The Center for a Better South
Photographer Linda W. Brown snapped this holiday scene in her hometown of Kingstree, S.C., the governmental seat of Williamsburg County.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our photos of the Southern Crescent region throughout 2014 and look forward to providing you with more compelling imagery over the next year. Happy holidays!
Photo is copyrighted by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Legendary architect Robert Mills, who designed the Washington Monument, also designed the courthouse in Williamsburg County, S.C. (above). The ground floor of the building, built in 1823, is part of the original structure, writes photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C.
In 2013, the building got a much-needed renovation as part of an extensive capital project made possible by the federal stimulus program. In addition to the courthouse renovation, the county built a new county administration building, a new jail, a new 911 center and a new animal shelter.
Just under 34,000 people live in Williamsburg 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.
Copyrighted photo taken in 2014 by Linda W. Brown All rights reserved.
Pinewood, population 538 in rural Sumter County, S.C., has this old, restored railroad depot, which is similar to ones we’re showcased in the past from Salters, S.C., and Leary, Ga.
Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown says this news story from 202 highlights the depot’s restoration.
Sumter County, which is home to Shaw Air Force Base, is comprised of 108,052 people. Just under 50 percent are white; 47 percent are black. The poverty rate is estimated to be 18.2 percent in the county, but it is a much higher percentage in places like Pinewood.
Copyrighted photo by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Trees shelter a vintage barn in Clarendon County, S.C., off Newman Branch Road.
Clarendon County has 34,357 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 population estimate. About half of the county’s residence are white; the other half are black.
Photo taken in 2014 by Linda W. Brown. Copyrighted; all rights reserved.
During the autumn, brightly-colored tarps covering huge cotton bales are an important part of the scenery across the rural South. These bales, photographed by Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C., are in eastern Clarendon County, S.C.
Clarendon County has 34,357 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 population estimate. About half of the county’s residence are white; the other half are black.
Photo taken in 2014 by Linda W. Brown. Copyrighted; all rights reserved.
Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown spied these old signs along a fence of what she thought seemed to be an abandoned baseball field in rural Clarendon County, S.C.
Clarendon County has 34,357 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 population estimate. About half of the county’s residence are white; the other half are black.
Photo taken in 2014 by Linda W. Brown. Copyrighted; all rights reserved.
Note the blue tarp on the roof of this dilapidated house on Sumter Street in Fairfax, S.C. The area has a lot of housing that needs improvement, according to those who live in the area and nonprofit officials.
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.
Copyrighted photo by Andy Brack, Oct. 1, 2014. All rights reserved.
This abandoned motel on U.S. Highway 301 in rural Allendale, S.C., is almost across the road from another empty hotel we profiled in 2013.
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.
As we took a photo of a closed barber shop along U.S. Highway 321 in Fairfax, S.C., you could see a drug deal going on in broad daylight across the street at an intersection.
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.
Copyrighted photo by Andy Brack, Oct. 1, 2014. All rights reserved.
This old, rusting vernacular house east of Sycamore, S.C., is in the middle of the six-county impoverished area that the Center for a Better South has worked with area and state leaders to apply for a federal Promise Zone designation. Read about our work here.
While the farmhouse seems to be unoccupied, but may be used as a hunting cabin, it’s easy to see good workmanship in the framing. Structures like this dot the countryside throughout the Southern Crescent, a reminder of tenant farming of days gone by.
Sycamore, a village to the west of about 180 people, is about 60 percent white with a 35 percent black community of residents. Unlike the whole of Allendale County with its almost 40 percent poverty rate, poverty is comparatively low at 10 percent in Sycamore.
Photo by Andy Brack, Center for a Better South, Oct. 1, 2014. All rights reserved.