Nikki Haley’s small hometown – of Bamberg, South Carolina – played a prominent role in kicking off her presidential campaign.
A video posted online Tuesday announcing his candidacy for president began with footage that included a set of train tracks.
“The railroad divided the town by race,” Haley recounted. “I was the proud daughter of Indian immigrants – neither black nor white. I was different.”
Bamberg, SC, the hometown of Nikki Haley, featured prominently in her presidential campaign launch.
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Bamberg, SC, the hometown of Nikki Haley, featured prominently in her presidential campaign launch.
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The following day, during a speech in Charleston launching her bid for the 2024 Republican nomination, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador under President Trump said her parents taught Haley and her brothers and sisters that “even on the worst day, we are blessed to live in America.”
Haley paints an image of Bamberg – and the country – as a place where race is a reality, but not a limitation.
As the only Indian family, “our little town grew to love us, but it wasn’t always easy,” she said. “Nobody knew who we were, what we were or why we were there.”
Haley was born in 1972, just a few years after her parents moved the family to Bamberg, a city that currently has a population of around 3,000. Her father took a job teaching biology at a local college and her mother taught school before opening a successful clothing store.
A visit to Bamberg
“No, nobody knew who they were,” said Harriet Coker, a retired teacher, on a recent sunny afternoon in Bamberg.
Coker has known the family – the Randhawas – since before Nikki was born. She had Nikki in her seventh grade social studies class and remembers her as quiet, but smart.
There were challenges. A spokeswoman for Haley’s campaign said when they first moved to the area, her parents struggled to find someone who would rent to them. His modest childhood home which featured prominently in Haley’s campaign video.
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But soon, Coker says, they were just part of the community.
“It didn’t take long for people to really get to know them and realize what a wonderful people they are,” she says.
Harriet Coker, 84, at her home in Bamberg, SC Coker taught Nikki Haley in her seventh grade social studies class.
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Harriet Coker, 84, at her home in Bamberg, SC Coker taught Nikki Haley in her seventh grade social studies class.
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As she launched her campaign, Haley pointed to her political resume as a living example of the idea that America is — at its core — a land of opportunity. She pushed back against what she described as a growing “self-loathing”, which she said sees America as “flawed, rotten and full of hate” – especially on the political left.
“Believe me, the first minority female governor in history, America is not a racist country,” Haley said, drawing thunderous applause from the mostly white crowd.
He still exists
Tony Duncan, a local black business owner, is a few years older than Haley and remembers going to school with his older siblings.
“She comes from good people, and they are good people,” Duncan said.
But, having grown up in South Carolina in the 1960s and 1970s, Duncan says the breed has always been there.
“I think we all know what this country was built on. And [racism] still exists,” he says. ” It exists. As people here in America, we have to deal with those things.”
Lisa B. Stokes grew up in Bamberg and spent her career as a teacher. She started elementary school around the time local schools were integrated and spent her first year of elementary school in an all-black classroom. Stokes has mixed feelings about Haley’s comments.
Lisa B. Stokes, 60, is a retired teacher from Bamberg.
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Lisa B. Stokes, 60, is a retired teacher from Bamberg.
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“Yes, there are so many opportunities and we can all make it happen,” Stokes said. “It’s a lot easier for some than for others.”
Racial slurs and slurs
In her life and political career, Haley has at times been targeted for her race.
At age 5, Haley was asked, mid-competition, to withdraw from the Little Miss Bamberg beauty pageant – which had separate prizes for black children and white children – because they had no category for her, she told the New York Times Review in a 2011 interview. After that, the city incorporated its historical re-enactments and many other social activities.
“I mean, that kind of thing would be [make her] say, ‘Well, now it’s crystal clear. I am different; I don’t fit in,” said Bamberg County Republican Party Chairwoman Sharon Carter.
Carter grew up in Bamberg around the same time as Haley. She says Haley’s race was never a big issue and the family was well regarded: “You know, by the time you’re in school as elementary-aged kids, everyone’s hear well.”
In 2010, when Haley was running for governor of South Carolina, a Republican state senator who was an ally of one of her main opponents used a racial slur to refer to Haley, alluding to faith. Sikh from his parents.
Coker says that despite this “really insulting” incident, Haley continued.
“I don’t write a lot of letters to the editor but I had to respond to this, and I said, ‘Well, you obviously don’t know them,’” she says. “She ended up winning and she didn’t slow down.”
Both sides of the tracks
As Haley’s star rose, her hometown – like many other small rural towns – declined, losing jobs and many of her young people. The highway bypassed the community and a textile factory left town. Older residents remember when the town’s main street was bustling and lined with traffic; today most of the old brick storefronts are empty or covered with plywood.
This modest Bamberg, South Carolina home features prominently in Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign launch video.
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This modest Bamberg, South Carolina home features prominently in Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign launch video.
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And there are always racial divisions.
Stokes, who lives a few blocks from the much larger house Haley’s parents eventually moved into, says when she moved into the predominantly white neighborhood around 1990, many neighbors actively avoided her.
“It was obvious that some weren’t really thrilled that we moved here,” Stokes said. “And even to this day, you know, we’re the only African American couple on the street.”
Despite having more humble beginnings in Bamberg, SC, Nikki Haley’s parents eventually moved into this larger home, which they sold in 2002, according to local property records.
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Despite having more humble beginnings in Bamberg, SC, Nikki Haley’s parents eventually moved into this larger home, which they sold in 2002, according to local property records.
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Stokes says she appreciated Haley’s work in removing the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol after a white supremacist shot and killed nine people at a historically black church in Charleston in 2015. But she has was disappointed to see Haley – after initially criticizing Trump – align herself with him a few years later.
“It’s like, ‘Who are you, Nikki Haley?’” she said. “Truly and sincerely, who are you?
Stokes says she’s also proud of the recognition Haley has brought to their hometown. But she hopes Haley remembers the people back home — on both sides of town.
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