Once-Segregated SC Beach Town Fights to Survive

Every day she can, Jannie Isom walks a couple of hundred yards from her home for some of the best Atlantic views along the 60 miles of beach that make up South Carolina's Grand Strand.

Not a single building obstructs the shore as she strolls the three blocks of Ocean Boulevard that parallel the water. Looking back are weathered one-story houses and vacant lots. One house has iron burglar bars on the windows facing the ocean.

Atlantic Beach looks frozen in time. On a quiet, chilly gray day, Isom can almost hear the soulful sounds of Marvin Gaye, the Drifters and Otis Redding roll over the dunes and picture summer lovers gliding across beachfront patios like they did 50 years ago, when segregation was the law and the place nicknamed "The Black Pearl" became a leading ocean resort for blacks up and down the East Coast.

The roughly 1/4-square mile town doesn't look much different than in its heyday, just more run-down. That sets it apart from most of the Grand Strand, where towering beachfront hotels nestle against neon restaurants and brightly lit attractions.

Roads and property lines drawn up under segregation have left Atlantic Beach physically isolated from its oceanfront neighbors. It connects to U.S. Highway 17, the main drag along the Grand Strand. All other roads are blocked on both ends and fences mark the town line on both sides from the beach to the highway, effectively making the town a cul-de-sac facing the ocean and surrounded by North Myrtle Beach, which has almost 40 times the population.

In its isolation, Atlantic Beach is dying. Taxes are high, and the town contracts out all major services except its police force. Its single biggest taxpayer, The Crazy Horse strip club, paid its 2009 levy early to keep the town from laying off its handful of employees as it struggles under hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid court judgments. The six-seat zoning board has one member.

"I think there's a future here. I've thought that for a number of years," said Isom, 65, who moved here decades ago to run a novelty shop with her husband and to raise four kids, all of whom have moved away. "We just need to get the right people in place to make it work."

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Many of the 390 residents say they want to save the town from fading away entirely or getting swallowed in a merger with the surrounding city. Atlantic Beach sits decaying, however, while decisions on the way forward keep stalling as old-timers and newcomers quarrel over key decisions, including how to pay off the town's debt and whom to hire as city manager.