Fairhope, Alabama. One of the most beautiful southern places to retire. Right next to a body of water, flowers surrounding the city, and on every other corner, there's a cute little coffee shop or bookstore.
Also, one of the biggest Southern hubs of racism. I absolutely adore Fairhope, I grew up walking the pier, watching the sunset go down, eating at Julwins on Sunday morning, and swinging on the park swings with my toes in the sand. It's a part of my heart, which is why it's so sad for me to see how racism is still so fervent in the community. There are plenty of really kind, accepting people, but when you walk around downtown Fairhope a full afternoon and don't see a single person of color, you begin to notice something is up.
According to the City of Fairhope Demographics, 88.73% of residents are white, while 8.25% are black, .59% are Asian, and 2.44% are of other racial backgrounds. Of course, this alone does not entail racism, but let us remember how Fairhope treats "outsiders" with the article "We don't push in Fairhope." Leslie Ann Tarabella writes an account of the lighting of trees of 2015, a Fairhope November tradition.
She so antipathetically describes how she doesn't want "too many new and visiting people who don't play nice." Now in her account, she does describe some very unpleasant people, to which I agree are just not being very courteous, but then goes on to discourage the diversification of the community by saying, "The Christmas parade is coming up soon, and I’m not going to tell a soul when it is. And yes, it’s called the CHRISTMAS parade, so don’t come here and get your heathen panties in a wad and try to change it. So, join us if you’d like. But be nice. And remember . . . we don’t push in Fairhope!" No wonder people who aren't similar to the born and bred Fairhopians (majority white) wouldn't feel welcome in the community.
In a quick search of the term "Fairhope racism" on Facebook, the results light up the screen with what I hoped would've been a frustration with the way things are but instead is a litter of white people claiming BLM, 93 BLX, and other majority black organizations are racist because they examine the plight of black Americans as ones that face discrimination. I shouldn't have expected any different. There are a few scattered comments about Fairhope business discrimination, but alas the minority voice is overpowered again.
(The KKK was founded in 1865 before the gradual switch of the parties platforms i.e. the republican party platform founded the KKK. I think you are quite mistaken in how you believe BLM takes action. There are riots. It is not the majority of the movement. Also, true racism did not die out many years ago. It has been prevalent in many areas even after the civil rights movement "ended." We tend to forget that Dr. King did not die for the movement. He was murdered by the opposers. "Black Lives Matter can't be the new KKK. The KKK is still around. They did not vacate the premises"-Trevor Noah).
Ironyin Utopia: the Discovery of Nancy Lewis by southern historian Paul Gaston, tells the tale of Fairhope's humble beginnings to make a community not based on capitalism, but there's a less known truth about Fairhope's foundation. Paul Gaston, in searching through the historical documents of Fairhope's creation, finds the presence of a woman named Nancy Lewis who owned 40-acres of the land prior to it becoming Fairhope. After much conflict of whether she was to keep the land or not, she sold it to the founders. Gaston expresses his confusion in "why some arrangement had not been made to take Nancy Lewis into the association, why... had it been necessary to buy her out." The ticket came from his father: Nancy Lewis was black. The council agreed that to preserve Fairhope, "it must be for white's only."
Note: If this article has hurt or offended you in any way, I would like to say my intention was not to claim every Fairhope resident is racist. I think plenty of Fairhopians are not racist at all and those are the people who have to create change. Fairhope cannot be preserved on the principles of being "for whites only" anymore. You might be thinking people of color do not come into the community because they don't want to and that's not my fault. And, no, directly it's not your fault, but the lack of minorities is due to the fact that Fairhope is not a welcoming space for those who aren't white. You can be the change. If Fairhope becomes a place where diversity is appreciated and accepted, it will not pollute the area, it will only make it flourish.
