Educator Creates Documentary to Honor Parents’ Legacy, Ensure Historical Chapter is Remembered

Tyronda Boone created the documentary, “Generational Wealth-Triumphs and Tribulations” in 2023 with a purpose in mind.

“I created this documentary to honor my parents’ legacy (Luther and Lula Boone), ensuring their stories are not forgotten, but instead serve as a beacon of inspiration for generations to come. My father, a sharecropper, and my mother, a tenant farmer, endured immense hardship, yet their resilience, work ethic, and determination laid the foundation for the opportunities you and others have today,” the educator stated.

Tyronda is also a mother and financial literacy activist who explained that she sought to shed light on a chapter of history that shaped the financial and social landscape of many families. Their struggles reflect the broader story of perseverance in the face of systemic barriers and their triumphs.

Luther Boone

Luther Boone, 76, was reared in the “Jim Crow South” at a time when social and political rights were limited. Legalized racial segregation impacted Luther’s childhood experiences growing up in Como, North Carolina.

“There were nine children in my family—four boys and five girls,” he said.

The sharecropping system allowed a tenant to use a landowner’s land in exchange for a share of produced crops. Luther’s first job was sharecropping, working on land for the landowner. He began picking cotton when he was about four or five years old.

“After the third grade, school was secondary,” Luther recalled. “When the crops started, we were in the field from May to December. After that year, we went to school from parts of December up until May.”

Luther stated how a sharecropper cheated his father out of everything he made.

“We had to pay for the food on credit, and the store owner charged as much as they wanted to charge for the food,” Luther recalled. “It was just like a new type of slavery. Jim Crow was just a modernized slavery.”

“You didn’t work your way out of sharecropping. You figured your way out of sharecropping,” he also explained.

Luther graduated from high school in 1967. He was determined to pursue a fresh start and entered the Air Force in 1968. Luther eventually became a civil engineering welder, and a military and federal government retiree.

The wise elder who persevered stated that fear is what holds people back.

“You’ve got to free your mind,” Luther stated.

Lula Boone

Lula, 81, and Luther have been a married team for 48 years. The Prince George’s County, Maryland-based entrepreneur was born in Kathleen, Georgia. She recalls a time when cotton and peanuts were important cash crops for tenant farmers.

“Where I grew up, it was a little different from my husband’s upbringing, because I didn’t know anything about sharecropping,” Lula explained. “We did tenant farming.”

Tenant farmers worked on land owned by someone else. They owned the crops, paid rent to their landlord, owned their equipment and supplies and generally retained more control over their labor than sharecroppers.

Lula’s father, Virgil Lee Lawson, said that whatever property he lived on would be shared the way his grandfather did. When the land they lived on was purchased, Lula’s grandfather refused to agree to sharecropping, according to her father.

“My granddaddy would pack everything they had on a mule and wagon and ride all night until they found somebody who would not require them to sharecrop,” Lula added.

Lula recalls an experience that demonstrated the social climate during the Jim Crow Era. Before her mother left for work one morning, she gave Lula and her two sisters change to buy items from a “rolling store,” which was a truck stocked with goods for sale. While they were waiting outdoors a procession appeared and passed by them.

“We didn’t know at the time, but it was the Klu Klux Klan. We just sat there and looked at them,” she recalled. “It was years later before we told mom and found out what it was. That was a sight I never forgot.”

Lula was the second person in her immediate family to attend college. Plus, she had another dream.

“I always knew that I wanted to own my own business,” Lula added.

The business owner has been running Boone Family Day Care for over 38 years.

Tyronda explained that her documentary featuring her parents is not just about remembering the past.

“It’s about using those lessons to inspire the future. It serves as a call to action, encouraging children and families to embrace financial literacy, break generational cycles of poverty, and take control of their economic destinies.”

“Through their [my parents’] story, I show that no matter where one starts in life, with knowledge, determination, and opportunity, they can carve out a brighter future,” Tyronda added.