Blowing in the Wind

Greetings from the Newberry County Literacy Council. We are continuing our mission to address the quality of literacy in our community, focusing on adults and families. In some ways we are blowing in the wind, reacting to the latest currents involving COVID-19, race relations, and a presidential campaign.

We continue to tutor, we are scheduling future events — such as our cooking series (Cooking Matters!), resuming our book club, and preparing another term of the People’s College. But we are doing these things while remaining vigilant about distancing, masks, and personal safety. Our book club, the Weekly Readers, will tackle John Lewis’s autobiography, “Walking With the Wind.” We meet each Tuesday morning at 11:00 at the Literacy Council. You can also join us via Zoom. Call Barbara Chapman at (803) 276-8086 if you are interested. John Lewis died recently after many years as a Congressman from Georgia. He was also a major presence in the Civil Rights Movement, beginning as a college student in Nashville in the 1950s where he led sit-ins at a local lunch counter. He was one of the Freedom Riders who fought to integrate interstate busing, spoke before Dr. King at the March on Washington in 1963, was clubbed during the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965, and became a towering figure in national politics as a voice of reason, compassion, and fairness. We are reading this book, in part, because race relations and racial inequality remain issues we need to discuss and address. The protests over killings of black citizens have focused attention on where we are as a nation, but we are in danger of losing that momentum because the protests have become a political football, which has overshadowed why the protests are occurring. Protest is an important American value, protected in our Constitution. Our history is filled with the role of protests in advancing rights. However, people looting, carrying rifles on the streets, shooting at protesters, or questioning the right to protest distract us from the racial issues that are behind the protests. And if we can’t focus on the racial inequalities among us, we can’t do anything about them. The violence, whether from protesters or those who oppose them, is counterproductive and dangerous. And, again, it distracts us from the underlying issue. This is good only for those who think everything is fine or don’t want to acknowledge or address race.

It can also be difficult to talk about poverty. It is an uncomfortable subject. At the Literacy Council, as at other non-profits, it’s necessary to deal with it. Those from lower income families are less likely to develop strong literacy skills which means difficulty finding good-paying jobs, decent housing, adequate health care, and success for their children. Poverty also puts tremendous pressure on family stability.

In past columns, I have presented data about poverty in Newberry, compiled by the Literacy Council, to explain why we exist and what our challenge is. Our community is strong in many ways – a diverse economy, a downtown full of small, locally-owned businesses, a thriving arts scene – but we need to help those who aren’t thriving. To remind you, in our county of 37,000 people, 17 percent live in poverty. Over 25 percent of our children in the county live in poverty. In the city of Newberry, 30 percent of the residents and 45 percent of the children live in poverty. The poverty rate for African-Americans and Hispanics is three times that of whites. Poverty is also part of the reason that 25 percent of county third graders are below state standards in reading. There are different explanations for why these inequalities exist, but most would agree that we would be a better community if we could reduce them. Non-profits such as the Literacy Council and First Steps address poverty. And there are government programs to support people in poverty. Nevertheless, poverty remains constant over time so we need to rethink what we are doing about it. People in poverty need access to jobs, good pay, decent housing, childcare, and regular health care. This takes comprehensive planning beyond what non-profits and income-support programs can do. It takes political will and political action. Dr. King, at the time of his death, had organized the Poor People’s Campaign, a broad movement that would generate the will and action to combat poverty, for people of all colors. A series of marches and events was scheduled for May and June in Washington. King’s death was a blow to this campaign and it never generated the momentum he had hoped. A march on June 19, 1968, did draw 50,000 participants and the Poor People’s Campaign has been reorganized in the last few years.

We have not eliminated racism and sexism but have made progress in my lifetime in dealing with them. We have not done as well with poverty. We need to ask why and what to do about it. The answers may be blowing in the wind.

Until next time, continue to think and read and look after your neighbors.