Black Belt mayors may look overseas for rural Alabama funding

Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young had some advice for Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed about investment in Montgomery's airport and the historic Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights Trail.

Young wanted Atlanta to expand its airport into the international gateway it has become, but President Ronald Reagan's administration had capped airport funding. So Atlanta looked overseas and borrowed $400 million from the Dutch government to make the expansion happen.

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"His point to me was … think about ways you may partner with international governments and companies that have an affinity for this history. And in many countries in Europe, there is an affinity for this history," Reed told a group of Black Belt mayors at a Saturday summit in partnership with the nonprofit Conservation Fund.

One of the suggestions they embraced was the idea of forming a trade delegation to speak with foreign leaders about the business and preservation opportunities here.

"I’ve learned something this morning, and I would love to work collectively on some type of initiative to make that happen," Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. said.

Perkins said a large group from Spain visited Selma last week, and overseas groups are a common sight there. But he said they rarely stay overnight or visit many of the many historic sites because the area needs more hotels and restaurants. "It would help the economy, for sure. It would help the people who actually live in our area," he said.

Marion Mayor Dexter Hinton and White Hall Mayor Delmartre Bethel shared similar concerns at the summit, raising the need for better infrastructure in general, from the sewer to broadband access to electric vehicle charging stations.

Montgomery in recent months announced 4,000 jobs related to projects in west Montgomery near Lowndes County. Reed said that will have a regional impact across the Black Belt and that those future workers will need places to live, eat and shop.

Reed said officials are discussing investments that could provide those resources, while helping to preserve history and share the story of the civil rights movement.

"It’s not enough for people to just give surface-level prayers and remembrances," Reed said. "That doesn’t pay the bills. That doesn’t provide jobs. It doesn’t provide economic opportunity."

Perkins emphasized the importance of a project that would extend I-14 from Texas to Georgia, bringing the interstate through the Black Belt. He said the development possibilities that come with it could lift the area as a whole.

"If we were to lift the Black Belt region, which has the lowest economic and health indicators in this state… we would lift the state of Alabama up probably within the top 10 of all states in this nation," Perkins said. "We can’t keep putting our feet on our own necks and think that we are going to get better. We are not.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brad Harper at bharper1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama mayors may look overseas for Black Belt funding