I just finished reading "Riders on the Orphan Train" [View all]

It was absolutely riveting and haunting. The author, Alison Moore, researched this for decades and tells the story of over 250,000 children (distilled in the lives of two of them,) ostensibly orphans, who were dispersed throughout the country. The practice began in New York and Ellis Island after WWI. There were so many children the Christian Charity decided this was the best thing to do and sent train loads of children across the country dropping them as so much baggage to anyone who wanted them along the way.

The author tells the story of 2 children that were dropped off in Springdale, AR and their lives up until their early 20s and then they reunite as a group of that train load of now elderly people in the mid 80s. Personally I could have used a mid section of their lives, but it's intimated that they live solitary lives.

It's stunning to me that I know so little true American history. It talks of the bigotry and racial divides that leave immigrants at the mercy of white people.

OT but think about this. Our science is Euro-centric...white people's science when there is so much that other countries can offer as theirs is more advanced in many areas.