The Center for a Better South
High summer finds a crop in the field in front of an old barn in Hyman, a small community just outside Pamplico, in rural Florence County, S.C.
Florence County had 137,948 people, according to a 2012 Census estimate. Its poverty rate — higher in the rural areas than the county seat of Florence, averaged 19.4 percent in 2010.
Copyrighted photo taken and originally posted in August 2014 by Linda W. Brown. All rights reserved.
Yep, there’s a welcome center for UFOs in the heart of the Southern Crescent in Bowman, S.C., in rural Orangeburg County.
The saucer-shaped building is in the yard of Jody Pendarvis, who started building it in 1994, according to RoadsideAmerica.com.
Mount Pleasant resident Don Gordon snapped the photo on a detour through Bowman in an attempt to avoid traffic jam on Interstate 26.
Orangeburg County is home too more than 91,000 people, two thirds of whom are black. The county has a poverty rate of 24.5 percent. The City of Orangeburg, known for its gardens and historically black colleges, officially is home to 13,850 people and has a 31.3 poverty rate in 2012, but the greater area has more than 65,000 people.
Copyrighted photo was taken and originally posted in August 2014 by Don Gordon. All rights reserved.
This classic old public works building in Ehrhardt, S.C., illustrates how rural communities invested in infrastructure in decades past. But the broken windows highlight how some infrastructure is eroding and needs more upkeep to stay modern. Photo by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
A familiar feature in many small towns across the South is the standard 1960s post office, like the one pictured here in Ehrhardt, S.C. With challenges faced by the U.S. Postal Service and reductions in population in rural communities, small post offices face survival challenges. Photo by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
Across the South are fields of corn that are baking in the humid heat of summer. This field, with the silver roof of an old farmhouse in the background, is east of Denmark, S.C., along U.S. Highway 78. Photo by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
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.