Salisbury undergoes major shift as black, Hispanic populations surge

Minorities are now the majority in Salisbury.

U.S. Census Bureau figures released in December show that whites dipped below 50 percent of the city's total population for the first time on record in 2016.

The exact percentage: 49 percent.

Salisbury's populace has been growing increasingly diverse for decades, but that trend has accelerated in recent years. Since 2010, Hispanic numbers have risen 30 percent while the African-American population has gone up about 21 percent.

Meanwhile, the white population contracted by about 1 percent.

Key voices in the Hispanic and black community say they hope the city's historic demographic shift will soon translate into greater sway in local affairs.

Joe Morse, publisher and editor of the Salisbury-based Delmarva African American Pride Magazine, called the city's new majority-minority status a "meaningful moment." He sees it as a possible tipping point that upends decades of white hegemony.

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African-Americans are underrepresented on the city's police force as well as in local business boardrooms, Morse said. In 2013, 87 percent the police department's 121 staff members were white.

Morse concedes that some of that lack of diversity stems from having a shallow pool of qualified candidates. But it has persisted for so long "primarily because nobody has made an issue out of it," he added.

While Salisbury's population growth may be spread unevenly among its various racial and ethnic groups, the overall direction points upward, Mayor Jake Day said. The first six years of this decade have seen the city's population jump 10 percent to more than 32,000 people, according to the census.

The city's influx of minorities simply parallels a long-running national trend, Day said.

The Census Bureau has projected that non-Hispanic whites will become the minority nationwide by 2050. The biggest engine behind that change is immigration, largely from Latin American and Asian countries, according to the Pew Research Center.

Four states have already crossed the majority-minority threshold: California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas.

The fifth state expected to join that list is Maryland, with a minority population of 48.6 percent and growing.

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On the Lower Shore, Salisbury joins two other incorporated places where minorities are in the majority. In Pocomoke City, minorities account for 55 percent of the populace while in Princess Anne, home to the historically black University of Maryland Eastern Shore, they make up 65 percent.

Salisbury presents a different case from those other towns, said Clara Small, a retired Salisbury University professor and one of the leading scholars on African-American history on the Eastern Shore. 

The Hispanic and black increases likely reflect a broader flight toward urban areas as agricultural jobs give way to greater mechanization, Small said. Now, the latest generation of low-skilled workers is starting out in department stores and fast-food restaurants.

“Where a lot of people and migrant workers would ordinarily work, that has changed," she said.

Salisbury is the region's largest city by far and, therefore, the biggest recipient of such workers, Small added.

Agustin Gonzalez followed that path, winding though it was, to Salisbury. 

He initially settled in California after leaving his native Mexico. He picked grapes, trimmed trees. He would do just about anything to make a living. But he could never find a job that lasted for more than a few months at a stretch.

His brother beckoned from the Eastern Shore of Maryland with a promise of steady work maintaining machines in an asphalt plant. For the past 17 years, Gonzalez has called Salisbury home.

Today, he owns a Latin American food store and restaurant on Northwood Drive called Tienda y Taqueria Gonzalez.

When it opened five years ago, competition was scarce, but that has changed, Gonzalez said.

"Across the street is one, and up north is another one," he said.

As he sees it, there are plenty of customers to go around. Workers with roots in Latin America, Haiti and elsewhere keep streaming into Salisbury for the same reason he came, Gonzalez said.

"Everybody is looking for stability in the economy," he said.

The next step, of course, is influence.

Salisbury's mayors have always been white. No Hispanic man or woman has ever sat on the City Council.

But for the second time in the city's history, the council counts two African Americans among its five members. 

Councilwoman April Jackson, who is one of them, said she isn't surprised to hear that more minorities than whites live in Salisbury.

“I see it every day. I think it’s a good thing. I don’t see anything bad about it. The city is growing in its diversity. I’m just hoping with that diversity, we can come together and do some awesome things in the city," she said.

Hardy Rudasill, the second black representative, was appointed to the board to fill a vacancy in October 2016.

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He grew up in Prince George's County, attended UMES and studied law in Illinois. Rudasill returned to the Eastern Shore a few years ago to head the equity compliance efforts at his alma mater. He left that post last year to start his own law firm.

Like many who make the Shore their home, he was drawn by the region's more relaxed pace. But he hopes to use his political position to quicken the pace of economic equality, regardless of the color of a person's skin.

“We need to figure out how everyone has an equal chance and feel like they have an equal chance," Rudasill said.

After stepping down at UMES last year, he spent six weeks in the Dominican Republican taking a six-week, immersive Spanish language class. 

Why? For the sake of expanding his worldview, he said.

But there was another reason: It seemed like knowing Spanish would be a valuable skill for an attorney practicing in Salisbury.

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Salisbury's demographics

Non-Hispanic white: 49 percent

Black: 38 percent 

Hispanic: 7 percent

Asian: 3 percent

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016 American Community Survey