monday, april 6 , 2020. the washington post eZ re A
Politics & the Nation
BY HAISTEN WILLIS
AND VANESSA WILLIAMSALBANY, GA. — People have large-
ly abandoned the streets of this
midsize city in southwest Georgia,
which has garnered unwanted at-
tention for leading the state in
covid-19 deaths and having one of
the highest infection rates in the
country. But this past week, a few
locals ventured out anyway to pay
tribute to a community icon.
Last weekend, the coronavirus
took the life of Femi Anderson, a
popular restaurateur and artist,
one of 30 people in Dougherty
County who have died of the dis-
ease since early March. Outside
the Renaissance Art Cafe, which
Anderson o pened i n 2007 near the
banks of the Flint River and Ray
Charles Plaza in downtown Alba-
ny, three sets of flowers and a
stuffed teddy bear sat at the en-
trance Tuesday.
Friends weren’t a ble t o visit An-
derson in the hospital as her case
suddenly turned s erious.
When she was buried Saturday
morning, only 10 family members
and close friends were allowed at
her gravesite at Floral Memory
Gardens, in accordance with a local
order prohibiting l arge gatherings.
But about 50 people showed up
to pay their respects and say fare-
well. T hey sat in their cars outside
the c emetery and a long t he s treets
encircling it, said A mna Farooqi, a
local activist and friend of Ander-
son. Dozens more watched on Fa-
cebook.
The outbreak in Dougherty
County has largely b een attributed
to a funeral in late February that
drew more than 100 mourners,
including a man from Atlanta w ho
died a few days after the services.
Soon, relatives and friends who
went to the wake fell ill, as did
employees of the funeral home
and worshipers at the church
where the s ervice was held.
The novel coronavirus quickly
overwhelmed Albany, and, as of
Sunday, the county of 90,000 had
three more deaths than Fulton
County, which includes the city of
Atlanta and more than a million
residents. So far, 688 people in
Dougherty h ave tested positive for
the virus, second in the state be-
hind Fulton’s 9 70 confirmed c ases.
But long before covid-19 invad-
ed Dougherty County, where Afri-
can Americans make up more
than 70 percent of the population,
residents were already battle-
worn from decades of struggle
against social and economic ineq-
uities, including high unemploy-
ment, poverty and chronic dis-
ease, the lingering effects of slav-
ery and racial discrimination that
continue besieging communities
of color across the country.
Black people account for “
percent or better” of the Dough-
erty County deaths, said county
coroner Michael Fowler. The dead
range in a ge f rom 42 t o 80, averag-
ing about 60 years old. Fowler
added, “Most of them had under-
lying conditions — diabetes,
COPD [a lung disease], cancer,
AIDS — all of these underlying
conditions compromised their im-
mune systems.”
Data shows that people with
these types of chronic diseases,
many of which affect African
Americans at a disproportionate
rate, are at increased risk for hos-
pitalization a nd d eath from covid-
19.Similarly high rates of serious
cases and deaths among African
Americans are being noted in oth-
er cities, such as Detroit and Mil-
waukee.
“Historically, when America
catches a cold, black America
catches pneumonia,” said Albany
City Commissioner Demetrius
Young, who added that entrenched
disparities for black residents are
as much to blame as the person
thought to have brought the dis-
ease into Dougherty C ounty.
Recently, Sen. Elizabeth War-
ren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ayanna
Pressley (D-Mass.) sent a letter to
Health and Human Services Sec-
retary Alex Azar calling for the
federal government to begin col-
lecting racial data on those who
have tested positive for the coro-
navirus. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and most
state health departments have re-
leased breakdowns by age and
gender only.
“A ny attempt to contain
COVID-19 in t he U nited States will
have to address its potential
spread in low-income communi-
ties of color, first and foremost to
protect t he l ives of p eople in those
communities, but also to slow the
spread of the virus in the country
as a whole,” Warren and Pressley
wrote in their letter, which was
also signed by Sens. Cory Booker
(D-N.J.) and Kamala D. Harris (D-
Calif.) and Rep. Robin L. Kelly
(D-Ill.).
Young, 49, has sequestered
himself and his teenage daughter
at h ome for t he p ast two weeks. H e
is diabetic and doesn’t want to
take any chances. He h as groceries
and w hatever else they need d eliv-
ered.
He faults Republican leader-
ship in the federal government,
and some state governors, includ-
ing Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, for
failing to act more quickly to pro-
tect the public from the disease.
Amid criticism about his inaction,
Kemp announced a statewide or-
der to s tay at h ome on Wednesday,
citing new guidance from the
White House coronavirus task
force. The governor has been
widely ridiculed for saying that he
had just learned that asymptom-
atic people could transmit the c or-
onavirus, though health officials
had w arned a s much weeks a go.
Kemp’s order started Friday
and remains in effect through
April 1 3.
“Republican governors a re look-
ing to and taking their cues from
the federal level. Right now when
we need their help, and they know
we need their help, they’re saying,
‘We’re going to let you guys handle
it at the local level,’ ” Young said.
“Well, local folks don’t have state
money, d on’t h ave federal money.”
Dougherty County and other
Georgia communities outside the
state’s larger metropolitan areas
also don’t have access to adequate
health care. Georgia, like most red
states in the Deep South, did not
expand Medicaid for low-income
adults, leaving more than 5 00,
people without health insurance.
The state also has seen several
hospitals close in smaller cities
and r ural communities.
Phoebe Putney Memorial is the
only hospital in Dougherty Coun-
ty, and covid-19 is putting a strain
on the 691-bed hospital’s resourc-
es in almost every area, said CEO
Scott Steiner. As of Thursday, 55
inpatients had tested positive for
the virus, with another 79 await-
ing test results.
Staff members are working 16-
and 18-hour days, and patients
without the v irus are b eing m oved
or having surgeries delayed to
make room, particularly in the
ICU, Steiner said. The health sys-
tem’s o ther campus, a sparsely uti-
lized 200-bed facility called Phoe-
be North, is now a ward for covid-
19 positive or presumptive posi-
tive patients.
Phoebe s erves a population t hat
has s truggled economically, with a
high percentage of Medicaid pa-
tients. S teiner estimates h is hospi-
tal s ystem is l osing $1 million a day
during the virus epidemic. More
than three weeks have passed
since t he first positive coronavirus
case hit Albany.
Kemp has called in the N ational
Guard, which brought physicians,
nurses and nurse practitioners
from elsewhere t o work at P hoebe.
Coronavirus patients are kept in
the s ame a rea to prevent spread to
others in the hospital. However,
any staff members who report
symptoms are quarantined for 14
days, adding further strain to
staffing.Albany Mayor Bo Dorough said
the coronavirus came to his city
“like a thief in the n ight.”
“We didn’t have any time to
prepare,” he said. “We had people
dying before anybody outside of
the h ospital a ppreciated t he gravi-
ty o f the situation.”
Local authorities issued a
countywide order for people to
stay home on March 22. Young
acknowledged that compliance
was lax initially, and the city
doesn’t have enough police offi-
cers to enforce the mandate. Even
one of his relatives wouldn’t stop
working.
“I have an aunt who is a barber,
and s he was still working when all
this was happening. I called her
and said, ‘A untie, this thing is in
our community, and you really
need to shut it down,’ ” Y oung said,
adding that she has since retreat-
ed to her f arm o utside town t o wait
out the pandemic with her chick-
ens and cows.
Although many businesses —
especially smaller businesses not
deemed essential — have closed
their doors, Albany’s Proctor &
Gamble paper plant remains
open. The facility is considered
essential because it makes tissues
and p aper towels.
Loren Fanroy, a spokesperson
for C harmin, said the plant, w hich
employs just under 600 workers,
is following guidelines from the
World Health Organization and
CDC “ to make sure our employees
are safe.”
She said the company conducts
regular temperature checks,
maintains six-foot distances be-
tween workers, did away with
meetings and other group activi-
ties and disinfects all surfaces
about every four hours. “We are
making sure people are educated
about the proper protocols and
working around the clock to keep
our e mployees s afe,” s he said.
Young said some workers have
told him privately that they are
concerned about s afety c onditions
at t he p lant, but t hey are unwilling
to make formal complaints for
fear of losing t heir jobs.
“When y ou b ring this up, e very-
body gets quiet. They do not want
to ruffle the feathers of the few
industries they do have here,”
Young said. “People are not going
to be too loud when their pay-
checks a re on the line.”
The median household income
in Albany was $34,493, according
to census figures from 2014 to
2018, and more than 32 percent of
residents lived in poverty, nearly
three times the national rate of
11.8 percent. The census also re-
ported that more than 20 percent
of the city’s residents younger
than 65 had no health insurance.
Albany is part of the country’s
Black Belt, a swath of the Deep
South cutting through many of the
former cotton-producing centers
that fueled the wealth of the c oun-
try in its early years.
Amna Farooqi, a Maryland na-
tive and political organizer whomoved to Albany a little over two
years ago, said vestiges of the Old
South are still e vident.
“Just driving into the city, you
drive by cotton fields and planta-
tions, and I think there’s still a
feeling that we’re not so far away
from that because of racism and
classism,” she said. “Even though
we have elected people of color,
the w ealth is s till primarily white.”
A geographic divide still exists.
In the northwest, especially the
neighborhoods around Double-
gate Country Club, brick homes
with manicured lawns line the
streets, some with wrought-iron
fences creating dramatic entranc-
es leading to white-columned
front porches. This is the city’s
richer, whiter base. Nearby is the
Albany Mall, with anchor stores
including Dillard’s and Belk, big-
box staples such as Ta rget, and
regional grocery stores P ublix a nd
Harveys. A new bank branch is
under c onstruction.
The opposite, geographically
and economically, is an area of
southeast Albany known locally as
the Darkside. Here, the houses fea-
ture peeling paint, junk cars, un-kempt lawns a nd g eneral disinvest-
ment. Many sit abandoned. There
used t o be two Harveys stores in the
city’s south and east sides, but one
closed recently, leaving a Family
Dollar in the same strip mall to
serve the local population.
Farooqi said these kinds of dis-
parities made Albany’s black resi-
dents less prepared for the pan-
demic. She said the social distanc-
ing message “didn’t get out early
enough and wasn’t internalized
enough.”
“There’s a deep disconnect be-
tween local leaders and regular
residents of the city on a lot of
issues,” she said. “There is poor
housing and a lot of slumlords, a
lot of health issues. Outside of the
virus, Albany already felt a little
dysfunctional.”
There is also a legacy of resis-
tance. During the early 1960s, a
coalition of civil rights groups —
including the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, the
NAACP and the Southern Chris-
tian Leadership Conference —
joined with local activists to lead
mass protests known as the Albany
Movement. Dozens were arrestedduring marches, sit-ins and other
acts of protest against racial dis-
crimination and violence against
the city’s black residents. The Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. took part in
some of the demonstrations. Al-
though the effort had limited suc-
cess, King later credited it with
helping to map a strategy for cam-
paigns across the South.
Young was m oved to run f or the
city commission after taking up a
fight to block a liquor store from
opening in one of the city’s black
neighborhoods. His mother, Mary
Young-Cummings, was one of the
first black city commissioners, af-
ter s he led a lawsuit that forced t he
city to change the way it elected
local lawmakers.
Albany’s close-knit circle of
black professionals has been dev-
astated b y the virus, Young s aid.
“That was a big blow for us here,”
Young said of losing Anderson, a
friend for decades. “She did some
phenomenal things for the com-
munity here in the arts arena, espe-
cially for the black community.”
The church community h as tak-
en umbrage over criticism about
the virus starting at a funeral and
complaints that some pastors
were too slow to stop holding in-
person services. Some residents
also noted the S nickers Marathon,
held March 7 and drawing several
hundred r unners from a round the
country, as another large event
that could have played a part in
bringing the v irus t o the city.
Carl White, senior pastor of
Friendship Baptist Church in
downtown Albany, said there was
a feeling around town initially
that churches were being singled
out f or spreading the virus.
“When y ou go t o church, people
don’t know how not to hug and
shake h ands. That’s w hat you do at
church,” h e said.
White, 33, is married with a
6-year-old, 4-year-old and a 1-
year-old. He and his family have
been at home since March 15, not
leaving even for groceries, which
they get delivered v ia Amazon and
Instacart. T hat date, a Sunday, w as
also the l ast in-person service held
at his church. White now does his
preaching on Facebook Live and
Zoom.
[email protected]A majority-black Ga. county, already struggling, now contends with virus
the Levee studios for the Washington Posthyosub shin/associated Press
TOP: Albany, a midsize city in southwest Georgia, has garnered
unwanted attention for leading the state in covid-19 deaths and
having one of the highest infection rates in the country. A BOVE:
Gov. Brian Kemp (R) issued a stay-at-home order on Wednesday.15
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