Ending the Legacy of Poverty in the Rural South

America's Forgotten People and Places: Ending the Legacy of Poverty in the Rural South

Joyce E. Allen-Smith, Ronald C. Wimberley, and Libby V. Morris

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the longstanding impoverishment of the rural South and three of its subregions-Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and the Black Belt. The poor quality of life in rural Appalachia and along the Mississippi Delta has been publically acknowledged by programs and commissions for improving conditions. However, the more comprehensive Black Belt subregion that links parts of Southern Appalachia and the Southern Delta has not received such regional policy attention. While the South as a whole is more rural and impoverished than other U.S. regions, this is largely due to the poor conditions in the Black Belt. In addition to region and rurality, a third feature of the pattern is race. It is in the Black Belt that the South's poor socioeconomic conditions are most concentrated. Policy and program attention are needed for regional solutions that take rurality and race into account along with demographic and other subregional characteristics.

Key Words: Appalachia, Black Belt, Mississippi Delta, policy, poverty, quality of life, rural, South.

As we begin a new century, the rural South a group of contiguous counties with relatively continues to struggle with problems that have high poverty rates, and these counties lag be- plagued it through the twentieth century-per- hind the rest of the United States on key in- sistent poverty and uneven development. Geo- dicators of socioeconomic well-being. Living graphic areas of concentrated poverty are scat- in these pockets of poverty diminishes the life tered across the South from Appalachia chances of adults and especially children. As through the Lower Rio Grande Valley and in- Duncan points out, "It is harder to be poor cluding the Black Belt from Virginia to Texas. and harder to escape poverty in depressed Every southern state except Delaware contains communities (p. 131)." The South does not quite have a monopoly on areas with concentrated poverty. Indeed, Allen-Smith is an Associate Professor in the Depart- ment of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the persistently poor counties and uneven devel- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Wimber- opment can be found in every region. Yet the ley is a William Neal Reynolds Professor of Sociology greatest concentration of poverty is in the at North Carolina State University; and Morris is an South. More than four in ten of the nation's Associate Professor and the Graduate Cordinator in the Institute of Higher Education at the University of poor are southerners (Wimberley and Morris Georgia. 1996, p. 43). Furthermore, the region does not 320 Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, August 2000 share proportionally in the prosperity enjoyed Stereotypical images of Appalachia have by the nation as a whole or in other U.S. re- prevailed since the 1800s. Lewis and Billings gions. note that Appalachia is depicted by scholars, In this analysis we review socioeconomic policymakers, and reporters as "a homoge- conditions for several high-poverty areas of nous region which is physically, culturally, the rural South, examine the characteristics of and economically isolated from mainstream the population in these distressed areas, report America" (p. 16). They concluded that "the factors found to contribute to impoverished creators of the Appalachia myth were not of conditions, and review past policies and pro- the people they described, and what the in- grams to alleviate poverty and promote eco- ventors saw was refracted through their own nomic development. Our focus is on Appala- particular set of cultural and class lenses" (p. chia and the Mississippi Delta along with the 16). Moreover, Lewis and Billings found that larger southern Black Belt subregion that con- generalizations about Appalachia were based nects them. on studies conducted in isolated rural communities. They contend that there is a body of Appalachia sound research which indicates, "a much more diverse and dynamic Appalachia than is pre- Appalachia has "symbolized poverty, exploi- sumed to have existed (p. 16)." tation and regional underdevelopment" (Bill- Lewis and Billings' review of the literature ings and Tickamyer, p. 7). The report issued provides some useful insights into the early by the President's Regional Commission in history of the region and its economic evolu- 1964 characterized Appalachia as "a region tion. Although the mountains made travel dif- apart-geographically and statistically." The ficult, a network of roads and pikes along with Commission found that Appalachia trailed the the railroad facilitated access to markets and nation in income and education levels and in enhanced communication beyond the region. population and employment growth and sur- In addition to subsistence farming, early set- passed the nation in poverty and unemploy- tlers engaged in diverse economic activities ment rates. The boundaries for the area offi- including raising livestock such as cattle and cially defined as Appalachia were set by hogs, growing corn, harvesting timber, and Congress and thus reflect political consider- trapping animals for their pelts. Early manu- ations. facturing industries included salt and iron and, Stretching from New York to Mississippi, later, coal mining. Lewis and Billings report Appalachia is a subregion of the Northeast, that two Appalachias emerged before the Midwest, and South. It encompasses 404 twentieth century and noted that counties with counties in 13 states. Three-fourths of these sizable towns (i.e., growth centers) were at the counties are in the South. About 111, or 28 forefront of the economic diversification. percent, of the Appalachian counties are clas- However, "counties without growth centers sified by the Appalachian Regional Commis- failed to develop much commercialization or sion (ARC) as distressed due to low per-capita diversity" (p. 20). The legacy of two Appa- income plus high poverty and unemployment lachias continues. One has poverty rates at or rates. A relatively high proportion of the Ap- below the national level and has a vibrant palachian population lives in rural areas. Us- economy. The other has relatively high pov- ing the last classification of rural and urban erty rates, unemployment rates, and a low ratio geography as found in the 1990 U.S. Census, of jobs to people. 53 percent of the Appalachian people are rural Parts of Central Appalachia-counties in compared to 25 percent nationally (Wimberley West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee-fit the and Morris 1996, p. 13). Important sectors of profile of the "other Appalachia." Indeed, the economy include manufacturing and coal Billings and Tickamyer argue that Central Ap- mining, and-more recently-services and palachia "most closely resembles the stereo- tourism. type of persistent poverty and underdevelop- Allen-Smith, Wimberly, and Morris: Ending Poverty in the Rural South 321

Table 1. Selected Socioeconomic Conditions in Appalachia by Subregion Percentage of Adults with Appalachia Mean Household Unemployment High School Subregion Money Income Poverty Rate Rate Diplomas Central $23,858 25.9 10.2 53 Northern $30,686 14.0 7.3 73 Southern $31,858 14.1 5.7 66 Source: 1990 data from Cushing and Rogers "Income and Poverty," and Isserman, "Appalachia Then and Now: An Update of 'The Realities of Deprivation' Reported to the President in 1964." ment and that consistently has social nonmetro Appalachia had 45 jobs per 100 indicators far below those of other areas of the people in 1992 whereas the rest of the non- country (p. 9)." Notwithstanding, parts of metro United States had 49 and metropolitan Northern and Southern Appalachia are severe- Appalachia had 51. ly impoverished, particularly in some counties Cushing and Rogers provide evidence that of Mississippi and Alabama as well as Ohio educational attainment-a significant deter- in the Midwest. Central Appalachia contains a minant of poverty-is lower in Central Ap- disproportionate number of small nonmetro- palachia than in the rest of the region. For ex- politan counties that tend to be more impov- ample, only 53 percent of those persons of erished compared to metropolitan counties. ages 25 and over in Central Appalachia had Data from the ARC document the disad- completed high school in 1990 versus 73 per- vantaged status of Central Appalachia com- cent in Northern Appalachia, 66 percent in pared to the rest of the United States and the Southern Appalachia and 76 percent in the rest rest of Appalachia. As reported in Table 1, of the United States. mean household income in 1990 averaged Living standards have improved in Appa- only $24,000 in Central Appalachia or 61 per- lachia during recent decades. Rogers and cent of the average for the rest of the United Cushing point out that, "while Central Appa- States. By contrast, mean household income lachia might still be characterized as a 'world in Northern Appalachia averaged 78 percent apart,' even compared with the rest of Appa- of the rest of United States and Southern Ap- lachia, Appalachia as a whole no longer fits palachia averaged 81 percent. In 1990, 13.1 this image (p. 31)." Indeed, Appalachia is on percent of the U.S. population lived in pov- par with the rest of the United States on sev- erty. The poverty rate in Northern and South- eral key indicators of well-being including in- ern Appalachia was slightly higher than the fant mortality rates, home ownership rates, U.S. average while the rate in Central Appa- percent of occupied housing units with com- lachia was nearly double the U.S. average. plete plumbing facilities, and percent of oc- Given the relatively high poverty rates in cupied housing units with a vehicle available. Central Appalachia, it is not surprising that the subregion had a relatively high rate of unem- The Mississippi Delta ployment and low educational levels. Data show a 10.2 percent unemployment rate in The Lower Mississippi Delta Development Central Appalachia in 1990 compared to 7.3 Commission, chaired at the time by Governor percent in Northern Appalachia and 5.7 per- Bill Clinton of Arkansas, elucidated the Delta cent in Southern Appalachia. Isserman argues as a place, that the number of jobs per 100 people indicates a deficit in jobs in Appalachia and par- ... where jobs are scarce and job skills ticularly in Central Appalachia and in non- training almost unknown; where infant mor- metropolitan parts of the region. Indeed, tality rates rival those in the Third World; 322 Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, August 2000

where dropping out of school and teenage varies across the Delta subregions. Farms tend pregnancy are commonplace; where capital to be much larger in the Central Delta than in for small farmers and small business is se- the Fringe Delta (659 acres versus 272 acres verely limited; where good housing and at the time of their analysis). The plantation health care are unattainable for many; where system that evolved in the Central Delta left a industrial technology lags a decade behind legacy of uneven distribution of wealth that and funds for research and development the region is still struggling to overcome. barely trickle to college and universities; where illiteracy reigns as a supreme piece The Black Belt of irony; [and where] the region has pro- duced some of the best writers and worst Within the South, however, there is an even readers in America (p. 101). larger but often unrecognized subregion that covers nearly half of the South, overlaps most In a similar vein, Hyland and Timberlake of the southern Mississippi Delta, and claims contend that "the Delta is to the United States a surprisingly large part of the Appalachian as poor countries of the Third World are to the South. This is the historic Black Belt. industrialized countries of Western Europe, What exactly is the Black Belt? Taking the North America, and Japan (p. 77)." starting point from Booker T. Washington's The region, as defined by Congress, use of the term, the Black Belt is a southern stretches from Louisiana to southern Illinois subregion of counties with greater-than-aver- and comprises 186 counties in the seven states age concentrations of African-American resi- of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennes- dents. This is a social definition rather than see, Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois. These one based on the geography of the South's rich counties are connected by their ties to the Mis- agricultural soils. sissippi River as well as their economic, so- Wimberley and Morris (1996, 1997) oper- cial, and cultural traditions. Like Appalachia, ationalize Black Belt counties as being in the the Delta is heterogeneous. Indeed, Reinsch- 11 Old South states and having at least the miedt and Green found that socioeconomic national percentage of black population. In the conditions are worse in the Central Delta sub- 1990 baseline census year-and the latest de- region (the 43 nonmetropolitan counties "ly- cennial census at the time of this writing-the ing entirely within the flatland Delta region in United States was 12 percent African-Ameri- Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missou- can. Therefore, counties where at least 12 per- ri (p. 3)" than in the other two subregions des- cent of the population was black are designat- ignated as the Fringe Delta (nonmetro counties ed as the Black Belt counties. There are 623 not in the Central Delta) and the Metropolitan such counties in the 11 Old South states, a few Delta. For instance, poverty and infant mor- others in the remaining southern states, and tality rates were higher in the Central Delta fewer still in states outside the South. than in the other subregions while total per- To consider either the Mississippi Delta or sonal income per capita and percent of popu- the southernmost Appalachians apart from the lation over 25 years who completed high Black Belt is inadequate for understanding the school were lower. socioeconomic conditions of the U.S. South. Reinschmiedt and Green also note that eco- Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South nomic structure varies by subregion in the Carolina, Texas, and Virginia are not in the Delta. In particular, agriculture-broadly de- Mississippi Delta. Neither are Texas, Louisi- fined to include agricultural services and the ana, and Arkansas in Appalachia. But along manufacturing of food and kindred products with Mississippi and Tennessee, these states and textiles-accounts for a larger share of the constitute the 11 states of the Old South and industrial base in the Central Delta (40 percent are the states containing the South's largest in 1984-86) than in all Delta counties (16 per- subregion-the Black Belt. The Black Belt cent). Furthermore, the structure of agriculture connects the South's other subregions and pro- Allen-Smith, Wimberly, and Morris: Ending Poverty in the Rural South 323

Table 2. Selected Demographic and Socioeconomic Conditions for the U.S., South, the Black Belt, and Appalachia Non- metro % 25 and Over Non- Non- W/O Non- metro metro Hi. % Total metro Black White Scho. Total Pop. % % Non- Pover- Pover- Pover- Pover- Diplo- Area (1000s) White Black metro ty Rate ty Rate ty Rate ty Rate ma Black Belt (623 Counties) 45,250 69 27 23 17 23 42 13 39 Appalachia (404 Counties) 20,702 92 7 42 15 19 36 18 38 Total South (1,425 Counties) 85,446 77 19 26 16 21 41 16 39 United States (3,141 Counties) 248,710 80 12 20 13 17 40 14 31 Sources: 1990 U.S. Census as reported in Wimberley and Morris (1996), The Reference Book on Regional Well-Being, and Wimberley and Morris (1997), The Southern Black Belt: A National Perspective. Notes: The census-defined South consists of 16 states plus Washington, D.C.: Texas,TeOklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and Delaware. The Black Belt includes parts of the 1 -state Old South: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missis- sippi, Alabama. Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia. The South's Appalachian Region includes parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. The nonsouthern Appalachia states are Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. The Black Belt includes 47 counties of Appalachia: 18 in Alabama, 17 in Mississippi, 4 in Georgia, 4 in South Carolina, 2 in Virginia, 1 in North Carolina, and 1 in Tennessee.

vides a common, socioeconomic denominator land, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. The linking poor living conditions across the larger Northeast and West each contain about one- South. fifth of the U.S. population, and the Midwest A product of the 1700s and 1800s, the has slightly over one-fourth. Black Belt is quite discernable even today. Like the South itself, the Black Belt is large The historic Black Belt did not disappear with both geographically and demographically. The the rural and southern outmigrations of the Black Belt's 623 counties hold 18 percent of early and mid-twentieth century. Neither did the U.S. population. This is over half of the its poor conditions go away with the coming South's population and is nearly as many as of New South prosperity in urban areas or the population of the highly urbanized North- with technological advances and social pro- eastern United States. Some of these demo- grams. The Black Belt's socioeconomic qual- graphic details are provided in Table 2 along ity-of-life conditions remain some of the worst with data on several social conditions to be in the nation. As Wimberley and Morris de- discussed. While the nation is 12 percent Af- scribe the situation, "The Black Belt is still rican-American and the larger South is 19 per- home to persistent poverty, poor employment, cent African-American, the Black Belt is 27 low incomes, low education, poor health, high percent black and 69 percent white. infant mortality, and dependence (1997, p. The South and its Black Belt are not only iii)." large in population. They also have dispro- With one-third of the nation's people, the portionately large shares of the nation's poor South is by far the largest demographic region socioeconomic conditions. In light of the fact of the country. The census-defined South con- that the South has the major portions of Ap- sists of the 11 Old South States plus palachia and the Mississippi Delta in addition Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mary- to the Black Belt, this may come as no sur- 324 Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, August 2000

prise. The South's historically high standings mind, how do conditions compare between the in impoverishment are well above those of the Black Belt and Appalachia? As shown in Ta- other major U.S. regions. Somehow the better ble 2, the Black Belt has more than twice as socioeconomic quality of life gained by those many people as Appalachia-about 45 million living in other U.S. regions has left behind vs. 21 million. And although 42 percent of many people and places in the South, its Delta, Appalachia and 23 percent of the Black Belt southern Appalachia, and-particularly-in are nonmetro, the larger Black Belt has nu- the Black Belt. merically more nonmetro residents. Unfortunately for the South, the 31 percent The overall poverty rate in the Black Belt of the U.S. residents who lived in the South is 17 percent and is 15 percent in Appalachia. at the time of the 1990 census had 41 percent Both subregions have poverty rates exceeding of the nation's poverty (Wimberley and Morris that for the South as a whole or for the nation. 1996, p. 43). Similarly, the South holds 40 Nonmetro white poverty runs high at 18 per- percent of the nation's people who have not cent in Appalachia. Within nonmetro Appala- graduated from high school. chia, however, the 36 percent poverty rate for It is in the Black Belt that the South's poor blacks is twice that for whites. And the non- quality-of-life conditions are concentrated. metro Black Belt poverty rate of 42 percent The Black Belt's 18 percent of the U.S. people for blacks is higher than the 36 percent pov- experience 23 percent of the nation's poverty, erty rate for blacks in Appalachia. Regardless and represent 21 percent of the U.S. residents of the comparisons, poverty rates are high by who have not finished high school. Not only U.S. standards for rural Appalachian whites do these conditions characterize the region and and blacks, and high for rural blacks in the subregion, such conditions are further associ- Black Belt. ated with rurality and with race. In summary, poor conditions are worse in For example, the South is home to 45 per- the South than in other U.S. regions, and are cent-nearly half-of the nation's nonmetro- worse for blacks than for whites. Furthermore, politan (i.e., rural) people. But these nonmetro rural conditions are worse than the urban. residents have 55 percent-over half-of the na- When these factors of race, region, and rural- tion's nonmetro poverty. As a rule, poor con- ity are combined as they are in the Black Belt, ditions in rural areas, as measured by various socioeconomic conditions are the worst of all. indicators, exceed those of urban areas. The same pattern applies to racial differ- The People Left ences. While rural quality-of-life conditions Behind are generally poorer than those in urban areas, racial minorities in the South and many other The poor in the United States tend to share regions typically have lower levels of living, certain characteristics. A disproportionate and rural racial minorities typically have the number are racial or ethnic minorities, are worst situations of all. Wimberley and Morris children, live in female-headed families with (1996, 1997) show that poverty rates, the lack no husband present, are poorly educated, have of high school graduation, and unemployment work-limiting disabilities, and live in nonmet- run highest among nonmetro blacks in the ropolitan areas. In the rural South, the faces of South, the Black Belt, and Appalachia. To il- the poor tend to vary according to region. In lustrate with statistics from Table 2, the pov- Appalachia where 92 percent of the population erty rate of nonmetro blacks in the Black Belt is white, an overwhelming 85 percent majority is 42 percent in comparison to 13 percent for of the poor are white, while in the Black Belt nonmetro whites living in the Black Belt. including much of the Lower Mississippi Del- While the Black Belt essentially encom- ta, 57 percent of the poor are African-Ameri- passes the lower Mississippi Delta, it shares cans. Although African-Americans are only 7 47 counties with the area served by the Ap- percent of the population in Appalachia, they palachian Regional Commission. With this in are still besieged by poverty. In fact, they are Allen-Smith, Wimberly, and Morris: Ending Poverty in the Rural South 325 over twice as likely as whites to live in pover dependence ratios than the U.S. average. erty (Wimberley and Morris 1996, p. 37). Nonmetro Appalachia has an elder depen- Also, the youngest U.S. citizens have the dence ratio of 24 and a youth dependence ratio highest poverty rates. For example, 20 percent of 42. The nonmetro Black Belt has a lower of children under five years of age were poor elder dependence rate of 24 but a slightly in 1990. In impoverished areas such as Ap- higher youth dependence ratio of 47. Basical- palachia, the rate was even higher at 23 per- ly, the high youth-to-elder dependence bur- cent (Cushing and Rogers). Because of the dens make it more difficult to escape poverty negative outcomes associated with childhood for those living in distressed areas. poverty (e.g., being more likely to drop out of In regard to escaping poverty, Duncan of- school or more likely to be poor as adults), the fers a vivid portrait of the Appalachian poor high poverty rates for children suggest that an- that may be generalized to other areas of other generation will grow up without reach- southern poverty. She states that, ing its full potential and the United States will not reap its full economic potential. For socio- Poor Appalachians live precarious lives in economic well-being and quality of life, esti- unstable, unpredictable communities, vul- mates of the costs of childhood poverty in nerable to individual setbacks such as job terms of lost productivity alone are staggering. loss, illness of a family member, or even a The Children's Defense Fund estimated that broken-down car, as well as to the pervasive the aggregate cost of child poverty for ap- arbitrary control of those in power. They be- proximately 14.5 million children was $130 come trapped in poverty because there are billion in 1998. few opportunities for steady work and in- Only recently have social scientists used come in their own communities and few op- the concept of age-related dependence as a portunities to develop the skills and educa- measure of well-being. Since virtually all chil- tional background necessary to find work dren and many of the elderly rely on others elsewhere (p. 112). for economic support, dependence ratios provide an indication of which places may be more vulnerable to poverty because of their Factors Contributing to Poverty demographic characteristics. The U.S. elder dependence ratio was 20 per Empirical studies have enriched the social-sci- 100 persons of working age in 1990 whereas entific understanding of factors that contribute the youth dependence ratio was 41 youths per to rural poverty. The studies can be divided 100 persons of working age (Wimberley and into two categories. Some studies explain the Morris 1996, pp. 87-89; Morris and Wimber- variation in poverty at the community or coun- ley 1997). Elders are defined as persons 65 ty level. Other studies explain household or years old or older while youths are persons family poverty. The former studies have found below 18 years old, and the working-aged are that the percentage of families headed by 18 to 64 years old. women, the percentage of the population that The overall demographic dependence ratios is African-American, the percentage of the un- for the South and the Black Belt are essen- employed civilian labor force, the percentage tially the same as those for the United States. of the population that did not complete high However, due to the disproportionate number school, and proximity to a high-poverty coun- of whites in Appalachia and due to the longer ty significantly affect poverty rates (Allen- life expectancies of whites, Appalachia had a Smith and Appiah). slightly higher elder dependence ratio of 23. The latter studies (e.g., Allen and Thomp- Demographic dependence also varies ac- son, Thompson and McDowell) indicate that cording to metropolitan and nonmetropolitan certain characteristics-including rural loca- locations. For example, nonmetro portions of tion, female-headed family type, presence of both the Black Belt and Appalachia have high- preschool children, race, and human capital- 326 Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, August 2000

are statically significant predictors of poverty the continued existence of concentrated pov- at the household level. Still others have em- erty. The sociological literature provides in- phasized the importance of human capital- sights that can help enrich our understanding e.g., education, migration, health-in reducing of factors that contribute to poverty. In partic- the likelihood of living in poverty and pro- ular, some scholars contend that fractionalism moting economic development. For example, and fatalism play a role in entrenched poverty. Bellamy and Parks argue that improving hu- Fractionalism refers to differences in attributes man capital must be a top priority in Black (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, age, length of res- Belt counties. They contend that without im- idence) which pit one group against another provements, the Black Belt will, "continue to and keep them from working together to im- attract certain types of labor-intensive indus- prove economic conditions. Given the racial tries which may bring low-paying jobs or they diversity in the Mississippi Delta, it is not sur- will become chronically dependent areas (pp. prising that fractionalism is often displayed 99-100)." This argument can also apply to between blacks and whites. According to Hy- Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta. land and Timberlake, "the role of race and Some researchers (e.g., Schiller) contend class relations in determining access to edu- that restricted opportunity, or discrimination, cational and political resources in the region impacts the distribution and extent of poverty. has been fundamental (p. 77)." Others (e.g., Bellamy and Parks) argue that a Hyland and Timberlake also acknowledge better understanding of the opportunity struc- that fatalism is "a dominant characteristic of ture is needed. Recent studies have docu- interpersonal relations (p. 86)" in the Missis- mented inequality of opportunity in education sippi Delta. They explain that, "Partially con- and employment in the rural South. For ex- ditioned by historical religious beliefs, many ample, Duncan describes a social system in perceive their own destiny as controlled by Appalachia where education, jobs, and train- forces larger than themselves. The trust that ing are allocated on a patronage system. She residents put in government or a benign boss states, "The inequality is apparent to people to take care of them often leads to a lack of on both sides of the [income] spectrum; they risk taking and a lack of personal and insti- agree that your family's name-and which tutional accountability in the educational and side of that divide your family has historically business worlds (p. 86)." They further note been on-is of the utmost importance in de- that fatalism may be "as much an accurate termining your opportunities (p. 121)." Hy- assessment of risk as it is a product of a land and Timberlake indicate the public unique regional culture (p. 86)." Appalachian schools in many Delta counties are poorly people have also been found to be fatalistic. funded and largely black as a result of white Lewis and Billings report that fatalism may flight. They show that per-pupil spending for "have followed from the harshness of life in education is much lower in the Delta than in the mountains for some of the population (p. the United States overall and that much of the 7)." They contend that research indicates that disparity is due to differences in contributions the poor may have adapted fatalism as a de- at the local level. Hyland and Timberlake con- fense mechanism although it was not a core tend that, "This lack of local support for pub- cultural trait of the region. lic education must be understood not only in Duncan's research on the patronage system terms of the poverty and subsequent weak tax in Appalachia helps to put the concept of fa- base of Delta counties, but also in terms of talism into perspective. She notes that there race relations (p 82)." tends to be a consensus regarding who con- The R2 coefficients of determination for the trols jobs in the both the public and private statistical models with poverty as the depen- sectors. She argues, "This concentrated power dent variable indicates that very little of the ... means that one cannot challenge the local variation is explained. Thus, other factors be- elite without losing one's own job or having yond economics may be critical in explaining one's relatives lose theirs. It is a complete sys- Allen-Smith, Wimberly, and Morris: Ending Poverty in the Rural South 327 tem in which jobs are awarded on the basis of ished people and places. Initiated during the who you know and who you support. People Great Depression, it consisted of programs to throughout the area take the system for grant- enhance the nation's infrastructure while pro- ed, and even those who want community viding jobs to the unemployed (e.g., the Public change in the region feel that the system is too Works Administration), protect the environ- entrenched to fight (pp. 126-127)." Recent ar- ment (e.g., the Civilian Conservation Corps), ticles in the popular press (e.g., Janofsky) sug- and provide income support (e.g., Social Se- gest that fatalism continues to exist even dur- curity and Aid to Dependent Families). World ing periods of unprecedented national growth. War II ushered in a period of low unemploy- Swanson et al. suggest that a legacy of dis- ment and growth in personal income. Despite crimination contributes to high poverty rates the post war boom, millions continued to in the Black Belt. They define legacy as social struggle to satisfy their basic needs. values, assumptions, and fears that are trans- Launched in 1964, the War on Poverty at- mitted from one generation to another. Factors tempted to address the root causes of poverty. that have shaped the legacy of African-Amer- Programs were established to provide job icans in the Black Belt include slavery, share- training (e.g., the Job Corps), education (e.g., cropping, segregation, marginal employment Upward Bound, Elementary and Secondary opportunities, and limited educational choices School Act which established compensatory (Swanson et al.). As part of the Black Belt, programs such as Head Start) and to aid com- the Mississippi Delta has the same legacy. munities in planning and implementing pro- Swanson et al. empirically estimated the im- grams to reduce poverty (e.g., the Community pact of legacy in the South excluding Florida, Action Program, Volunteers in Service to Texas and the counties that comprise Appala- America). The War on Poverty, of course, did chia. not eliminate poverty, but data indicate that As mapped by Wimberley and Morris poverty declined from 22.2 percent in 1960 to (1997), Swanson et al. found that concentra- 11.1 percent in 1973. Since the 1960s, the tions of African-Americans in nonmetropoli- poverty rate has fluctuated with the unemploy- tan counties were associated with poverty, ser- ment rate-rising during recessionary periods vice sector employment and unemployment. and falling as the economy recovers. Swanson et al. concluded that, "pockets of Given the estimated national poverty rate southern poverty are not the consequence of of 12.7 percent (34.5 million poor) in 1998 the inability of their residents to improve their and pockets of poverty when the national un- own conditions or of a culture of poverty, but employment rate was 4.5 percent, some have are intrinsically tied to the historical fate of wondered if poverty is intractable. Others have the region (p. 117)." suggested that the policy problem has been misdiagnosed and that appropriate strategies Federal Policies and Programs have not been implemented. Regional development planning was The New Deal (1933 to 1939) represented the launched in 1965 with the establishment of the first large-scale federal initiative to ameliorate Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) poverty and hunger, to spur development, and and the Ozarks Regional Commission. In Oc- to improve living conditions among impover- tober 1988, the Lower Mississippi Delta De- velopment Commission was formed. While these The dependent variable in the model was percent commissions represented opportunities of blacks in a county. Independent variables included for partnerships and collaborations across state percent of labor force in manufacturing, percent of the lines, they have not been without controversy labor force in the service sector, percent of the labor regarding programs and funding. force unemployed, percent of employed population who commute outside the county for work, percent of The ARC's programs and activities are the adult population that graduated from high school, aimed at improving transportation (e.g., the and percent of families in poverty. Appalachian Development Highway System), 328 Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, August 2000 economic and human development (e.g., edu- ticultural society; face race and class problems cation, civic development), health care (e.g., and bridge the gap; build on and protect ex- the J-1 Visa Waiver Program to facilitate isting resources; streamline institutional pro- placement of international health-care profes- cesses; increase capital for development; cre- sionals), and business development (e.g., the ate and penetrate markets; improve physical Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Business infrastructure; [and] build technical compe- Development Revolving Loan Fund Program). tence." The LMDDC existed for two years, In addition, the ARC targets assistance to the 1988 to 1990, and was then scaled-down into poorest communities through its Distressed a development center that has had difficulty in Counties Program. obtaining funds from member states. Lack of Programmatic disagreements surrounding state support jeopardized federal contributions. the ARC can largely be traced to whether the In January 1999, President Clinton an- emphasis should be on infrastructure for the nounced a "New Markets" initiative that development of places or human capital for would view economically distressed urban and the development of people. Moreover, the rural areas as untapped markets for new com- large sums of money expended by the ARC- merce. Proposed activities include incentives $7.4 billion over 35 years-have been ques- for firms investing in high poverty areas, tax tioned along with the impact of those funds. rebates for investments, loan guarantees, and And from 1981 through 1988, the Reagan ad- interest deferrals. According to the administra- ministration attempted to eliminate the ARC. tion, "New Markets" would cost about $1.6 billion In a landmark study, Isserman and Re- over five years and generate $15 billion in new investment. phann conducted an empirical assessment of However, Congress has not acted upon bills to move the commission. They used quasi-experimen- the New Markets program from proposal to action. tal control group methods to compare income, earnings, population, and per-capita income in Conclusions the ARC counties with counties outside the region with similar characteristics (e.g., eco- Regarding lagging growth and high poverty nomic structure, per-capita income, population rates in rural areas, Deavers raised the ques- and income growth rates) in 1959. They found tion, "Do we care?" Currently, the United that the ARC counties grew significantly faster States enjoys unprecedented economic growth on each of the measures of well-being and that that provides an opportunity to close the gap the results also held for Central Appalachia, and reduce inequality among regions and peo- the poorest subregion in Appalachia. ple. There is some consensus in the literature The ARC and the Lower Mississippi Delta about needed programs and directions. The Development Commission (LMDDC) differed suggested strategies tend to emphasize both in their activities and approaches. The economic infrastructure development and hu- LMDDC conducted hearings and listening man capital development. The scientific liter- sessions to obtain input from policymakers, ature also points to the need to build sustain- community and business leaders, and the gen- able communities, develop local leadership, eral populace regarding the economic prob- and change the opportunity structure. lems in the Delta and alternative strategies for If the impoverished people and places of overcoming them. the South and its historically poor subregions are to finally In the final report, referred to as a Hand- improve to the level enjoyed by Americans in other U.S. regions, book for Action, LMDDC chairman Bill Clin- the twenty- first century must bring the political ton specified that the Delta needs to, "develop will to adopt and fund these strategies. leadership; change attitudes regarding tradi- tion and image; improve education at all lev- References els; build institutional know-how and capacity; achieve comprehensive approaches to problem Allen, J.E. and A. Thompson. "Rural Poverty solving; improve abilities to function in a mul- among Racial and Ethnic Minorities." Ameri- Allen-Smith, Wimberly, and Morris: Ending Poverty in the Rural South 329

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