# How One Choice a Century Ago Divided a Family by Race
Journalist Susan Saulny uncovered a family secret that challenges how we understand race, identity, and belonging. Her Creole great-uncle left Louisiana for Chicago generations ago and made a deliberate choice to live as white, severing ties with his Black family entirely.
Saulny's investigation began with curiosity about her family's mixed-race heritage. She discovered that her great-uncle, like many light-skinned Black Americans during the early 20th century, crossed the color line when he relocated north. This wasn't simply about passing unnoticed in a new city. He actively constructed a white identity, married a white woman, and built a life that required complete separation from his original family.
The decision reflected the brutal racial reality of that era. Segregation laws made multiracial identity untenable in many places. Black Americans with lighter skin sometimes chose to live as white to escape discrimination and access opportunities denied to Black people. The cost was devastating: permanent estrangement from parents, siblings, and roots.
What makes Saulny's story distinct is her determination to reconnect across that historical divide. She traced her great-uncle's descendants, many of whom had no knowledge of their Black ancestry. Meeting these relatives forced both branches of the family to reckon with a decision made a century earlier that had literally split them into two racial categories.
Saulny's work illustrates how race functions as a social construction rather than a biological fact. Her family's fractured history reflects broader patterns of passing and identity crossing that shaped American communities, particularly during the Jim Crow era. The great-uncle's choice purchased social advantage but exacted an incalculable human price.
Her journey demonstrates that healing can happen across these historical fractures. By researching and reaching out, Saulny created space for her family