Franklin

Franklin is an Independent City of a little over 8,000 souls in the south eastern corner of the state of Virginia close to the North Carolina border. It split from Southampton County and was chartered as an Independent City in 1960 and some say it did so because it somehow allowed them to delay desegregating the schools. (Schools were eventually desegregated for the first time in 1965 – 10 years after Brown vs. the Board of Education.)

Just a few miles from Franklin is the site of the slave Nat Turner’s 1831 uprising in which over 55 slave owners were killed. Virginia considered abolishing slavery after that incident, but instead became more repressive in their treatment of slaves and free blacks. Many say that they are still fighting the civil war down here.

The town is now about evenly divided racially. It’s economy (and the skyline) is dominated by a paper mill that is now owned by International Paper. There was a major flood here in the center of town in 1999, which decimated down town and probably helped the speed collapse of many businesses given that there is a Walmart just two miles away.

People are all very friendly and even McCain supporters tend to polite about their disagreements. If I could have picked where I want to be working on this election, I could not have picked a better place.