I'm with Doug on this one -- sorta. Grew up in a small town in the South way back when there were still "colored" entrances to stores.
The thing to remember about these local elites is that they think -- and they're not far wrong -- that any change is bad for them. If you look at the balance sheet of their investments -- the value of their land, for example -- the solvents of modernity are unlikely to be bad for those, and may in fact be quite the reverse, but they will certainly turn the local squire, a man of consequence in his little world, into a middlin' well-off guy of no particular importance. From their point of view, that's a demotion.