Greenwood City Council President David Jordan will support annexation if the city's effort includes all people.
Jordan vocalized his support for a large-scale expansion of the city limits at Wednesday's Greenwood Voters League meeting.
"By that I mean one for me and one for you," the president of the League explained.
The proclamation came after Tim Kalich, editor and publisher of The Greenwood Commonwealth, talked about racial issues as the city's weakest point.
Kalich pointed out that many whites don't support public education because a majority of the students who attend public schools in Greenwood and Leflore County are African American.
He used as example the failure of two bond issues since 1998 to improve local schools.
White people look at the majority-black school population and say, "What's in it for me?" Kalich said, calling the attitude shortsighted.
"Until all the people in the community are well-educated," he told the group of about 50, "we'll never reach our potential."
A lack of support for public schools affects the economy because an area's workforce is only as strong as its education level, he said. Right now, Greenwood is 20 percentage points below the national average when it comes to the rate of adults with at least a high school diploma.
On the other hand, Kalich said, African Americans haven't supported annexation. Greenwood hasn't had a meaningful expansion in decades. Annexation in the recent past has included plenty of land, but few people.
The perception in the white community is that African Americans won't support annexation because they fear a dilution of voting strength that will cost them elected seats.
Kalich explained that if the city annexes the estimated 7,000 people who lives outside the current city limits, the movement will result in a "marginal difference in voting strength."
Greenwood has the second-highest tax rate for a city its size in the state. Clarksdale is the first, Kalich said. Through annexation of about 7,000 new white and African-American residents, he said, tax rates could decrease because more people would share the load.
Said Jordan, "We can annex that 7,000 tomorrow. Bring them all in. I want blacks to come in as well as whites."
