Black mayors continue fight to improve their areas

By WARREN BOLTON

Associate Editor

MANY RURAL towns continue to struggle to overcome a long-standing drought — not rain-related, but that characterized by a lack of resources.

The lack is particularly evident in four areas: health care, education, housing and infrastructure. It’s something state leaders ought to be concerned about if we want to improve our state as a whole.

“Rural South Carolina is still important to all of South Carolina,” Manning Mayor Kevin Johnson said. “As go the rural areas, or the areas that have the least, so goes South Carolina.”

He’s right. If South Carolina is to move from the bottom of the heap in health disparities, education, per capita income and other key categories, it must find a way to help our rural areas.

While the state must play a key role, the S.C. Conference of Black Mayors acknowledges that rural areas must find creative ways to help themselves as well.

The state’s 34 black mayors, most of whom lead rural towns, work hard to provide services and amenities their people need, said Eastover Mayor Chris Campbell, president of the S.C. Conference of Black Mayors.

The mayors will gather for the 21st meeting of the Conference of Black Mayors on Wednesday and Thursday at the Marriott in Columbia. In addition to the mayors, hundreds of others — from state and local elected officials to health care providers — will attend the conference.

This year’s theme is “Creating Equity for Rural South Carolina: Health, Education, Housing and Infrastructure.” Some of the speakers will include Bernard Simmons of the National Association of Health Care Centers; Steve Morrison, an attorney with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, the law firm representing districts in the school funding case against the state; Robin Chisolm of the state Department of Commerce’s Rural Crossroads Institute; and Rick Wade, director of business development for Palmetto GBA.

John Hudson, a consultant with the Conference of Black Mayors, said it’s appropriate for the mayors to focus on health care, education, housing and infrastructure, primarily water and sewer. “When you’re talking about economic development, nothing can really happen without these components,” he said.

Mayor Campbell said health care, education and housing are interrelated. “You will find persons without health care have education problems and live in less than adequate housing,” he said. “It disproportionately affects African-Americans.”

Isaac Williams, an aide to Congressman Jim Clyburn, said many of the rural towns black mayors lead are in the congressman’s district and Rep. Clyburn is committed to helping them overcome obstacles to growth and development, such as the lack of infrastructure. Mr. Williams said the congressman is focused on improving the quality of life in what Mr. Williams termed the “poorest, blackest district in the state.”

“The needs are common along that I-95 corridor,” he said.

Mayor Campbell added that not only will success stories and best practices be shared, but that this is a time to share failures and ideas that don’t work so others can avoid the same mistakes. He said it’s also an opportunity for the mayors to interact with other elected officials as well as state agencies such as the Commerce Department, which handles “probably 80 percent of all funding to help small communities.”

Mayor Campbell said that in small towns, mayors have to get involved in almost every aspect of citizens’ lives, including schools. “We have to get involved in the education system, although as mayors we have no control over education,” he said. “We have to motivate our school systems in our various cities and towns,” he said, adding that mayors must visit schools and serve as mentors.

Mayor Johnson said it’s hard to believe the state has yet to address the quality of education in rural areas. Manning is in Clarendon County, where the school desegregation suit was birthed, yet “we’re still dealing with equity issues in education,” he said.

The mayors said many of the best-educated students leave small, rural communities, never to return. “Brain drain” is devastating to small towns because those who leave carry so much leadership and knowledge with them.

Mayors Campbell and Johnson said it’s important to build infrastructure that lures industry and jobs as well as housing and other amenities needed to support thriving populations and entice people to return.

“We want our young folks to go off and get educated, and we want them to come back and serve our communities,” Mayor Johnson said. Many don’t return now because they don’t have a reason to. “I don’t care how much you want them to come, they’re not coming,” he said.

Mr. Williams said if those areas are going to retain people, they must solve their water and sewer needs. “I think addressing that need is what’s going to help spark industry in that area,” he said. “If you don’t have the infrastructure in place, and the jobs, you’re going to lose population.”

Mayor Johnson said Manning wants to help solve those problems. Its water system has the capacity to help surrounding areas that need potable water for residents as well as for proposed housing and prospective industry.

While areas such as Florence and Orangeburg are doing well, Mayor Johnson said, the areas in between are still trying to get basic services so they can begin to develop. “We know we have our work cut out for us there.”

It’s a challenge the mayors, with the help of the state and others, must meet — for all our sakes.

Reach Mr. Bolton at (803) 771-8631 or wbolton@thestate.com.