As a chemistry student at Union, Joseph James ’69 had his sights set on a career in the sciences. But then a national tragedy changed those plans.
“I guess it was in my junior year Martin Luther King was killed, at a time when he was working on the economics of being a free person,” James recently recalled. “It became very clear to me that I didn’t want to spend my life in a lab.
“I wanted to be involved with the community, particularly on the economic side.”
The passion that grew from this decision fueled a lifelong career in economic development. It also earned James a 2008 Purpose Prize worth $100,000.
The national award recognizes one of his latest initiatives, “The Greening of Black America – A Rural Development Opportunity.” The project, like much of his other work, creates economic practices that maintain equity for disadvantaged people and communities.
Purpose Prizes have been given for the last three years to people over 60 who are taking on society’s biggest challenges, according www.purposeprize.org. The award is part of the Encore Careers campaign, which engages millions of baby boomers in jobs that combine social impact and personal meaning with continued income in the second half of life.
“The Greening of Black America” sprung from James’s realization that participating in the south’s growing “green” economy was a way to stabilize the declining number of black farmers and reduce rural poverty.
His project focuses on black farmers in South Carolina. One of its key components is creating opportunities for these farmers within the growing biomass industry. The effort, for instance, encourages farmers to produce oil seed crops like sunflower, sesame and canola seeds.
“The Greening of Black America” also strives to help farmers increase their earnings and reduce “food-miles” by selling produce directly to local consumers. Next spring, The Corporation for Economic Opportunity hopes to launch a farmers’ market at a 6,000-member church in South Carolina.
James, 61, launched the non-profit Corporation for Economic Opportunity in 2004, after leaving his job with the South Carolina Commerce Department. James, who lives in Columbia, S.C., has also held top-level economic development positions in Austin, Chicago, Philadelphia and Richmond.
To view a video about James’s project, click here.