For the past month I have been immersed in background research for my new film "Sharecrop." This documentary will bring to the foreground what was implicit in both of my Rosenwald school documentaries-- namely that the economic setting for the rural Rosenwald schools was largely that of sharecropping. Of course, family members might have also worked as laborers, for example here in Pender County some men worked for a lumber company. Even for those families, farming was usually also part of the mix. In my new film I will highlight the experiences of several families as they worked to 'make' their crops, stay out of debt to the landowner, and respond to changing markets.
This photograph is of the late Leo Kea, one of my inspirations for this film. As was often the case, he went to work for tenant farmers and landowners when his family did not need him at home to work their own crops. When I asked him how he described sharecropping, he said "Sharecrop means three baskets of peas for you, one for me."
