Tag: Andy Brack

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Old buildings, Leary, Ga.

Old buildings flanked by peanut plant in background, Leary, Ga.
Old buildings flanked by peanut plant in background, Leary, Ga.

With a decaying old — but recently painted — building in the foreground, you can see an abandoned brick warehouse and a peanut business in the background of this photo of the small Calhoun County town of Leary.

Leary, which had 610 people in the 2010 Census (56 fewer than 10 years earlier) is predominantly poor and black.  Three in four residents are black.  Some 36 percent of the people in Calhoun County live at or below the poverty line, according to the 2010 Census.

There’s not a lot of businesses in Leary.  Its train depot is closed.  Across the street from a busy convenience store is a full city block of deserted businesses and homes.  More than anything, Leary seems old and tired with little hope of a prosperous future.  Notes photographer Michael Kaynard, “The downtown area had been deserted and the jail, post office and other businesses moved away and followed the highway.”  Other than the store, the only thing that appeared to have some activity was the peanut plant, which operates seasonally.

Photo by Andy Brack of the Center for a Better South, May 2013.  All rights reserved.

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Empty, Leary, Ga.

Abandoned store, Leary, Ga.
Abandoned store, Leary, Ga.

Today’s photo marks the first of a five-part series focusing our lenses on Leary, Ga., a small agricultural village in southwest Georgia in Calhoun County near the Early County line.  Pictured above is an abandoned store near the railroad tracks at the heart of the downtown.

Leary, which had 610 people in the 2010 Census (56 fewer than 10 years earlier) is predominantly poor and black.  Three in four residents are black.  Some 36 percent of the people in Calhoun County live at or below the poverty line, according to the 2010 Census.

There’s not a lot of businesses in Leary.  Its train depot is closed.  Across the street from a busy convenience store is a full city block of deserted businesses and homes.  More than anything, Leary seems old and tired with little hope of a prosperous future.  Notes photographer Michael Kaynard, “The downtown area had been deserted and the jail, post office and other businesses moved away and followed the highway.”  Other than the store, the only thing that appeared to have some activity was a peanut plant, which operates seasonally.

Photo by Andy Brack of the Center for a Better South, May 2013.  All rights reserved.

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“Black Belt,” Bellamy, Ala.

Bellamy, Ala., March 2009. Photo by Bill Hawker for the Center for a Better South.
Bellamy, Ala., March 2009. Photo by Bill Hawker for the Center for a Better South.

The term “Black Belt” means different things to different people.  For geographers, it means a swath of black topsoil that cuts through the middle of Alabama that was the foundation of cotton crops and an agricultural economy.  For sociologists, though, it is a term that reflects a crescent-shaped region that includes the same area of Alabama, but stretches westward toward the Delta area and eastward through Georgia, hooking northerly to the Carolinas and Tidewater Virginia — the area we call the “Southern Crescent.”

The picture above is from Bellamy, Ala., and is representative of the poverty found throughout the Crescent.  Bellamy, which has about 500 people, a post office and a health center, was several miles from the closest gas station or country store on our last visit to the area in 2009.  Bellamy is in rural Sumter County, Ala., where 38 percent of the population lives at or below the federal poverty level.

Photo by Bill Hawker, Sydney, Australia, in March 2009 for the Center for a Better South.  All rights reserved.

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Lobster House, Allendale, S.C.

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Former restaurant is now a convenience store, Allendale, S.C.

 

Most people in Allendale County, South Carolina’s poorest county where more than 40 percent of people live at or below the federal poverty level, can’t afford to eat lobster.  Nevertheless, this now-closed restaurant represents how times were much better years back before Interstate 95 sucked sun-seeking tourists traveling through the county.

Today, part of the Lobster House is at least used — as a small convenience store, which is a better fate than many closed rest stops, gas stations, restaurants, clubs and factories that dot U.S. Highway 301.

Allendale County, also one of South Carolina’s smallest counties by population, has a 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, Center for a Better South, May 2013.  All rights reserved.

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Closed grocery store, Allendale, S.C.

Galaxy Food Center, Allendale, S.C.

Galaxy Food Center, Allendale, S.C.

“Food deserts” are often found in poor urban and rural communities because  it’s hard to find grocery stores with lots of healthy options.  People who live in food deserts may only have one store that stock more packaged and canned food than they do fresh foods.  In turn, having fewer options tends to support unhealthy eating habits that lead to higher incidents of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity and more.

Pictured above is the Galaxy Food Center in Allendale, S.C.  It was one of the poor, rural communities two grocery stores, until it closed.  Now empty, it’s a reminder of just how Allendale, county seat of South Carolina’s poorest county, is cut off from lots of amenities and services found in larger communities like Charleston, Savannah, Augusta and Columbia.

With just over 40 percent of Allendale County’s 10,000 people living at or below the 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, Center for a Better South, May 2013.  All rights reserved.

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Young corn near Leslie, Ga.

Photo by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
Photo by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
Corn field, Sumter County, Ga.

Here grows a field of young corn in the heart of Georgia near the small town of Leslie in Sumter County.  Based on 2008 numbers, Southern farmers this year are expected to grow more than 5 million acres of corn, including more than 310,000 acres in Georgia. [Learn more about Georgia’s corn crop.]

But that amount for the 11-state region pales in comparison to the corn grown in just one state — more than 12 million acres in 2008 in Iowa, and about the same amount in Illinois.  [More.]  This year, farmers across the country have planted more corn than anytime since 1936 — some 97 million acres — to take advantage of high prices due to last year’s drought, according to USA Today.

Photo by the Center for a Better South’s Andy Brack on May 15, 2013.  All rights reserved.

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Onion couple, Vidalia, Ga.

Copyright 2013.
Copyright 2013.
Onion couple, Vidalia, Ga. Photo by Andy Brack, 2013. All rights reserved.

At left, a couple leaves a formal wear store in downtown Vidalia, Ga.,  At right, a life-size Onion Man and Onion Woman court the love of the sweet onions which made Vidalia famous across the world.

The yellow sign at the bottom of the Onion Couple reads:

There is no marriage sweeter,

Than the “Vidalia sweet onion.”

Like any good marriage, God

Provides the right environment

For a strong sweet marriage,

Soil – Sunshine – Rain.

As we noted in earlier posts, the onions seem to have made the Toombs County area more prosperous than neighboring counties.  Still, about 25 percent of county residents live below the poverty level.  The median household income is $32,464 — more than $17,000 below the national average.

The region has been in the news lately as labor unions and immigrant groups continue to accuse farmers of exploiting Mexican guest workers who do much of the backbreaking harvest work in May.  And now, a group of mostly black American workers in the area are complaining they have a tough time getting work in the fields because of a preference for foreigh guest workers, as highlighted in this May 6 story in The New York Times.

Photo taken May 15, 2013, by Andy Brack, Center for a Better South.  All rights reserved.

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Onion harvest, Cedar Crossing, Ga.

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Workers are now harvesting Vidalia onions, those sweet, delectable springtime delights, in a field just outside Cedar Crossing, Ga., in Toombs County.

Driving through Vidalia and Toombs County, it seems that these world-famous onions have made the area more prosperous than neighboring areas.  Still, about 25 percent of county residents live below the poverty level.  The median household income is $32,464 — more than $17,000 below the national average.

The region has been in the news lately as labor unions and immigrant groups continue to accuse farmers of exploiting Mexican guest workers who do much of the backbreaking harvest work in May.  And now, a group of mostly black American workers in the area are complaining they have a tough time getting work in the fields because of a preference for foreigh guest workers, as highlighted in this May 6 story in The New York Times.

Photo taken May 14, 2013, by Andy Brack.  All rights reserved.

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Old city hall, Bamberg, S.C.

Alleyway, Bamberg, S.C.
Alleyway, Bamberg, S.C.

The South is filled with alleyways like this one from rural Bamberg, S.C.  The two-story building at left with vines crawling up the side is the back of the town’s old city hall, now empty and vacant on the main drag, U.S. Highway 301.  In the middle, you can see how owners of a furniture store made boarded-up back windows more attractive by portraying various colored Palmetto trees, the state symbol.

As mentioned in an earlier post, 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 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.

Photo taken May 6, 2013, by Andy Brack, president of the Center for a Better South