in the state of Washington, where he sought education and employment.

On the Move is part of a rich and evolving story; it belongs with other biographical and autobiographical books of and by black westerners. Its recounting of the history and the movement west is similar to the excellent study by Texas A&M University historian Albert S. Broussard, whose African-American Odyssey: The Stewarts, 1853–1963 (1998) traced that family's western movement. Oscar Micheaux in three novels, Era Bell Thompson in America's Daughter (1946), and Taylor Gordon in Born to Be (1929) also describe becoming black westerners. As Martin and the others clearly articulate, race mattered, even if it was not overpowering or overbearing. For Thompson, in North Dakota, everything, including the people, was white as snow.

Martin Jr.'s writing is enjoyable, poignant, and easy to read. It is filled with perceptive comments and with pithy, catchy sentences and phrases. He points out the importance of living with whites, of being sensitive to time, place, and conditions such as racial segregation. From each spot along the way, he and his family took and adopted western values and attitudes—an appreciation for the rugged spacious landscape, long distances, family, religion, music, a sense of place. As Martin phrased it, he discovered and enjoyed "wide open spaces, giant mountains, two hundred foot conifers, huge lakes, and rushing rivers" (83). They learned to enjoy the large cities as well as smaller towns such as Cody, Seaside, and Pullman. In the urban centers such as San Francisco, as Martin noted, "the hills, tall buildings, the streetcars, the bustle and business all captured me" (102). To be a black westerner involved a less debilitating racism; it was more spiritual than religious; it meant losing contact with family members back east; and it likely included more interracial friendships. "The threat of being black in a mainly white population disappeared" (83). S. R. Martin Jr. captured the essence of being a black westerner in his must-read book.