Enduring Years
Enduring Years: A Migrant Cotton Picker's Memoir chronicles the life of a sharecropper - a cotton picker, during and following the Depression era. In editing the cotton picker's handwritten manuscript, minor emendations were made. The editor let the cotton picker share in his own voice each vivid account of how his family endured crushing poverty, discrimination and segregation. The storyteller takes the reader on a journey to years long gone, a time that was.
Why This Book?
"A beautiful compilation of family memories against a historic backdrop. ..an appealing addition to any American history class, as she includes historical and geographic footnotes to complement her father-in-law's story.
A must-read for history buffs and storytellers alike."
Kirkus Reviews
"This enlightening memoir of a black farmer during the Great Depression provides a perspective rarely seen."
Clarion Review
Four Stars (out of Five)
"Those interested in what life was like for farmers during the Depression can learn from this book, but the most provocative lesson is taught in Griffin's example of rarely depicted black sharecropper determined to support his family."
Clarion Review
Four Stars (out of Five)
Enduring
Years: A
Migrant Cotton Picker’s Memoir is the reminiscences of
the grandson of a former slave, who through sheer determination and
back-breaking hard work, scraped together meager living during a time of
segregation and crushing poverty in rural Oklahoma. From the beginning of the 20th
century, through the Great Depression and into the Civil Rights era, the sharecropper
had a knack of finding work, even if for a few dollars a day, and even if it meant
moving countless times in search of a job to support his wife and nine
children.
“[This]
book has importance, as it offers a glimpse into a life well lived from a
perspective rarely told."
blueink Review