When Adele Flattoe's grandfather and great-uncle both died suddenly, it would forever alter the course of both sides of her family line, catapulting them onto paths that would eventually cross.

In 1924, when the Flatateau family's fortunes were changed overnight,

Adele's father, Sydney, was just eight years old.

With just the father dying early,

the mother can't manage to take care of the four children. There wasn't like enough

resources to keep the whole family together. So that's, you know, why they got split up.

Sydney was the eldest of four siblings. Two was sent to New Orleans. One was kept in Baton Rouge.

And Sydney, he ended up more than 2,000 miles away in California.

While this was a lonely journey for young Sydney, countless others were making the same

faithful trip west. During the early

part of the 20th century, about two million black southerners would move to cities north and west,

looking for better opportunities, or to escape the racial violence of the Jim Crow South. This was

the first wave of the Great Migration, and ultimately, it would reshape the

social, political, and economic complexion of America. And so Sydney Flattoe would board a train,

sent to live with an aunt and an uncle who didn't have kids, but who would raise him as their

own. He actually probably had a better life than he would have had if he stayed in Louisiana

in terms of being able to get education, which I guess his aunt and uncle must have paid for,

and plus he was working to, you know.

Sydney made the most of this new start.

He was a good student and in34, was admitted to UC Berkeley.

But it wasn't easy.

While Sydney was hustling, he was also still trying to stay connected to the family he left back in Louisiana.

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