A Leflore County native who grew up on a plantation has recently published a memoir, “The Sunnyside Story,” reflecting on that experience.
“It was pretty rough. We grew up on the plantation under an awful boss. The plantation owner wasn’t always pleasant,” Ora Tanner-Martin said of her first published book.
She, along with her two brothers, four sisters and parents were one of several families that lived on a plantation in Sunnyside, located about 20 minutes north of Greenwood in Leflore County.
Tanner-Martin said she and her entire family worked in the fields, chopping and picking cotton under grueling conditions.
“My mom was very protective of us,” she said.
The book is not just a reflection of the hardships of living on a plantation but a story of how Tanner-Martin and her siblings persevered with the help of her parents.
“They taught us to love one another ... and how to keep going regardless of how hard it is, and we made it,” she said. “They taught us to work hard, and that really motivated me.”
She said she was inspired to write her memoir after watching the movie “The Help,” which depicts the lives of Black housemaids in 1960s Jackson.
The movie’s portrayal of the maids felt similar to her own experiences growing up, she said.
Tanner-Martin, 59, went to elementary school in Minter City and graduated from Amanda Elzy High School. She took courses at a college in Chicago and then at Macon State University, in Macon, Georgia, where she has lived for the past 30 years.
Now retired, Tanner-Martin worked as a day care teacher. Her husband runs a nursing home ministry.
Tanner-Martin said she wants those who read her book “to know that they can make it in spite of what they’re going through. ... I don’t want anybody to be discouraged.”
She plans to write a second memoir about the current lives of her and her siblings.
Tanner-Martin will be at Whittington Park Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. to sign copies of her book, which will be available for purchase.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
