A walk along the Southern roadside
Bayard Wootten had an eye for the cliches of hearth and home, but she also let her camera find the hard realities of Southern Life. Wootten, a New Bern Native, traveled the South for almost 40 years, leaving thousands of images preserved in glass negatives. The photo above, of convict laborers, was taken during the 1930s in Shelby County, Alabama. From the North Carolina Collection.
 
 
       
 © Copyright 1999 Endeavors magazine, 
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All rights reserved.