Uneven Ground
Daniel Fugitt
Chapter 6
The old and new Appalachia survived side by side on the fringes and directly in the middle of the region. Since the government had created special programs and started pumping into the area, some communities prospered and grew, while others continued their decline. The growth centers of Appalachia began to depend more and more on the national economy and its people were thrown into a more complex world. However, the region still lacked behind the rest of the country in terms of income and education.
Despite the massive growth and development in the area, Appalachia was still the “other America” in the popular mind. Despite the development of suburban communities, there were many rural communities who still represented the old Appalachia. This image stuck because of the many failures of the War on Poverty. The economy of the mountains always depended on the national economy and this was something that the policy makers failed to understand. While many were trying to expand coal mining, the US was moving towards a more service based economy, making many labor jobs obsolete. Coal mining jobs also continued to decline with the advent of new and more effective technology. From 1980-2000, 70% of the coal mining jobs in Appalachia disappeared.
While the economy boomed nationally in the 1990s, Appalachia struggled to keep up with the global market. With fewer mining and farming jobs available, many people opted to commute long distances to the growth centers to get service based jobs. Other families simply had to draw from welfare or other forms of assistance. The government policy of pumping money into short term jobs instead of long term sustenance began to show.
It was not all bad though, as some government assistance did help. The poverty rate in Appalachia was cut in half between 1960 – 2000 (33% to 13.6%). There was also great improvements in the amount of health care facilities and educational institutions in the area. The heart of Appalachia still lagged behind though. Eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia contained five of the twenty five poorest counties in the country and had a poverty rate of 22% (twice the national average). In addition to this, the income gap between rural and metropolitan communities in the region continued to widen. Women and children bore the brunt of poverty as nearly 70% of female headed households in the heart of Appalachia were below the national poverty rate.
Appalachia is currently still a conflict of old society and new society. The region still lags behind the rest of the national as a whole but it continuing to improve its conditions.