Kingsport Spirit

These are remarks by Jeff Fleming made at last night’s 90th Birthday celebration of United Way of Greater Kingsport.

When Danelle asked me to say a few words, I thought of Keith Parker’s dynamic speaking style. He’s young, tall, charismatic, and witty…all things I am not.

But she needed a local history buff for tonight’s topic, “looking back and leading forward”. So, I hope to compensate with heart, history, and community perspective.   

To set expectations, I’m striving to limit remarks to about 15 minutes. It’s been a wonderful evening, and while history can be lengthy, I promise not to leave you wondering how much longer I’ll go on.

Have you ever thought about the difference between a city and a community?

A city is a legal entity with the authority to enforce laws. It operates under a charter, with elected officials and public services focused on managing resources for the well-being of residents.

A city has taxing authority. And if you don’t pay your taxes, the government can take away your property. That’s a sacred trust, which is why elected officials think long and hard before raising taxes because paying them is not optional.  

A city is confined by city limits.

A community, on the other hand, is more organic and heartfelt. It’s about people bound by shared values and mutual support often extending beyond city limits. You contribute to a community because you want to, not because you’re required to.

As a person of faith, I liken taxes to tithes—required contributions.  

Offerings, however, are voluntary gifts given above and beyond the minimum required.   

That’s how I see the difference between city government and the United Way.

Our early founders envisioned a well-managed city government, but a charitable community.

Influenced by the social issues of their time in New York City—like overcrowding, poverty, labor exploitation, and corruption—they designed Kingsport to be different.

They envisioned fair housing, decent working conditions, and clean water. They built industrial buildings with natural light and air circulation, created group health insurance for workers, and ensured fair wages. They even offered recreational opportunities for workers, which was unheard of at the time.

Labor disputes were rare.

While big cities suffered from poor sanitation, our founders secured clean water and built a modern wastewater treatment facility.

While political machines controlled big cities with collusion, coercion, and corruption, our founders adopted the Rockefeller Foundation’s Model City Charter, emphasizing professional city management over politics, allowing elected officials to serve as volunteers rather than career politicians. They believed in small government, with the private sector stepping up to lead. Industrial CEOs served on boards and commissions, helping to shape the city.

Kingsport was also designed to be affordable, so child labor wasn’t necessary. Our founders hired Columbia University to plan the public school system providing children with a brighter future.

Our founders believed that immigrants should have equal housing and educational opportunities. Citizens like the Sobels, Mires, Kassems, and Shadeeds played crucial roles in building our community.

As Kingsport grew, J. Fred Johnson coined the term “Kingsport Spirit,” describing it as mutual helpfulness and a willingness to put aside personal interests for the greater good.

This spirit is about community, not government.

While we often hear we’re living in difficult times, every generation has faced challenges.

It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you respond to it.

How do we, as a community, pivot?

Kingsport was founded in 1917, the same year the U.S. entered World War I.

Those were difficult times.

Early industries produced essential materials like bricks and cement. Then paper, books, and glass.

During the war, Germany cut off the supply of chemicals used in film and photography. 

After the war, Eastman Kodak sought a domestic supply of chemicals, leading to the birth of Tennessee Eastman.

The economy flourished, automobiles became commonplace, movie theatres abounded, liquor was illegal, and speakeasies flourished.

Kingsport was a boomtown. Housing was in short supply. Roads were inadequate.

While Kingsport proper was planned and orderly, the growth of areas just outside the city limits was unregulated. You can look at a map today and see where the planned city stopped, I call it “where the sidewalks end and the storm ditches begin.”

Those, too, were difficult times.

A 1934 Times-News article noted that “Greater” Kingsport was becoming a group of largely suburban towns and villages. For instance, there are Litz Manor, Highland Park, Hillcrest, Nelsontown, Lynn Garden, Long Island, West View, and Old Kingsport on the riverfront. Those suburbs had a population running into the thousands and all outside of the city government’s jurisdiction. They speculated that this equaled 1/3 of the Kingsport ‘community’ population.  The city was approaching 12,000, but an additional 6,000 lived just outside, but they were still part of the Kingsport community.

The business community wasn’t limited to governmental boundaries.

The Businessmen’s Club planted seeds for a Community Chest in 1922—just 5 years after our city’s founding–to budget for expenses of charity, hospital, Red Cross, and other worthy causes.

Two of those businessmen were 35-year-old B.M. Brown and 49-year-old Dr. E.W. Tipton—they’d both be eligible to be members of today’s PEAK Young Professionals.

B.M. Brown was affiliated with Eastman Kodak and relocated from Rochester, New York; Dr. E.W. Tipton was from Hawkins County–a great example of how Kingsport was a blended family of locals and newcomers.

By 1926, B.M. Brown had been elected Alderman at the age of 39. The only hospital of the day was Riverview Hospital on Netherland Inn Road. During 1926, the hospital had accrued a significant overage in charity patients and asked the city to make up the difference. Alderman Brown made the motion, and it passed on a 3-2 vote, with the mayor breaking the tie.   

Dr. E.W. Tipton’s name is associated with almost every early endeavor of the Model City. He worked at Riverview Hospital. He even served as mayor during World War II. His early phone number was 72—not the 10 digits we require today. He is descended from the same family as the Tipton-Haynes historic site and the namesake of Tipton County in West Tennessee  

He founded Kingsport Drug Store, corner of Main & Broad, the first pharmacy in Kingsport.

B.M. Brown would become the founding chair of the officially incorporated Community Chest, although it had been around in some form

The children of Dr. E.W. Tipton and B.M. Brown would marry.

Fast forward to today, and the descendants of this legacy—Becca Brown Wright, Sarah Holt Good, and Michael Holt—continue to make significant contributions to our community.

They are dedicated to public health and education, demonstrating a commitment to supporting marginalized communities and those facing economic hardships and barriers to opportunity.

Clearly, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Members of the Brown-Tipton family are with us tonight. Please stand and be recognized.

In 1922, the Times-News wrote, “Everyone who is able should contribute to (the Community Chest).”  Kingsport has never fallen behind in contribution to a worthy cause, and no cause more worthy than this could be presented. Surely, a town that can raise $13,000 for baseball can raise $10,000 for the relief of those who may actually be suffering.” Kingsport was compassionate.

In 1923, the newspaper reported the largest gathering of Black residents in years occurred at a local baseball park, and “special mention was made of Mayor Dobyns, J. Fred Johnson, and the Community Chest” highlighting our founders’ progressive race relations during the Jim Crow era.

By 1928 the Community Chest was addressing undernourished children in schools, along with the elimination of the need for street begging and soliciting. Kingsport cared.

On October 24, 1929, the Times-News reported that the Community Chest team captains were working desperately to reach their goal by Saturday.

But only 5 days later it was Black Tuesday, the stock market crashed, and lives were devastated.  

Those were difficult times.

During the height of the Great Depression, in 1934, the Kingsport Community Chest was officially incorporated, and what we now know as United Way was born.

The 1934 class of Dobyns-Bennett contained 58 students. 

A 1934 newspaper article highlighted the plight of squatters living in “huts made of old cardboard boxes and scraps of other material.”

1934 was also an election year. While the city’s population was 11,914, the number of registered voters was 3,493—though only about 1,250 paid poll taxes, greatly reducing eligible voters.

Think about that the next time you have an opportunity to freely cast your ballot.

Then Pearl Harbor and World War II brought rapid construction and an influx of workers for Holston Defense.  

Those were difficult times. 

Then the Korean War, Vietnam, social upheaval, and the Civil Rights movement.

Those were difficult times.

The oil & gas crisis of the 1970s-80s caused mortgage rates to peak at 18.4% in 1981. My own mortgage rate in 1989 was 10.1% and I thought that was a bargain!

Those were difficult times.

In the 1990s, NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) adversely impacted local jobs as American companies sought cheap labor overseas.

Those were difficult times.

In 1994, Kodak spun off Eastman Chemical Company, and many wondered how local management would fare without Rochester. Many of our friends and family lost their livelihoods.

Those were difficult times.

You see, every generation could make an argument about why theirs is the most difficult.

But effective leadership during difficult times provides direction, inspires resilience, and fosters hope.

Leaders who navigate challenges with clarity and empathy can mobilize teams, drive progress, and instill confidence, guiding their communities or organizations through adversity and toward recovery.

In 1999, Kingsport leaders held an Economic Summit on the city’s future.

It was time to remodel the Model City.

If workers were going to be laid off, they needed new skills to re-enter the workforce.

Thus, the Kingsport Academic Village was born and nearly 2,000 students flooded Downtown Kingsport, some multi-generational.

Our public housing was functionally obsolete, so it was modernized, razed, rebuilt, or privatized.

Blighted places like Kingsport Press, Kingsport Mall, Crown Point, Mason-Dixon, and Stonegate were demolished and replaced with new stores, shops, restaurants, and housing.  

In 2006, the Edinburgh community was announced as one of many new neighborhoods planned to stimulate the local housing market, and the new John Adams Elementary was announced.

But by 2008, the world changed again as the Great Recession began, mortgage lending tightened, homebuilding came to a grinding halt, and we as a nation have yet to fully recover.

Times were tough for buyers, so we focused on the rental market. Kingsport hadn’t seen significant new construction in a quarter century. More than 500 new units were built, causing many to wonder if the older apartment complexes would decline or even survive. Not only did they survive, but they also attracted investors to modernize them too.

When John Adams Elementary opened in 2009, it was at far less than capacity.  That’s not the case today.

In 2013, Eastman announced Project Inspire, and four years later Project Reinvest, injecting billions of dollars into the local economy and establishing Kingsport as its longtime corporate headquarters.

Eastman innovated to become a global leader in specialty chemicals, advanced materials, and the circular economy, thanks to many of the people who are in the room tonight.

Kodak took a very different direction, going bankrupt in 2012.

Yes, we could survive—I would argue thrive—without Rochester.

Through difficult times, Kingsport was finding its way.

In 2020, the COVID pandemic was the latest threat.

But again, Kingsport successfully pivoted.

Kingsport’s attributes, which I believe we underestimate as locals, were extremely desirable on a national scale.

In fact, just last month, the Wall Street Journal and Realtor.com announced ours as the best housing market in the South for the Summer of 2024.

They mentioned factors like low unemployment, low climate risk to properties, a high number of retail amenities per capita, low property taxes, and low cost of living compared to other regions of the country.

These accolades have attracted thousands of new residents from all 50 states during the last 5 years. The median age of out-of-state newcomers is 29.9. Almost 1 out of every 5 of our black or multi-racial citizens moved here in the past 5 years, and 37% of our Hispanic population. 

But our death rate still exceeds our birth rate.

Of all newcomers, only 2% came from out-of-state, so most are from Tennessee.

Collectively, these newcomers barely offset our natural population losses–without them, we would be in decline.

Yes, each generation faces difficult times.  

But we can’t use that as an excuse to shut down or step back.

My daughter hand-painted a quote on her dorm wall, “When times are hard, and you are doubtful, give more.”

For 90 years, our community has faced one challenge after another, and we will face challenges yet unknown…and for 90 years United Way has always there to guide, organize, rally, and respond. It’s a hand-up, not a handout.

None of us got here alone.  

I believe that God entrusts each of us with unique gifts, resources, and talents, not merely for our own benefit but to serve others.

These blessings are both a privilege and a responsibility, calling us to be good stewards of what we have been given.

As we use our talents, manage our resources wisely, and share our gifts, we participate in God’s work in the world, reflecting His love, grace, and generosity.

By faithfully using what He has entrusted to us, we fulfill the purposes He has for our lives.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to preach.

In closing, let’s remember that each of us plays a vital role in shaping our future.

Our founders envisioned a thriving, compassionate community, and we are all called to contribute our unique gifts.

The legacy of Kingsport is built on cooperation, generosity, and resilience.

Let us honor that legacy by supporting one another and embracing the opportunity to lead with heart and purpose.

Together, we can look back with pride and move forward with hope, ensuring that Kingsport remains a place where every individual can thrive.

Thank you for your time and thank you for being part of this incredible community.