Robeson's pain

A state grant to study death rates in Robeson County should be a downpayment on making the county safer and more livable

Robeson is the largest of North Carolina's 100 counties. It is a mostly rural expanse in the state's southeast, astride I-95, with Lumberton at its center. It has long suffered desperate poverty.

In 2000, nine percent of North Carolinians were considered poor. Robeson's poverty rate was 19.6 percent. Another distinction is that the county's population has been split roughly equally among whites, African-Americans and native Americans. It is the home territory of the Lumbees, a tribe officially recognized by North Carolina in 1885 but never accorded full tribal privileges by the United States.

In recent years, Robeson has been plagued with an alarming murder rate. North Carolina's overall rate in 2005 was 6.9 murders per 100,000 people. Robeson's was 23.8. A high proportion of the killings involve Lumbees who attacked other Lumbees, authorities say.

Members of the Lumbee tribe are murdered seven times more often than whites in North Carolina, The N&O's Kristin Collins reported in a Tuesday article. The rate at which they become murder victims also is higher than for black residents, according to the state health department.

Against that grim backdrop, it is worth noting that the state has made a modest $30,000 grant to the Lumbees to study the tribe's death rate from murders and car accidents. Researchers will gather statistics, convene a task force of local leaders on the issue and come up with a presentation on the problem. The state's Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities made the money available.

It's not the first money invested in improving conditions in Robeson in recent years. The county was among the original plaintiffs in the landmark Leandro case, which has prompted North Carolina to spend more money on children in rural school districts. (It's too early to tell if there's a link, but Robeson's Fairmont High School so improved its passing rate on state tests that principals from other low-performing schools are being trained in Fairmont's ways this summer.) A state rural development group recently granted the town of Red Springs a third of a million dollars to ready an old building for a relocating company that promised more than 100 jobs.

Such attention is just a start. A rough drug trade, delivered on the interstate that comes up from Florida through Robeson, fuels the killings, as does poverty, joblessness and a high dropout rate. Jobs and education will help what ails Robeson, and federal and state aid need to be steered to the county. The University of North Carolina system -- through UNC-Pembroke, which is located in Robeson -- should make sure that its expertise is brought to bear in tackling problems and enlarging opportunities.

It's encouraging that the General Assembly has amended the state's industry incentives program -- the Bill Lee Act -- to encourage more companies to relocate to Robeson, Hoke and other challenged counties. Meanwhile, the Health Disparities grant likely will need to be followed by funds for Robeson's county and local governments to hire more police officers and sheriff's deputies. The murder rate signals that law enforcement in the county is overwhelmed, in the face of an array of social ills, and that unacceptably leaves Robeson residents in danger.