In 2006, Moore was elected to Jonesville Town Council. Two years later he became the town’s first black mayor. Moore said his memories of how Jonesville was when he first visited it nearly 50 years ago and a concern about the direction the town was headed led him to run for mayor.
“I wanted to make a difference and I saw that Jonesville needed someone who could work full-time as mayor,” he said. “I’m retired and I realized I was going to be here the rest of my life and I wasn’t happy with the direction Jonesville was going.
“When I spent the summer here with my grandmother in the early 1960s Jonesville had jewelry stores, clothing stores, a grocery store, hardware stores, car lots and just about everything you’d need,” he said. “I want to try to bring some of that back and have it where people would want to move here.”
Moore saw part of his goal realized in October when L&M Discount Store opened for business. The store, located at 102 S. Main St., is Jonesville’s first grocery store since the closing of People’s Grocery. The town worked with the owners to get the store open and Moore says it remains committed to reestablish a vital retail and commercial sector in the downtown area to benefit all of its citizens, but especially the elderly.
“I’m especially focused on the needs of our seniors,” he said. “They need a place where they can walk to the drug store and get their medicine and to the grocery store, buy food and then walk home.”
Moore said that race did not play a part in his 2008 campaign nor has it played a part in his governing since taking office. Instead, he said he was focused then and is focused now on preparing Jonesville to share in the future economic development in the U.S. 176 Corridor that stretches from Union to the Spartanburg County line.
“I don’t think race played a part at all,” he said. “I didn’t even think about race when I was running and I don’t think about it now. I didn’t run for the pay or the prestige either, I ran because Jonesville is my home and I want to see it grow. Union County is going to grow in this direction and I want Jonesville to be a part of that growth.”
Coming Friday: Orangelow Ruff
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