Kenny Gines thinks Greenville can improve, but the community must unite to make it happen. It is that job, in fact, that drew him into public life. Over time, as he worked with state employees and state government, he became more and more interested in how government works. Finally, when Councilman Bill Burnley died, Gines sat down with his wife to discuss whether to scratch his growing political itch. “She said, ‘What are you going to do?’” Gines recalled. “And I decided to try to be part of the solution. I just jumped in. Been loving it ever since.” But it’s not always easy. Controversial votes are inevitable. Not everyone likes every council decision. Gines said the hardest part of his job is knowing that his votes affect someone’s livelihood. He has served for eight years on the council, working hard, he said, to build bridges to both black and white communities. Now he is running for mayor. He believes he understands the “collective personality” of Greenville and can unite the community to help move it forward. Greenville’s racial problems, he said, are no worse than, say, Tupelo’s. Gines believes he has proved he can build friendships and respect across racial lines. He was a pallbearer for white businessman Barthell Joseph and white Realtor Robert Cunningham. Mayor Heather McTeer, who is leaving the mayor’s office to run for Congress,
has done a good job, he said. “Knowing the process, she has done very well with the situation she had to tackle in the first place.” Gines said Greenville needs jobs, but it’s a difficult task in a slumping economy. He blames the city’s loss of jobs in part on the North American Free Trade Agreement. Another problem, he said, is that schools stress college preparation, but the majority of jobs here require only vocational or technical degrees, not four-year degrees. The city needs to look at how it educates and trains people, he said. Greenville has access to highways, railways and waterways and has proved that companies will come here, Gines said. He cited Leading Edge, which employs workers to spray-paint Boeing aircraft. “I wish we could get a Nissan or Toyota plant,” Gines said. “That would be just a big shot in the arm for us. But by the same token, we do have companies here that are hiring right now. Leading Edge has openings right now.” He said better media cooperation also could help the city lure employers. “News is news. Media can be good or bad,” he said. Gines wants to highlight the positive aspects of Greenville — not an easy task considering that Greenville’s population has plummeted since 2000. But “there
are truly positive things going on in Greenville,” he said, and they need to be publicized. Gines sees good and bad effects from the lakefront casinos. They create some jobs and provide tax revenue for the city. But in a town where almost a third of the population is poor, many people who go to the casinos are the very ones who cannot afford to go, he said. Gines’ mother picked and chopped cotton when he was young. She encouraged Gines and his siblings to attend college. His brother went to Alabama, while he and his sister went to Alcorn State. Gines quit Alcorn but later finished at Mississippi Valley State University with a political science degree. His daughter attended public school, and his grandmother, 95, voted for the first time when Gines was running for city council. Gines said he has not been touched by racism personally. But he said some local leaders lived in the era of segregation and immediately thereafter and remember it well. He suggested that the mind-set of both races needs to change, and dialogue is the best way to deal with remaining prejudice in the community. “Greenville is a great community,” Gines said. “I was born here, and I plan on dying here and being buried here.”
“I decided to try to be part of the solution. I just jumped in. Been loving it ever since.” — Kenny Gines
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