In the early 1980s - when Columbia City Council consisted of five white men who all lived in Shandon - Alvin Hinkle was one of six black people who sued to force the city to have single-member districts.
"The judge had ordered us to negotiate," Hinkle said. "The first person who spoke up was (a city councilman) sitting across from me. He said, 'Alvin, y'all are dealing with politics here. This is not athletics. Y'all are good at athletics, but you're not good at politics.'"
Race relations in the capital city have changed since then. Three of City Council's seven members are black. Two declared mayoral candidates are black. And nearly 80 percent of city residents say they believe the city is ready to elect a black mayor - a first in the city's history - according to a State newspaper/Metromark survey.
But in that same survey, 30 percent of residents questioned thought overall race relations in the city were either "fair" or "poor," giving the category the lowest rating out of every issue asked about in the quality of life survey.
The precariousness of the city's racial atmosphere was showcased last month when vandals spray painted a racial epithet referencing the possibility of a black mayor on the side of City Hall.
City crews used a pressure washer to remove the graffiti while the city's elected officials held a news conference to express their outrage.
But for some in the city's black community, the graffiti wasn't surprising at all - and that was the problem.
"You're not going to ever be able to stop some racist coot from spraying graffiti on the side of the building," Hinkle said. "But you could certainly have an atmosphere so that people don't feel like it's par for the course."
How to create that atmosphere will be one of the biggest challenges facing the city's new mayor, who will be elected April 6. Mayor Bob Coble is retiring after 20 years in office.
The mayor's success or failure with regard to race relations is tied to the city's economic development policies. The adoption of some single-member districts in the early 1980s led to the election of the first black City Council members and over time led to millions of dollars of public investment in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, including Read Street, Rosewood Hills and the neighborhoods along North Main Street.
But despite those efforts, an attitude exists in Columbia's black neighborhoods that the city's tax dollars mostly have been spent on downtown projects in areas like the Vista.
That attitude is most prevalent in City Council's debate over a proposed special tax district for North and east Columbia. The area includes the city's first and second council districts and comprises 77 percent of the city's 27,600 registered black voters. (There are about 33,500 registered white voters.)
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The special tax district would capture property tax growth on commercial properties. Officials would then use that money to invest back into the tax district through projects like sidewalks and water and sewer lines. (A similar district is being proposed to raise money to build a riverfront park in the Vista.)
The North Columbia district would pose some complex financial challenges for the city. Officials would not wait for the property taxes to come in before spending the money. Instead, they would borrow money based on what they think they will receive and then pay off the loans with the property tax growth.
But with local governments struggling financially because of lagging property tax collections and business license fees as well as budget cuts at the state level, many elected officials oppose the plan because they worry the government would not collect enough money to pay off the loans.
For the black neighborhoods in Districts 1 and 2, their argument for the tax district is simple: It's our turn.
"When African-American neighborhoods are trying to share in the prosperity of the city, it is always, 'Not now,'" said City Councilman E.W. Cromartie, who represents District 2 and who introduced the tax district idea along with fellow council members Tameika Isaac Devine and Sam Davis. "If not now, when? There is always a reason for it not to occur."
Councilman Kirkman Finlay, who is running for mayor, opposes the North Columbia tax district plan because he says the "financial impacts are hard to understand in today's economy." He prefers smaller individual projects, such as the council's recent donation of 37 acres of land on Farrow Road for a privately run $50 million assisted living community.
But Finlay said he understands how black residents could see it as unfair.
"One of the problems that always gets us in trouble is when people perceive, rightly or wrongly, that one group has special influence or one socioeconomic group or neighborhood is getting special privileges," he said. "We need to always conduct the city's business in an open and fair and completely disclosed manner."
Steve Benjamin, one of two declared black candidates for mayor, said he doesn't sense any racial overtones in the tax district debate.
"People want to get the mayor and the city focused on job creation, they want a safe city, they want a clean city. Those issues are the same issues I hear in Greenview and in Heathwood," Benjamin said, referring to a mostly black neighborhood and a mostly white neighborhood. "The challenge when you are dealing with issues about race (is that) usually the conversation comes up in a negative context. It's rarely a proactive discussion."
Benjamin said that, if elected, he hopes to have those proactive discussions with neighborhoods - about how the city can "leverage this diversity to do some good things," such as promoting "cultural tourism."
"It's a real opportunity to really turn our history into an economic development opportunity," Benjamin said.
THE FLAG
But the city's economic development opportunities would be hurt by its association with the Confederate flag, Benjamin said, which flies on the State House grounds at the intersection of Main and Gervais streets, one of the city's most visible thoroughfares.
"The Confederate flag is defining who we are as a state to people all across the world, and that gets in the way every time we try to bring in new industries, high-paying jobs, and additional tourism dollars," Benjamin said. "We are affected most significantly here in Columbia more because this is where that controversy lives, and we would be better off without it."
In the State newspaper/Metromark survey, 20.4 percent of respondents said they think having the Confederate flag on the State House grounds has a "very positive" or "somewhat positive" impact on the overall image visitors have of Columbia.
Whereas blacks and whites questioned for the survey mostly agreed on the status of race relations in the city, they disagreed on the impact of the Confederate flag. More than half of blacks said the flag had a "very negative" impact on the image visitors have of Columbia, compared to 30 percent of whites.
"It is a difficult time for South Carolina from a race relations standpoint," said mayoral candidate Steve Morrison. "The Confederate flag on State House grounds is still a very sore point of race relations in this city and this state.
"The shout-out from our congressman to the first African-American president was a significant setback for the community," Morrison said of Republican Rep. Joe Wilson's now-infamous remark. "Race relations can always be improved, and they are improved by constant communications and constant attention to the sensitivity of individuals."
But removing the Confederate flag - mainly the fight it would take to remove it - would do more to hurt race relations in the city than help, Finlay said.
"This is one of those issues that I really am not on one side or the other," Finlay said. "I'm not sure the long term gain of having it there, but I'm not sure that I understand the long term value of the enormous fight that it's going to take to get down."
Gary Myers, another black candidate who has declared for mayor, said city residents get "lost in the conversation of the Confederate flag," which distracts them from focusing on more important issues.
"We need to move on beyond that issue - take the flag down so we can do whatever we need to do."
