Morning Edition; North Carolina Voices:Understanding Poverty; Jackson Hamlet:Race, Residence and Respect

tucked away in southern moore county is a close knit community called jackson hamlet blacks started migrating there in the late eating hundreds looking for land work and a fresh start generations of those families helped build the popular golf resort town of pine hearst just down the road but as pyne hearst another nearby mostly white towns flourish jackson hamlet it is deteriorating and has no functioning sewer system garbage pickup or police protection even though jackson hamlet is rural it is densely populated it's landscape resembles the poverty of the urban poor today residents are organizing and demanding change in order to preserve what's left as part of our series in north carolina voices understanding poverty leonid inge reports there are two north carolina's many people say jackson hamlet has been left behind it hasn't grown in size or prospered like many other parts of the state one estimate shows more than a third of the households in this all black community lived below the poverty level many residents own their own homes

but those homes are crumbling and so is the areas infrastructure lots of houses on small lots and have old septic tanks folks say they can't afford to replace posing health and environmental problems there are no parts in the neighborhood so these kids are playing a little basketball on a small patch of dirt on the edge of carol hymowitz property in rio is sixty five years old she was born in jackson hamlet today she lives in the house her grandfather built finley says growing up here was like heaven on earth this was grace that was great yes everything was just my grandmother cure the witty he couldn't do that these people these kmiec bush's it you see the dr because they have been landing us and beyond federal may know an hour

jackson hamlet residents have not always agreed about how to get what they need some residents say the way to preserve jackson hamlet and get a functioning sewer system is to allow themselves to be annexed by pine hearst which legally could be done pine hearst is already identified jackson hamlet for possible future growth and development through a planning tool called extraterritorial jurisdiction but at the present time they say they have no plans to do anything other jackson hamlet residents are afraid of annexation they say they'd lose their identity lose control of their neighborhood and maybe get priced rideout civil rights experts at the university of north carolina law school in chapel hill say they shouldn't have to choose that they have a right to the services like all taxpayers alan part now consults with the law school in his role as a demographer with the cedar grove institute for sustainable communities which he started with his wife ann moss joiner

and this is susie jackson and what is here this area's very distant annexed that the condominiums mr nolan joyner use census data and information from planning agency's and stayed in county government to draw computer generated maps these maps show how moore county has developed over the years it's easy to cease or lines that come just to the edge of jackson hamlet and stop carmel enjoin or save race and poverty seem to play a dual role in the communities chances for annexation and services it's invisible discrimination in that you cannot see who's been excluded from power and you can see who has water you can see us or until you're able to it would be a tunnel that again and again by their powers that be that it's economic not racial which is just i mean it's exclusively economic i mean that's pretty plain our map show

that very well i think that in its economic does that mean we have the right to exclude poor people as well bob taylor is an organizer with the north carolina rural communities assistance project and what would be our overall goal taylor is leaning against a pew at st paul missionary baptist church in jackson hamlet he recently surveyed residents and is now helping them create a plan to improve where they live in my opinion to mean there are car we're now seeing that the ice so to a two to read that too david carden is the assistant moore county manager he's

visited jackson hamlet residents in recent months to hear their concerns mainly about solar and waste i don't think the level of service that they're requesting is something that we're looking at providing can't widen this time army because it was if we if we do it in this area would have to provide that can't widen and now again that would be a policy issue for the board of commissioners to a certain address in february more than fifty jackson hamlet residents filled a more county commission meeting to make a formal plea for help their number one priority money for a functioning sewer system ms taylor here but the prison will carroll him we quickly made her way to the microphone standing before the five white members of the board she reminded commissioners of how generations of jackson

and what residents help make more county what it is today namely the golf resort town of pine hearse less than a mile away i am li xian it's much resources to the camel we get good as maxwell think of consideration and representatives from carolina's law center for civil rights say more county can't afford a sewer system for jackson hamlet they cite the county's financial report that shows over the past decade property tax revenue was more than double jackson hamlet residents left the meeting with their heads high that nineteen eighty four year old josephine gray and her daughter hazel were there what do you think about the meeting today the county and jackson hamlet residents say they won't give up on their

campaign for so were garbage pickup another services and they know that a big opportunity to speak out is coming up the third week in june that's when golf enthusiasts from all over the world will flock to pine hearst for the us open they say support from outside has given them a voice loud enough to campaign for change i will you need an inch north carolina public radio w unc