Part of healing is allowing ourselves to acknowledge the fullness of our family stories and the courage that it takes to leave behind the familiar and build a life in an unfamiliar place.
When I attended the launch and read The Great Triumph: A Memoir of Courage and Devotion, written by Jeanne Saddler, I heard echoes of the stories of women from the African and broader American diasporas—Caribbean, Latin, and South Americans.
Written by former journalist, Jean Saddler, The Great Triumph: A Memoir of Courage and Devotion begins at the end of the 1920’s in the middle of the great depression with Jeanne’s mother, Thelma Osborne Richardson, and her grandparents fleeing the pervasive racism and violence of Jim Crow South for a new life in Chicago. The family’s journey is what historians now call the Great Migration—a movement in which African American families fled the violence, economic hardship, and rigid racial hierarchy of the Jim Crow South.
In Saddler’s account, what stands out is the brilliance, persistence, hard work, and discipline of Thelma Osborne, who, like so many migrants, built a life in a new city. Thelma Osborne exposed her children to every available enrichment activity throughout their childhood. In so doing, Jeanne’s mother and father fast-track their two children into a solid middle-class lifestyle, with each earning a graduate and a law degree.
What makes The Great Triumph: A Memoir of Courage and Devotion especially meaningful is its capture of the devotion that held families together through uncertainty. It honors the leap of faith behind every family’s movement northward.
By recounting her mother’s story, Saddler reminds us that the Great Migration was not only a historical event—it was a series of deeply personal journeys shaped by courage, hope, and an unwavering belief that the next generation deserved a better life.
If you would like to explore the strength of your family stories or what a healing journey could look like, I invite you to start with a 15-minute conversation.
