Wealthy Suburb Proposes Split From City, Prompting Calls Of Racism And Inequality

Baton Rouge, La. (CBS HOUSTON) – A petition calling for the creation of a new city in a wealthy white suburb of Baton Rouge has divided the city’s residents in a debate about race and public education.

Currently part of the East Baton Rouge Parish, more than 18,000 residents of the St. George suburb south of the area have signed a petition to split from Baton Rouge, BBC News reports of the ongoing controversial proposal. But stark divisions in race and wealth have prompted many to accuse the move as simply an abandonment of the poorer, black sections of the city.

Advocates for the new so-called city of St. George say that they are simply looking to improve the quality of their local public schools and to more directly control the placement of their taxpayer dollars. According to the Baton Rouge area Chamber of Commerce, the median household income for the proposed St. George city is $30,000 higher than in the city of Baton Rouge, with the rest of the parish relying heavily on tax revenue from such residents.

“Race unequivocally has nothing to do with this,” Saint George spokesman Lionel Rainey III told BBC News. “They’re just trying to create a city. The goal is to create a city here, which would be a sister city to Baton Rouge.”

“What they’d like to see is their tax dollars kept local,” continued Rainey. “And representation here local. But more important than that, they want the opportunity to change the public schools in this area and to stop families from leaving this area. Because middle class families are leaving more and more and more every year.”

Advocates in favor of the proposed St. George city say they need less than 2,000 signatures to hit the goal of 20,000 signatures that would enable them to place the independence vote on the ballot.

“We’re in the home stretch now, whenever we reach 25 percent of the registered voters we can then bring the issue to vote for people in this area,” said Shane Liles, who is going door-to-door in favor of the Saint George campaign. Liles said that there are plenty of great school systems surrounding the St. George area, but none within its limits.

“Living where we do, there’s only a few options: You can either send your kids to private school and pay tuition, or you can move.”

But the significant racial and financial divide between Baton Rouge and the proposed St. George city has angered many Baton Rouge residents with accusations of a return to segregation.

The new city would be 70 percent white and 23 percent black, compared to Baton Rouge, which would be 55 percent black and 40 percent white.

Fighting against the proposed city is the “Better Together” campaign, with member Celeste Reynolds and others canvassing neighborhoods to express their opposition to St. George’s split from Baton Rouge.

“The St. George breakaway would have some very serious racial consequences for the city of Baton Rouge, issues like segregating the schools,” Reynolds told the BBC. “We just don’t think it’d be right for the wealthy, predominately white part of the city to break away from the less privileged, majority black part.”

“You cannot simply abandon the poor because you may have the power and the muscle to do it,” said East Baton Rouge Parish School Board member Domoine Rutledge. “80-plus percent of our student population are poor. When you have a very high concentration of poor children – regardless of race – it’s increasingly challenging to get those children up to speed or grade level.”

The African-American Antoine family lives in St. George, and also opposes the split.

“In St. George, what you’re going to see is that old movie, that old representation where white water fountain, color water fountain.”

“I’m a single father, I’ve been in this house for 15 years and everything is not perfect, but it’s a work in progress,” said the family’s father. “Most of the people who initiated the St. George movement, were your upper-class, maybe six-figure income parents who were putting their kids in private schools.”

“People who would rather walk past you on the street, cross the street, than look at you. You become a part of a city that was structured and organized based on that premise. You can’t help but assume you’re not going to be welcomed.”

But St. George proponents dismiss claims of race or wealth disparity factoring into the proposal.

“You know it’s unfortunate that the opponents try to pull the race card, responded St. George spokesman Lionel Rainey III. “Race unequivocally has nothing to do with this. Public schools are bad here. We want to take control of our public schools. It’s a real problem and race is the last thing that’s on anybody’s mind.”

“We’re trying to create a city so we’d have our own mayor, and have our own city council and the tax dollars would stay here and we could create a school system here.”