Posted on Jan 19, 2009

As a chemistry student at Union, Joseph James ’69 set his sights on a career in the sciences. But a national tragedy changed those plans.

Joseph James, Class of 1969, was in 2008 given a $100,000 Purpose Prize for his work in South Carolina.

"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 recalled recently. “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, given to those over 60 who are taking on society’s biggest challenges, are part of the Encore Careers campaign, which engages baby boomers to work in jobs that combine social impact and personal meaning.

For James, participating in the South’s growing green economy is a way to stabilize the declining number of black farmers and reduce rural poverty. One of its key components is creating opportunities for black farmers in South Carolina in the growing biomass industry. The effort, for instance, encourages production of 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. He lives in Columbia, S.C., and has held top-level economic development positions in Austin, Chicago, Philadelphia and Richmond.

To view a video about James’s project, click here.