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Border Belt Independent

Border Belt Independent •

What remains of St. Andrews

For decades, drivers turning from U.S. 401 onto the campus of St. Andrews University in Laurinburg saw crepe myrtles, pine trees, and flags adorned with azure shields.
Now, the welcoming greens and blues clash with yellow caution tape, orange “road closed” signs, and red warnings telling trespassers to stay away. Silver barbed wire surrounds the athletic fields.
St. Andrews, which opened in 1961, was once a home for free thinkers seeking a liberal arts education in rural southeastern North Carolina. But the blocked roadways across campus are symbolic of an institution that is gone and a local community that is struggling to cope.
Border Belt Independent •

Downtown Lumberton, gritty and historic, looks for new life

If Richard Sceiford ever dreamed of donning a hard hat, it would have been for a stage role as a construction worker. But the lifelong thespian now spends much of his day in a work zone in downtown Lumberton, where the scraping of concrete and laying of bricks fill the once-quiet space.

Sceiford, the executive director of the Carolina Civic Center, has a front-row view of the construction of a $3 million theater annex in the heart of downtown. The 8,200-square-foot expansion
Border Belt Independent •

PFAS concerns plague the Robeson County Landfill

Stepping outside her home on Britt Road near St. Pauls has become a burden for Viv Tolson Wayne. 

Warm days are the worst. That’s when dozens of buzzards line her yard, attracted by the stench of the Robeson County Landfill across the street. 

Wayne, 74, said the odor irritates her persistent cough and makes her eyes sting. Sometimes her arms break out in a rash. Several neighbors have developed chronic illnesses and cancer since the landfill was built in 1995.
Border Belt Independent •

Robeson County leads North Carolina in solar farms. How many are too many?

A shallow thrum can be heard along U.S. 74 in western Robeson County near a 40-acre solar farm that generates enough electricity to power more than 1,000 homes each year.

It’s a familiar sound in Robeson, which has 41 solar farms, more than any other North Carolina county. With mild winters, consistent sunshine and relatively cheap land, the southeastern corner of the state has become an ideal spot for solar projects as power giants like Duk...
Border Belt Independent •

Southern Columbus County: Where new development collides with a rural way of life

The aroma of cigarettes, coffee, and Snickers bars fills the air outside of Fowler’s Supermarket on a rainy Sunday morning.

Just before they head to church, a dozen men gather on the long wooden benches and plastic rocking chairs outside the store and debrief the local goings on. It’s been a weekly tradition for nearly three decades since the store opened in southern Columbus County.

If you want to hear about the new
Border Belt Independent •

Crisis in children's mental health takes a heavy toll in rural southeastern NC

This is the first in a two-part project about the children’s mental health crisis in Bladen, Columbus, Robeson and Scotland counties. Read the second story, which focuses on the foster care system, story here.

A 9-year-old girl who spent four months last year inside the Columbus County hospital’s emergency department lashed out at nurses and clawed at the drywall. She wasn’t allowed to use a fork over fears she would use it as a weapon.

Each day, staff at the Columbus Regional Healthcare Syste
Border Belt Independent •

NC’s diverse Robeson County now has GOP voting streak. What’s behind support for Trump?

Jimmy and Timmy Bullard, 32-year-old twins who grew up in the Robeson County town of Pembroke, were raised to believe they should always vote for Democrats. 

Then came Donald Trump. 

“My granddaddy was a Democrat. He goes to church, he’s a Christian,” Timmy Bullard said. “But when he saw what Trump did, that’s when he turned from Democrat to Republican.”  

The way the Bullards see it, Trump secured the southern border...
Border Belt Independent •

Robeson County elections board delays ruling on Pembroke mayoral election

Greg Cummings and his family used to visit Gary Locklear’s house every Christmas Eve to share stories and break bread in joyous tradition. 

But Cummings didn’t show up last December. 

The two men were high school classmates who later bonded over decades spent in the Robeson County political arena. Cummings has served two terms as Pembroke mayor after spending several years on the town council. Locklear, a former assistant district attorn...
Border Belt Independent •

In this Robeson County town, high school seniors say they don't plan to vote

Samere Yates sees plenty of problems in his hometown of Fairmont, a town of 2,500 residents in the southern end of Robeson County. 

“Everyone here winds up shot, dead or in jail,” said Yates, 18. “There’s just nothing here. It’s terrible.” 

But Yates, who will graduate this month from Fairmont High School, doesn’t see any solutions to his community’s woes coming through the ballot box in the November election. Many of his senior-class pee...
Border Belt Independent •

In rural Scotland County, voters say candidates must show up to gain their support

When Scotland High opened in the late 1960s as an integrated school, Marie Willis’s cousins, who are Black, got into fights with white students. Her cousins were expelled, while the white kids faced few consequences.


Then, North Carolina civil rights attorneys Julius Chambers and Adam Stein stepped in and got the expulsions reversed. 


It’s a story that has stuck with Willis. On Tuesday she got to express her gratitude to Adam Stein’s son,...
Border Belt Independent •

Low pay, lack of resources lead to burnout in southeastern NC schools, teachers say

It’s an epic vocal trio of Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Tensions are rising within George Washington’s presidential cabinet. Jefferson can’t take it anymore.

“If there’s a fire you’re trying to douse,” Jefferson raps in the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton,” “you can’t put it out from inside the house.”

Those lyrics hit Kaylan Ganus like a brick. It was the wake-up call the public school teacher had needed for some time....
Border Belt Independent •

‘Feel more pain’: southeastern NC is at the heart of a 30-year public education fight

For 28 days, Angus Thompson has been undergoing intensive radiation therapy at UNC Health Southeastern in Lumberton. The treatments have left him tired and he now walks with two canes for support.

But the fire hasn’t left the 72-year-old retired public defender. Neither has the fervor in his booming voice. He’s a presence that demands attention and a listening ear when he speaks.

When he’s not recovering from radiation therapy, Thompson is fiercely advocating for the same struggle that has bee
Border Belt Independent •

Rural Black voters, including those in Scotland County, are key for Democrats in NC

In a navy blue pinstripe suit and black and gold paisley tie, 93-year-old William Matthews Jr. drove through downtown Laurinburg in a Wagoneer bearing his name, waving and tossing candy out the window as he passed the crowds.

Matthews, a retired command sergeant major in the National Guard, was the grand marshal for Scotland County’s Second Annual Black History Parade on Saturday. Organized by the African American Heritage Committee of Scotland County, the parade made its way down Main Street,
Border Belt Independent •

Race, equality and alliances: The story behind Lumberton's contentious election

A slate of political hopefuls wanted to shake up the Lumberton City Council in last month’s contentious election that highlighted issues of race and equality in the Robeson County town.

Voters, however, opted to stick with the status quo. They re-elected Mayor Bruce Davis and three incumbent council members. In another district, voters rejected the only candidate on the ballot — Erich Von Hackney, a former council member who often clashed with Davis — and wrote in a candidate endorsed by the ma
Border Belt Independent •

Fabric of community: The legacy of the Jewish population in rural southeastern NC

In Judaism, l’dor v’dor means passing history and lessons from generation to generation. It’s a core value about carrying traditions and honoring a shared past.

So when the opportunity came for Ricky Leinwand, the grandson of Austrian Jewish immigrants, to take over his family’s clothing store in Bladen County, there was no question what he’d do.

The store, Leinwand’s, has been in Elizabethtown since 1935. For 88 years, it’s been a staple of the community, offering work wear, shoes and more to
Border Belt Independent •

In flood-prone Robeson County, a push to remove trash and trees from waterways

To Brianna Goodwin, there is no greater issue or bigger fear in Robeson County than flooding.

So when Goodwin, executive director of the Robeson County Church & Community Center, had the opportunity to make a systemic change, she knew what to do.

“There is this kind of underlying PTSD, worry and threat to our well-being,” Goodwin said. “It’s a threat to our infrastructure, to our emotional health — the threat of flooding.”

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Border Belt Independent •

Bladen County takes cue from state, bans transgender youth in parks and rec sports

Bladen County is one of the first counties in North Carolina to require participants in its parks and recreation programs to play on sports teams aligned with the sex they were assigned at birth.

The five Republicans and four Democrats who serve on the Bladen County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the policy last week without public discussion or input from citizens.

The Rev. Cameron McGill, a Bladen County commissioner, asked Parks and Recreation Director Grant Pait in June to loo