The Center for a Better South
If you’re driving on U.S. Highway 80 through Dudley, Ga., just after the big “Jesus is coming soon” sign, you’ll see a pasture full of sheep on the left inside the town limits near Sixth Street.
Dudley, home to fewer than 500 people, is about seven miles west of Dublin, Ga., the county seat of Laurens County. Some 23.6 percent of residents of Laurens County (population 48,434) live in poverty.
Photo taken in Feb. 16, 2014, by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
Despite the high fence and signs warning people to “keep back” and “no trespassing” and “video surveillance,” we got a kick out of the Happy Taxi Cab Co. just outside Ridgeland, S.C., on S.C. Highway 336. You can see old trucks from days gone by and get a feel of thrift mixed with entrepreneurship.
Ridgeland, the county seat of Jasper County, grew by 60 percent from 2000 to 2010, when the population was just over 4,000 people, according to Census figures. Jasper County, population 25,833, is just over the river from Savannah, Ga. Its location near the metro area likely is why poverty in Jasper County (21.4 percent) is half that of Allendale County to the north. Ridgeland has a poverty rate of more than 24 percent.
Photo by Andy Brack, taken on March 2, 2014. All rights reserved.
This old filling station, located near this dilapidated store in Coosawatchie, S.C., recalls days gone by in which cars headed between the North and Florida tumbled through the Palmetto State. The one-bay garage along what is now S.C. Highway 462 may have been part of U.S. Highway 17 in years before Interstate 95.
Coosawatchie is in Jasper County, population 25,833, which is just over the river from Savannah, Ga. Its location near the metro area likely is why poverty in Jasper County (21.4 percent) is half that of Allendale County to the north. However, parts of the county around Ridgeland and Coosawatchie, which are further away from the Savannah area, feature a lot of the same strife as in Allendale County.
Photo by Andy Brack, taken on Feb. 28, 2014. All rights reserved.
Paint peeling from this shuttered storefront along S.C. Highway 462 in Coosawatchie, S.C., reflects deep poverty that is found in rural areas along Interstate 95 in the Palmetto State. This photograph was taken just a few hundred yards away from the beautiful, meandering Coosawatchie River.
Jasper County, population 25,833, is just over the river from Savannah, Ga. Its location near the metro area likely is why poverty in Jasper County (21.4 percent) is half that of Allendale County to the north. However, parts of the county around Ridgeland and Coosawatchie, which are further away from the Savannah area, feature a lot of the same strife as in Allendale County.
Photo by Andy Brack, taken on Feb. 28, 2014. All rights reserved.
The Coosawatchie River in Jasper County flows under a bridge that’s part of Interstate 95. The interstate defines much of South Carolina’s Corridor of Shame, an area of high poverty and low educational attainment that stretches along the highway.
Jasper County, population 25,833, is just over the river from Savannah, Ga. Its location near the metro area likely is why poverty in Jasper County (21.4 percent) is half that of Allendale County to the north. However, parts of the county around Ridgeland and the nearby river, which are further away from the Savannah area, feature a lot of the same strife as in Allendale County.
Photo by Andy Brack, taken on Feb. 28, 2014. All rights reserved.
Just down the street from the tallest building in Dublin, Ga. — the closed old First National Bank — sits this empty pool hall on Madison Street. It is sandwiched between two other buildings that look like they’ve been closed for a long time.
Dublin suffered during the recent recession as the unemployment rate for Laurens County, where Dublin (population 16,201) is the county seat, rose to 13.8 percent in July 2011. Two years later it was about two points lower, but was down to 9.4 percent in December 2013, according to federal government data found at this site.
Some 23.6 percent of residents of Laurens County (population 48,434) live in poverty, according to Census data
Photo taken Feb. 16, 2014 by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.