Poverty in Appalachia
A 1930s-era
TVA photograph showing a young girl in front of her family's house in the lower Clinch River valley in East Tennessee
Poverty had plagued Appalachia for many years but was not brought to the attention of the rest of the United States until 1960, by
US President John F. Kennedy, who proceeded to establish the President's Appalachian Regional Commission in 1963. His successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, crystallized Kennedy's efforts in the form of the
Appalachian Regional Commission, which passed into law in 1965.
[71]
In Appalachia, severe poverty and desolation were paired with the necessity for careful cultural sensitivity. Many Appalachian people feared that the birth of a new modernized Appalachia would lead to a death of their traditional values and heritage. Because of the isolation of the region, Appalachian people had been unable to catch up to the
modernization that lowlanders have achieved. In the 1960s, many people in Appalachia had a
standard of living comparable to
third world countries'. The film series "West Virginia", produced during the term of Governor Gaston Caperton, makes the point that at least on some level images of poverty were contrived.[
citation needed] Lyndon B. Johnson declared a "
War on Poverty" while standing on the front porch of an
Inez, Kentucky home whose residents had been suffering from a long ignored problem.
[72] The Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 stated:
“ The Appalachian region of the United States, while abundant in natural resources and rich in potential, lags behind the rest of the Nation... its people have not shared properly in the Nation’s
prosperity.
[73] ” Since the creation of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) in 1965, the region has seen dramatic progress. New roads, schools, health care facilities, water and sewer systems, and other improvements have brought a better life to many Appalachian residents. In the 1960s, 219
counties in the 13-
state Appalachian Region were considered economically distressed. Now that list has been cut in half, to 82 counties, but these are "hard-core" pockets of poverty, seemingly impervious to all efforts at improving their lot.
[74] Martin County, Kentucky, the site of Johnson’s 1964 speech, is one such county still ranked as "distressed" by the ARC. As of 2000, the
per capita income in Martin County was $10,650, and 37% of its residents lived below the
poverty line.
Like Johnson, President
Bill Clinton brought attention to the remaining areas of poverty in Appalachia. On July 5, 1999, he made a public statement concerning the situation in
Tyner, Kentucky. Clinton told the enthusiastic crowd:
“ I'm here to make a simple point. This is the time to bring more jobs and investment to parts of the country that have not participated in this time of prosperity. Any work that can be done by anybody in America can be done in Appalachia.
[74] ” The region's poverty has been documented often since the early 1960s.
John Cohen documents rural lifestyle and culture in
The High Lonesome Sound, while
photojournalist Earl Dotter has been visiting and documenting poverty, healthcare and mining in Appalachia for nearly forty years.
[75] Another photojournalist,
Shelby Lee Adams, has been photographing Appalachian families and lifestyle for decades.
