The Center for a Better South
The SouthernCarolina Alliance, lead organization of the new South Carolina Promise Zone, held three town hall meetings in recent days to listen and learn to what residents dream for to make real and lasting change in the region. The Alliance will hold three more meetings in coming days. The Center for a Better South is a supporting organization of the Promise Zone. Learn more.
On a sweltering South Carolina summer Thursday, rising college sophomores Ethan Kemp, at left, and Robert Steedley, both of Bamberg, S.C., painted a fire hydrant in their hometown as part of their summer jobs with the public works department. Kemp attends the University of South Carolina, while Steedley attends Claflin University in nearby Orangeburg.
Just over 30 percent of the 15,987 people in Bamberg County in 2010 lived below the poverty level, according to the U.S. Census. The county included 254 people born outside of the United States. The majority of residents are black (61.5 percent) with whites comprising 36.1 percent. Some 1.6 percent of residents are Latino while 0.4 percent are of Asian descent.
Copyrighted photo taken July 9, 2015 by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
This old, dilapidated farmhouse sits in a fallow field on U.S. Highway 176 near Cameron, S.C. The agricultural community of just over 400 people has a poverty rate of 12 percent, about two-thirds of the state average.
Copyrighted photo by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
JUNE 24, 2015 — The Center for a Better South will coordinate and conduct a series of six town hall meetings in July in the recently-announced Promise Zone that encompasses six challenged counties at the southern tip of South Carolina.
“This is a phenomenal chance to interact with neighbors and leaders throughout Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties to share with them about the huge opportunities that the Promise Zone designation provides to grow jobs, improve education and reduce crime,” said Andy Brack, president and chairman of the Center. “These town hall sessions throughout July also will give people a chance to have their say about the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities as the region pushes forward to embrace new ways to tap into federal money to vastly improve people’s lives.”
On April 28, the Obama Administration announced the six counties in the Southern Carolina region won the nation’s second rural Promise Zone designation. Only 20 of the special designations are to be awarded across the nation. The innovative program allows Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties to access into federal money and other opportunities in new ways to grow jobs, improve education and reduce crime. The Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance is coordinating the effort with the six county governments and an array of public, private and nonprofit partners.
The Alliance has contracted with the Center to conduct the town hall meetings, a key step in developing a long-term strategic plan to coordinate the myriad opportunities provided by the designation, Brack said. The Center will work with The Weathers Group, based in Columbia, S.C., to facilitate the town hall meetings.
“We’d like to encourage as many people in the counties to attend these town hall meetings so that we get as diverse and broad of community input as we can,” Brack added. “It’s open to students, neighborhood leaders, elected officials, business executives, nonprofit leaders and more.”
Here is the schedule of meetings in July:
Allendale County Town Hall meeting
Bamberg County Town Hall meeting
Barnwell County Town Hall meeting
Colleton County Town Hall meeting
Hampton County Town Hall meeting
Jasper County Town Hall meeting
For more information, contact the Center at: brack@bettersouth.org.
Compare the above photo of downtown Hampton, S.C., with this one taken almost two years earlier when construction was being done to revamp the central business district. Looks a lot better, huh?
The downtown appeared vibrant despite the fact that this Promise Zone county is home to 4,000 fewer people in 2010 than it was a century ago. More. Some 22.6 percent of Hampton County’s 21,900 residents live below the poverty line.
Hampton’s annual Watermelon Festival is the state’s longest, continually-running festival. The town of Hampton includes a brownfield of a former medical waste incinerator. More.
Photo by Andy Brack, copyright 2015. All rights reserved.
A CSX train loaded with wood chips and other cargo barrels down a track near Interstate 95 at Yemassee, S.C., on the edge of Hampton County.
Hampton County, located in the southern part of South Carolina, was home to 21,090 people in 2010, about 4,000 fewer than a century earlier. More. Some 22.6 percent of Hampton County residents live below the poverty line.
Hampton’s annual Watermelon Festival is the state’s longest, continually-running festival. The town of Hampton includes a brownfield of a former medical waste incinerator. More.
Photo by Andy Brack, copyright 2015. All rights reserved.
This old store, marked with the spray-painted word “sold” in a window, is very near this vernacular house in Cummings, S.C. (One of our favorite photos).
The store, replete with an area where gas pumps used to be, is in Hampton County, located in the southern part of South Carolina. It was home to 21,090 people in 2010, about 4,000 fewer than a century earlier. More. Some 22.6 percent of Hampton County residents live below the poverty line.
Hampton’s annual Watermelon Festival is the state’s longest, continually-running festival. The town of Hampton includes a brownfield of a former medical waste incinerator. More.
Photo by Andy Brack, copyright 2015. All rights reserved.
This old house in the southern part of Florence County is an example of so many farmhouses across the South that are no longer in use, writes Kingstree photographer Linda W. Brown. “From its size, one can imagine that it was once home to a large farm family,” she writes.
Photo taken December 2014 by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown writes that this old tenant cabin is on the road to Adabelle, Ga., south from Statesboro in Bulloch County.
“I’m not sure if it was associated with the Croatan Indian community that once thrived in the area. A nearby historic marker tells the store of the Croatan community:
“In 1870 a group of Croatan Indians migrated from their homes in Robeson County North Carolina, following the turpentine industry to southeast Georgia. Eventually many of the Croatans became tenant farmers for the Adabelle Trading Company, growing cotton and tobacco. The Croatan community established the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Adabelle, as well as a school and a nearby cemetery. After the collapse of the Adabelle Trading Company, the Croatans faced both economic hardship and social injustice. As a result, most members of the community returned to North Carolina by 1920. The tribe to which these families belonged became known as the Lumbee in the early 1950s.”
Copyrighted photo by Brian Brown. All rights reserved.
After two years of debris blocking the sidewalk on Main Street in downtown Kingstree, S.C., this building has finally been demolished, photographer Linda W. Brown writes.
The roof had collapsed, pushing debris out onto the sidewalk. In the few weeks since this picture was taken, the facade of the building has also been taken down. The building was for many years used as a hardware store and was on the National Register of Historic Places as part of downtown Kingstree’s historic district.
Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.