Whites then Blacks abandoned Jackson, propelling its water crisis

[Nevilledog]

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Doktor Zoom
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Really good look at the historical context for Jackson's water crisis. Lots of commenters who seem to think the idea of white flight in reaction to desegregation is just a myth liberals made up, though.

washingtonpost.com
Whites then Blacks abandoned Jackson, propelling its water crisis
The Mississippi capital entered a spiral of decline when two different out-migrations caused its tax base to plummet; water systems began to founder unrepaired.
6:56 PM · Sep 4, 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/04/jackson-water-crisis/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/1sHwa

JACKSON, Miss. — Alecia McCarty awakens every morning wondering whether water will flow from her tap, and if it will be drinkable.

Earlier last week, her water was tea-colored before it sputtered and shut off. On Saturday it flowed fast and clear, but McCarty still couldn’t drink it from the tap under city orders.

She and her children, age 10 and 11, have had to brush their teeth with bottled water, then spend time refilling the family supply at two water distributions at nearby churches. They have used a garden hose daily to fill four buckets of water to run the toilet.

McCarty, 35, works as a caregiver to a bedridden elderly woman in the nearby town of Madison, which like most areas surrounding Jackson was unscathed, thanks to its newer water system.
“They don’t have water problems,” she said. “They don’t have any of these problems.”

Jackson has been under a boil-water notice since late July, with long-standing water system failures exacerbated by recent flooding and broken pumps at the city’s main water plant that left many in the capital city of 150,000 without water last week. It wasn’t clear how soon the system would be fixed, at what cost or by whom.

*snip*

[brush]

1. It's not that complicated. The city of Jackson is majority Black...

it's Mississippi, racism hasn't gone away. The powers that be spent money on the whites in suburbs. Par for the course.

And Blacks who could afford to get out of Jackson are no fools. They moved away too.

[Raine]

2. Disgraceful that an American city in 21 century America can't provide safe drinking water

for it citizens!