Jackson Hamlet

Last Saturday I was asked to attend a meeting in Jackson Hamlet. That's a small community, really little more than a large neighborhood populated primarily by low income black folk. It is surrounded on three sides by the far more affluant community of Pinehurst. We all met in a small Baptist church and I listened to stories being told of how lives are lived in the shadow of a wealthy community which influences their lives without including them in any meaningful way.

Pinehurst has annexed land all around this small enclave and law allows Pinehurst to govern codes a mile beyond its borders. So there is this small community with only those services which are provided by the county. Population density is at a municipal level, but police protection is minimal. There are no sewers, and there are few street lights or paved roads. When they ask for inclusion in the town that surrounds them they are given a cold shoulder.

I sat there in a church with windows painted purple to achieve the effect of stained glass. The ceiling was dropped and the panels were old and uneven. The place was filled with black folk dressed in clothing that was "Sunday best." They talked about having streets that are ink black at night, and having septic systems that no longer work. I learned that water from washing machines and bath tubs is called "gray water," and that the people of Jackson Hamlet save the declining effectiveness of old septic tanks by piping "gray water" directly onto their property. Meanwhile, the Pinehurst sewer system runs but a few hundred feet away.

If they subscribe to a garbage pick-up service, they must do so individually and it's expensive since they have no municipality to negotiate for competitive rates. They exist like a hole in a block of Swiss cheese, surrounded by a town that can tell them what to do, but which refuses to help, and would never take them in as their own. Empty land is what Pinehurst is eager to acquire, but when it comes to including people, at least people like those who live in Jackson Hamlet, then that's another matter entirely.