Tag: Andy Brack

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Crescent profiled in Charleston newspaper

Excerpted from an Oct. 13, 2013, story in The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier by Robert Behre:

Charleston-based center tries to tackle problems of the Southern Crescent

It could be the legacy of slavery or the more recent struggles facing family farms or rural areas’ loss of political clout.

In all likelihood, it’s some combination of all three — and possibly other factors as well.

Andy Brack, a self-employed journalist and head of the nonprofit Center for a Better South, is trying to call attention to the unique challenges facing this area, which he refers to as the “Southern Crescent.”

Brack said he never thought much about what lies beyond South Carolina’s so-called “Corridor of Shame.” The corridor — a wide swath around Interstate 95 — took its name from a 2006 documentary about the state’s most impoverished and struggling public schools.

As he studied maps, however, Brack realized the Palmetto State is not unique and that the corridor extends hundreds of miles beyond its state lines.

And he began an effort to raise awareness about its existence, awareness that he hopes will lead to solutions.

“We have a moral imperative to do something to reduce high rates of poverty, unemployment, disease and other conditions in the crescent,” he said. “If we deal with these, that will bolster the South’s reputation, lead to more business and improve our entire region.”

Sagging Southern Numbers
The South has:

  • Roughly 25 percent of the U.S. population.
  • Eight of the nation’s 10 poorest states (Miss., La., Ky., Ga., Ala., Ark., S.C. and N.C.)
  • Seven of the nation’s 10 states with lowest graduation rates from public high school (Miss., S.C., La., Ga., Fla., Ala. and Ark. )
  • Seven of the nation’s 10 states with lowest median household income (Miss., Ark., Ala., Ky., Tenn., La. and S.C.)
  • Four of the nation’s 10 states with the highest crime rates (Tenn., S.C., La., and Fla.)
  • Four of the nation’s 10 states with the highest unemployment in August 2013 (Ga., N.C., Miss. and Tenn.)
  • Two of the nation’s 10 states with lowest 2012 voter participation (Ark. and Tenn.)
  • Between five and eight of the nation’s 10 states with the highest rates of diabetes (8), high blood pressure (7), obesity (6) and infant mortality (5).

Source: 2013 Briefing Book on the South, October 2013. (which defines the South as these 11 states: Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga. Ky., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tenn. and Va.)

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Southern Crescent profiled by Charleston newspaper

Run-down motel, Allendale, S.C. Photo by Michael Kaynard.
Run-down motel, Allendale, S.C. Photo by Michael Kaynard.

Excerpted from an Oct. 13, 2013, story in The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier by Robert Behre:

Charleston-based center tries to tackle problems of the Southern Crescent

It could be the legacy of slavery or the more recent struggles facing family farms or rural areas’ loss of political clout.

In all likelihood, it’s some combination of all three — and possibly other factors as well.

Andy Brack, a self-employed journalist and head of the nonprofit Center for a Better South, is trying to call attention to the unique challenges facing this area, which he refers to as the “Southern Crescent.”

Brack said he never thought much about what lies beyond South Carolina’s so-called “Corridor of Shame.” The corridor — a wide swath around Interstate 95 — took its name from a 2006 documentary about the state’s most impoverished and struggling public schools.

As he studied maps, however, Brack realized the Palmetto State is not unique and that the corridor extends hundreds of miles beyond its state lines.

And he began an effort to raise awareness about its existence, awareness that he hopes will lead to solutions.

“We have a moral imperative to do something to reduce high rates of poverty, unemployment, disease and other conditions in the crescent,” he said. “If we deal with these, that will bolster the South’s reputation, lead to more business and improve our entire region.”

Sagging Southern Numbers
The South has:

  • Roughly 25 percent of the U.S. population.
  • Eight of the nation’s 10 poorest states (Miss., La., Ky., Ga., Ala., Ark., S.C. and N.C.)
  • Seven of the nation’s 10 states with lowest graduation rates from public high school (Miss., S.C., La., Ga., Fla., Ala. and Ark. )
  • Seven of the nation’s 10 states with lowest median household income (Miss., Ark., Ala., Ky., Tenn., La. and S.C.)
  • Four of the nation’s 10 states with the highest crime rates (Tenn., S.C., La., and Fla.)
  • Four of the nation’s 10 states with the highest unemployment in August 2013 (Ga., N.C., Miss. and Tenn.)
  • Two of the nation’s 10 states with lowest 2012 voter participation (Ark. and Tenn.)
  • Between five and eight of the nation’s 10 states with the highest rates of diabetes (8), high blood pressure (7), obesity (6) and infant mortality (5).

Source: 2013 Briefing Book on the South, October 2013. (which defines the South as these 11 states: Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga. Ky., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tenn. and Va.)

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Trash bins, Emanuel County, Ga.

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Overflowing trash bins like this pair at the southeastern tip of Emanuel County near where it joing Bullock and Candler counties seem more common in rural areas of the Southern Crescent where garbage pick-up is limited.

This photo was taken just north of the intersection of U.S. Highway 80 and Georgia Highway 121 in Emanuel County, which has almost 23,000 people and a poverty rate of 24.5 percent, according to the U.S. Census.

Photo taken Sept. 22, 2013, by Andy Brack.  All rights reserved.

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Pool hall, Fairfax, S.C.

John's Pool Hall, Fairfax, S.C.
John’s Pool Hall, Fairfax, S.C.

It was quiet on a recent Sunday morning outside this pool hall in Fairfax, S.C.  Down the street, people filed into churches for morning services.

Fairfax, in rural Allendale County, lost about a third of its population by 2010, which it had 2,025 people compared to 3,206 people in 2000, according to Census figures in Wikipedia.   Per capita income was $8,940.  About 38 percent of the people in the town, which had about two times as many adult males as females, lived in poverty.

Rural Allendale County in South Carolina’s southwest corner as one of the Crescent’s highest poverty rates — more than 40 percent of people live below the federal poverty level. The median household income is about $23,000 a year — half of South Carolina’s average and well below the nation’s $50,000 average.

Photo by Andy Brack, Sept. 22, 2013.  All rights reserved.

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Baptist church, Robertville, S.C.

Robertville Baptist Church, Robertville, S.C.
Robertville Baptist Church, Robertville, S.C.

Robertville, a small unincorporated community at the southern tip of South Carolina, has a beautiful Baptist church that’s on the National Historic Register.  But it’s also the birthplace of someone who is familiar to anyone who has been involved with a community or government meeting — Henry Martyn Robert, author of “Robert’s Rules of Order.”

Robert (1837-1923) was born on a South Carolina plantation which his father, a Baptist preacher, sold and freed 26 slaves in 1850 after concluding it wasn’t good for his children to be reared in a “slave-served society,” Robert’s grandson, Henry M. Robert III of Annapolis, Maryland, told Better South’s Andy Brack.

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.

Photo by Andy Brack, taken on Sept. 22, 2013.  All rights reserved.

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New Americans, Mount Pleasant, S.C.

New U.S. citizens sworn in in S.C. Photo by Andy Brack.
New U.S. citizens sworn in in S.C. Photo by Andy Brack.

Some 111 people from 52 countries became U.S. citizens Tuesday during a ceremony at the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site in Mount Pleasant, S.C.  Smiles abounded during the ceremony.  New citizens held small American flags as they listened to speakers and waited to take the oath of allegiance.

While Mount Pleasant in Charleston County isn’t in the Southern Crescent, people in the new group of citizens lived in communities across the region.  Alvaro Koo, who serves in the Air Force at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter,  said he was proud to be a U.S. citizen.  “Now I’m actually part of the country I’m serving,” said the senior airman who was born in Panama.

  • To read more of this citizenship ceremony, click here.

Photograph taken Sept. 17, 2013, by Andy Brack.  All rights reserved.

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Quick Stop, closed, near Waverly, Va.

Davalier Quick Stop, west of Waverly, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.
Cavalier Quick Stop, west of Waverly, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.

It doesn’t take long while driving the rural roads of the Southern Crescent to encounter an old country store or joint like the Cavalier Quick Stop about four miles northwest of Waverly, Va., off U.S. Highway 460.

Waverly, which had 2,149 residents in 2010 (160 fewer than 10 years earlier), is in rural Sussex County, a heartland of Virginia’s famous peanuts.  Sussex County, which had more than 20 percent of people living in poverty in 2000, has some 15.6 percent of people in poverty as of the 2010 Census.  About 60 percent of the county’s residents are black.

Copyrighted photo taken July 23, 2013, by Andy Brack, Center for a Better South. All rights reserved.

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Another view, old Southampton County farmhouse

Closer view of old Virginia farmhouse. By Andy Brack.
Closer view of old Virginia farmhouse. By Andy Brack.

Here’s another look at the grand, old, decaying farmhouse in Southampton County that we reflected upon in our last post.  Read more here.

The complex is in Southampton County, which is known in history as the place where slave Nat Turner led a rebellion in 1831.  More information is here.  Today, 18,409 people live in Southampton County; three in five are white; most of the rest are black.  Poverty is about 16 percent.

Photo taken July 23, 2012, by Better South President Andy Brack.  All rights reserved.

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Grand farmhouse, Southampton County, Va.

Worn farmhouse, Southampton County, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.
Worn farmhouse, Southampton County, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.

This stately, decaying grand Virginia farmhouse is mesmerizing and sad at the same time.  While you can see a well, drinking trough for animals and a couple of outbuildings, there’s also an old store and barn at this location, a few miles north of Courtland at the intersection of Wakefield and Millfield roads.

Looking at the complex at the corner of a big field, it’s easy to imagine how this farm was a focus of rural life 80 or so years ago when lots of Southerners got their start in the country.  Better South President Andy Brack writes, “Of all of the photos I took in July in Virginia, I come back to the pictures of this farm.  In my mind’s eye, I can almost see donkeys and horses getting a drink, kids playing barefoot in the front yard, folks dropping by the country store to sit, talk and enjoy a cold drink.

“I couldn’t find out anything else about this place despite trying to reach members of a Baptist church just down the road.  I look at how this house and its buildings, once a gem of this rural area, is falling apart.  Like much of the area of the Southern Crescent, it’s suffering from benign neglect.”

The complex is in Southampton County, which is known in history as the place where slave Nat Turner led a rebellion in 1831.  More information is here.  Today, 18,409 people live in Southampton County; three in five are white; most of the rest are black.  Poverty is about 16 percent.

Photo taken July 23, 2012, by Better South President Andy Brack.  All rights reserved.

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Old barn, near Emporia, Va.

Old barn, Southampton County, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.
Old barn, Southampton County, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.

This old barn about 2.5 miles east of the Emporia-Greensville County Regional Airport in southeastern Virginia is smack dab in the middle of a peanut field.  The barn, located in Southampton County, is just off U.S. Highway 58.

Southampton County is known in history as the place where slave Nat Turner led a rebellion in 1831.  More than 50 white residents were killed in the rebellion.  After the state crushed it, Turner and 55 others were executed.  More than 100 other blacks are thought to have been murdered by white mobs.  The rebellion led to action across Virginia and other Southern states, according to Wikipedia:  “State legislators passed new laws prohibiting education of slaves and free blacks, restricting rights of assembly and other civil rights for free blacks, and requiring white ministers to be present at black worship services.”

Today, 18,409 people live in Southampton County; three in five are white; most of the rest are black.  Poverty is about 16 percent.

Photo taken July 24, 2012, by Better South President Andy Brack.  All rights reserved.