Rural poverty and the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty

Trip Gabriel's front-page story in today's New York Times is headlined "50 Years into the War on Poverty, Hardship Hits Back."  He reports from Twin Branch, West Virginia, in McDowell County, population 20,876 and the poorest county in the state with a poverty rate of 33.5%.  Gabriel likens McDowell County to a "rural Detroit, with broken windows on shuttered businesses and homes crumbling from neglect."  He notes that of the nation's 353 persistent poverty counties (those with poverty rates greater than 20% over the past three decades), 85% are rural. These counties are clustered in distinct regions:  in the west and southwest, on Indian reservations; Latina/os in the Rio Grande Valley; Blacks in the Deep South and Mississippi Delta, and whites in Appalachia "which has supplied some of America's iconic imagery of rural poverty since the Depression-era photos of Walker Evans."  

Gabriel continues:  

John F. Kennedy campaigned here in 1960 and was so appalled that he promised to send help if elected president. His first executive order created the modern food stamp program, whose first recipients were McDowell County residents. When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty” in 1964, it was the squalor of Appalachia he had in mind. The federal programs that followed — Medicare, Medicaid, free school lunches and others — lifted tens of thousands above a subsistence standard of living. 

But a half-century later, with the poverty rate again on the rise, hardship seems merely to have taken on a new face in McDowell County. The economy is declining along with the coal industry, towns are hollowed out as people flee, and communities are scarred by family dissolution, prescription drug abuse and a high rate of imprisonment. 

Fifty years after the war on poverty began, its anniversary is being observed with academic conferences and ideological sparring — often focused, explicitly or implicitly, on the “culture” of poor urban residents. Almost forgotten is how many ways poverty plays out in America, and how much long-term poverty is a rural problem.

McDowell County is nearly 90% white, and it includes no metropolitan or micropolitan area.  Fewer than a third of residents are in the labor force, not only because of the loss of "good" coal jobs, but because many cannot pass drug tests.  Gabriel reports that Social Security, federal disability payments, food stamps and other federal programs comprise nearly half of personal income in the county.

Educating a populace for a town with no jobs?

The New York Times reported yesterday from Welch, West Virginia, in coal country.  The headline is "A Fading Coal County Bets on Schools, but There's One Big Hitch."  That big hitch is jobs--or the lack thereof.  The county is aiming to do a better job of getting more teens through high school and on to college, but then what?  Not much, if the job situation in that corner of southern West Virginia--coal country--doesn't improve.  Indeed, the whole story reminds me of something an Australian rural sociologist commented on years ago:  smart rural girls are expected to become teachers.  That's a solution to part of the problem, but not nearly all of it.  That said, it's interesting that the newly  minted teachers featured in the story are women.  Here are two key quotes from the story: 

Notably, the teachers’ federation acknowledges the tension between the goal of preparing the young to grasp future opportunities and the fact that there are few of those in town. Bob Brown, the federation’s main person in McDowell County, noted that “there is a very small percentage of high school graduates who stay.” As Ms. Keys sees it: “The options are you get a job as a teacher or you leave.”

McDowell is poor — one of the poorest counties in the country. Over half of its children do not live with their biological parents, who are often addled by opioids, in prison or dead. Among residents 25 or older, only about one in five has a bachelor’s degree.

The county is hoping that it has a future in ecotourism, which would employ more skilled graduates:

Now Welch is putting its hopes in tourism, mostly revolving around trails for all-terrain vehicles that draw crowds every weekend. It hopes to expand this into zip-lining, kayaking and whatever else will attract people willing to spend money.

And here's a quote from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers:  

You can turn around schooling, but if you can't turn around the economy, it's not enough.  

Welch's population is just 2,406.  McDowell County's population is 22,113. Prior posts about McDowell County are here.  I will also add that Welch reminds me of my hometown--in terms of its percentage of adults who have Bachelor's degrees and in terms of there being no jobs for educated folks except teaching.  I'm also reminded of something a rural sociologist from Australia said to me years ago:  smart rural girls are supposed to become teacher.  There's no higher aspiration or expectation--at least not without moving away.  

Another rural institution certain to be hurt by Trump administration cuts: public libraries

Children's Section of Rio Vista Library, Solano County California
(c)Lisa R. Pruitt 2024

The likely disproportionate harm Trump administration policies and budget cuts will have on rural America has been a theme of several recent posts on the blog.  In this one, I'm going go to leverage a story by Emily Hays of Illinois Public Radio, who reported on the topic a few days ago from Greenup, population 1,365 in central Illinois.  The excerpt that follows provides insights into why rural libraries are so vulnerable and it echoes a theme from other stories about rural vulnerability: because of weak local tax bases, small towns and nonmetro counties are less able to absorb the loss of federal funds that have helped to provide all sorts of services.  

Take and Make Kits at the Newton County (AR) Library
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025 

I'm also using this post to share some photos of rural libraries that I've taken in the past few years, some from my home county, Newton County, Arkansas, and some from California towns.  What I've seen in my hometown library, where I've spent more time recently, is that these institutions provide a wide range of services, from a seed bank to lending telescopes to craft bags for kids.  They host legal aid attorneys coming to chat about elder law and other issues residents may need to know about.  Sadly, to my mind, they may also mindlessly distribute The Epoch Times and other right-wing propaganda.  

(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

The following excerpt from journalist Hayes story features her in conversation with Vickie Pierce, the retired English teacher working part time as the circulation clerk in what is described as one large room: 

Telescopes on loan at
Newton County Library, AR
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

PIERCE: We're a small-town library, so really small budget. And honestly, I'm not sure how we manage to stay open.

Reading room, Coleville Library,
Mono County, CA
(c)Lisa R. Pruitt 2024

HAYES: Part of how they stay open is through grants from the independent federal agency the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Before the pandemic, the federal government covered around 5% of Greenup library's operating costs. Kate McDowell is a professor at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences. She says the IMLS is a very small agency...

KATE MCDOWELL: That has impacts on almost every community in the whole of the United States and territories.

HAYES: Public libraries get most of their funding from county and city taxes. IMLS distributes the majority of federal library funds. McDowell says the grants vary year to year and are often small, but they help libraries try new things.

MCDOWELL: What the IMLS funds is not just the subsistence of libraries, although that's there too - it's their future.

Mammoth Lakes Library,

 HAYES: IMLS gave out $267 million last year to libraries and museums. That's 3,000th of a percent of federal spending. But the future of that funding is in doubt. In March, almost all of the IMLS staff were put on administrative leave. In an executive order, President Trump claimed the move would reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Greenup isn't expecting any federal money this year, and Pierce says the library is financially cautious.

PIERCE: We squeeze every penny three or four or five times to get the most out of it.

HAYES: And Pierce says the idea of taking more money away from libraries sickens her. The American Library Association says that's been happening nationwide to libraries and museums receiving IMLS grants.

Seed saving chart and seed library
Newton County (AR) Library 
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

* * *

[A] judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Congress has funded the department through September. For now, Greenup Library says it's still providing the same services, but that could change for it and other rural libraries.

Prior posts about rural libraries are here.  I want to specifically highlight this 2013 NPR feature on a rural Missouri library.  Here's one from 2008 about a library in a barn in New England.  This 2017 post is about Douglas County, Oregon's decision not to keep open a single library.   And a dispute about how much to pay the librarian in this Arkansas county was the basis for political ponderings in this lengthy op-ed in the New York Times in 2019.

Libraries are important sources of WiFi,
as illustrated by this sign 
at the Newton County (AR) Library
(c) Lisa R. Pruitt 2025

Is Sanders pandering to coal interests? or does he understand the need for a just transition?

Here's a quote from the New York Times coverage of Sanders' speech in West Virginia today (accompanied by a photo of him in Lexington, Kentucky yesterday):

While I strongly believe we need to combat climate change to make our planet habitable for our children and our grandchildren, let me be clear:  We cannot abandon communities that have been dependent on coal and other fossil fuels. ... In my view, we have got to invest $41 billion rebuilding coal mining communities and making sure that Americans in McDowell County and all over this country receive the job training they need for the clean energy jobs of the future.

To me, that sounds like he might be pandering to "coal country" and the voters there, but not to coal interests.  Sounds like he's talking the talk of a just transition from coal, and it makes me wonder what he would say about the need for a just transition for rural economies facing similar challenges when those economies are not extraction-based.

And here is an excerpt from a piece that ran on Slate a few days ago.  It is headlined, "Donald Trump Clearly Thinks Hillary Clinton is Vulnerable in This One Area.  She Is."  Journalist Jeremy Stahl explains that the "one area" is international trade, and the piece goes on to talk about coal miners in particular:

Trump mentioned how Hillary said in March that "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." She apologized to a tearful, recently laid off coal miner on Monday for those remarks, but this is clearly still a weakness that Trump plans to exploit.

“I watched her three or four weeks ago when she was talking about the miners as if they were just numbers and she was talking about she wants the mines closed and she will never let them work again,” Trump said. “Let me tell you: the miners in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was so great to me last week and Ohio and all over, they're going to start to work again, believe me. You're going to be proud again to be miners.”

Ohio and Pennsylvania both went to Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections and would prove critical to the GOP’s chances of success were the party to somehow make it a close general election contest.