A segregated train ride is only the beginning to a bittersweet story of love, loss, and triumph.
As part of the Great Migration in 1943, from the Southside of Chicago to Berkeley, California, Sara and Ben Jameson moved their young family out West hoping to leave the past behind and make a new start. Arriving in South Berkeley, the only part of town open to Colored homeowners, the Jamesons found conditions much the same as those they had left behind. As they unpacked their dreams, they also uncovered limited employment, restricted housing, and separate but unequal education for their children, but on closer inspection the Jameson family discovered opportunity beyond their wildest dreams. Join the Jamesons, their extended family, friends, and community as they navigate two wars, social change and injustice, economic bust and boom, and dizzying opportunity. By some yardsticks they could be considered unremarkable, but to many they are extraordinary. Follow the Jamesons’ journey from the unforgiving 1940’s, through the turbulent 1960’s, to the triumphs and challenges today.
