Sharecropping Life In Rural, Mid-Century Georgia

Stacey Wallen with her mother Ruby Cunningham at StoryCorps Atlanta.

StoryCorps Atlanta

For the final week of Black History Month on StoryCorps Atlanta, we bring you the story of 73-year-old Ruby Cunningham who grew up in a sharecropping family in rural Georgia in the ’40s and ’50s.

From an early age, she saw firsthand the grim reality of what it’s like to be taken advantage of and living in perpetual debt to someone else.

She’s talking here with her daughter, Stacey, who starts the conversation.

This story was recorded in partnership with the Atlanta History Center, which hosts Atlanta’s StoryCorps Booth.