Darrio Melton: Paving the Black Belt's road to success

  It’s no secret that the Black Belt is behind the times. Just take a drive south of Montgomery and you’ll experience a time and place very different than the rest of Alabama. Families find ways to get by with little means, businesses struggle to provide sustainability for the community, the roads and bridges are dilapidated, and many of the communities look as if they’re stuck in time.

  Many people have wondered for a long time what we can do to help the Black Belt, including myself. Requests to the governor to bring more industry into the area have fallen on deaf ears. Pleas with the legislature to fully fund education for every child have been repeatedly voted down, and attempts to expand I-85 all the way across to Jackson have been fruitless.