I’m in Elmore County, right across the Tallapoosa River. Dadeville’s only a town away.
It is due to gang banger culture that’s hit the rural Black population, and hard.
Still, while the numbers look bad in those counties, we’re not talking about a lot of people. Most of the black belt counties have less than 20 thousand people. Tallapoosa has 41 thousand, but 2/3rds are white and live around Lake Martin.
A real shame anyway, because I have nothing but regards for all my fellow Alabamians.
I agree that the problem is a sub-set culture within the culture. I am further north in the southern US and while Tallapoosa is 73% white my county, equally rural, is only 47% white.
The black community here does not tolerate the gangs and the hoodlum culture IMHO.
Sadly I think that may be the primary cause. Culture matters, and the elite media and Hollywood promotion of gang culture for profit is not helpful. Violent computer games may also play a role.
I suspect that firearms have been readily available to young men in rural Alabama for a long time. But the idea of mass shootings at teenage social events is new.