Author: Jane Nicholes

Spring break doesn’t start and end in Baldwin County so much as it starts up and winds down. While there may be some families or groups of college kids out on the beaches this week, the days when nearby universities and local high schools were all out on break at once are over for the year. Gulf Shores’ infamous spring break alcohol ban on the beaches ended Monday, though we don’t recommend throwing a keg party there in celebration. Gulf Shores plans to review the need for the ban every year, but these numbers make a strong argument for the future: • Arrests in Gulf Shores last year from March 3 through April 16: 633; • Arrests this year: 370. “I think it was a lesser crowd,” Gulf Shores Police Lt. Bill Cowan said. “There were still plenty of people here, but I think the alcohol ban for the weeks of spring break had the effect of letting people know that we’re not going to be the college party town. We’re not interested in being the college party town. I think that helped.” When Panama City Beach got so out of control authorities there had to take steps to make it less attractive for the hard-partying college crowd, Pleasure Island leaders feared they would move west. And when some of them did migrate last year, the underage drinking and...

Joanne Bland uses oral history to get African-American history straight. Her appearance in Foley last week encompassed school students, a luncheon with community leaders and a late-afternoon meeting with Baldwin County teachers. Bland is a civil rights and human rights activist who grew up in Selma. She owns Journeys for the Soul, a touring agency focusing on civil rights history and Selma. Bland’s message: As a matter of self-worth, children descended from slaves need to know the truth, however ugly, about the days of slavery and the fight for civil rights. White children need to know the truth, too, and they don’t necessarily get it in school. “Ain’t no such thing as a happy slave,” she told the teachers. “Slavery happened. It happened. It’s a part of our history. It wasn’t a good part of our history, I don’t think, but it happened. You cannot deny it happened. But you cannot sugarcoat it and act like it was right.” Teachers need to be creative to overcome sugarcoated standard curriculums. Young children, who often idolize their teachers, learn self-esteem from their own history. For example, blacks were civil rights heroes, and slaves built the homes and infrastructure in the early years of this nation. “When you talk about World War II, you need to mention some Negroes; you need to mention some brown people. You need to mention some yellow...

About a dozen people are sitting around a table at the Baldwin County Commission’s annex in Robertsdale. They represent several agencies trying to make a difference in the lives of children. They speak of the effects of poverty, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, parents who don’t care, even lack of transportation as keeping at-risk children from reaching their potential. Many agency representatives don’t have immediate solutions to what are difficult societal problems. But they keep trying. They’re getting some help from the Community Foundation of South Alabama, which is sponsoring a series of “deliberative forums” in its eight-county service area. In conjunction with the David Mathews Center for Civic Life, based in Montevallo, the meeting is an opportunity to brainstorm and work together to solve problems through the foundation’s “Closing the Opportunity Gap Initiative.” Many of the social services representatives noted while Baldwin County is known as an affluent, growing, economically strong county, poverty is a reality in many areas. Affordable housing is a real problem in central Baldwin and along the coast, where many people work in tourism industry service jobs. Statistics provided to the forum confirm not everyone is living well. Infant mortality, low birthweights and teen pregnancies are slightly higher than the national average. Three percent of Baldwin households don’t have a vehicle. Nearly 20 percent of children live below the poverty line. Nearly 42 percent of...