For local economic developers, recruiters and business leaders, the battle to recruit new businesses and industries to Selma and Dallas County is ongoing.

Last week, an online report caused some in the local economic recruitment field to defend the jobs that have been created locally and the industries that call Selma and Dallas County home.

Lecia Brooks, outreach director and director of the Civil Right Memorial Center for the Southern Poverty Law Center, was quoted in an article that cast dispersions on the industrial activity in Selma.

“Selma was so pivotal in securing the Voting Rights Act. It’s a city that has been (somewhat) abandoned — no industry, depressed economy, high poverty,” Brooks said in a report published at Selmajubilee.com. “But at the same time, they do an excellent job of holding up their (historic) attractions, including Edmund Pettus Bridge. It brings tourism to Selma.”

In a letter to the operators of the website — and ultimately Brooks — Brenda Tuck, vice president with industrial recruitment and consultation firm Alford & Associates, took exception to the image laid out by Brooks’ comments.