Hemingway – Building a better South

April 6, 2015April 9, 2015

Tobacco mural, Hemingway, S.C.

This mural, depicting the hand-harvesting of tobacco and located on Main Street in downtown Hemingway, S.C., is a reminder of the Williamsburg County town’s past as a major tobacco center.

More on Hemingway in this 2013 post.

February 4, 2015February 5, 2015

Scott’s, Hemingway, S.C.

Scott's Bar-B-Que, Hemingway, S.C. — Scott’s Bar-B-Que, Hemingway, S.C.

Just looking at this picture by Linda W. Brown excites our taste buds because we know from experience that Rodney Scott makes some of the best barbecue ever.

The Williamsburg County joint, located at Brunson’s Crossroads outside Hemingway, S.C., recently was named the most iconic restaurant in South Carolina by ThrillList. You can learn more about Scott’s tasty barbecue here.

Other iconic Southern restaurants on the list, by state:

Alabama: Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Que, Decatur
Arkansas: McClard’s, Hot Springs
Florida: Joe’s Stone Crab, Miami
Georgia: H&H Soul Food, Macon
Kentucky: Jack Fry’s, Louisville
Louisiana: Commander’s Palace, New Orleans
Mississippi: Mayflower Cafe
North Carolina: Skylight Inn, Ayden
Tennessee: Pancake Pantry, Nashville
Virginia: Pierce’s Pitt Bar-B-Que, Williamsburg

August 24, 2013August 24, 2013

Tobacco warehouse, Hemingway, S.C.

Growers Big 4 warehouse, Hemingway, S.C. Photo by Andy Brack.

You can see a trailer of flue-cured tobacco, at right, being taken into the Growers Big 4 warehouse in Hemingway, S.C., a small town in northeastern Williamsburg County near Florence and Marion counties.

The production and sale of tobacco in the South has changed dramatically over the last 30 years in the South. Tobacco auctions, quotas and government price supports dominated prior to 2004 when reforms eliminated government intervention into the market and allowed growers to produce as much as they wanted [Learn more]. These days, auctions are rare — with only one in South Carolina according to this story — and growers enter into direct contracts with buyers.

Williamsburg County, located in the middle of the Southern Crescent, is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county, which is about the number who lived there in 1900, according to Census figures. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.

About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.