Turning the Course of Poverty In the Historic Black Belt South (To View in PDF Format, Click Here)

The Issue The southern Black Belt is the largest, poorest, and most rural region of the United States. It stretches across the 623 counties the research identified from the 11 Old South states where many of the nation's African-Americans live. The problems of the historic, Black Belt South persist across three centuries and are yet to be satisfactorily resolved. As the nation's largest region, the South holds 36 percent of the U.S. population, but 41 percent of the nation's poverty and 40 percent of the adults who have not completed high school. The South also is home to 45 percent of those who live in nonmetropolitan areas and to 55 percent of the nation's nonmetropolitan poor. In addition, 54 percent of the nation's African-Americans live in the South. Most southern poverty is concentrated in the Black Belt. This research and outreach program focuses on these issues and seeks to improve quality-of-life conditions in the region.

What Has Been Done Since 1990, this research and outreach program has provided basic information and issue awareness, analytic scientific models for solutions to the region's problems, and a meaningful base for policies and programs to change the longstanding course of the region. The results are transmitted through many publications and over 100 speeches and seminars on improving quality-of-life in the South and Black Belt. Two of the publications are The Reference Book on Regional Well-Being and The Southern Black Belt: A National Perspective, both co-authored by professor Ron Wimberley of NC State University with professor Libby Morris of the University of Georgia. These volumes and other works reveal the poor-quality-of-life conditions of the Black Belt South and offer a strategy for bringing these problems to an end and bringing the region up to the level of well-being enjoyed in other U.S. regions. In fact, The Southern Black Belt has become the basic text for research, applications, and social movement work by others.   Impacts This research and outreach program has had many impacts and spin-offs. It has provided awareness and basic information for scholars, officials, community leaders, and citizens about problems of the Black Belt that have been overlooked or ignored since the 1960's war on poverty that focused on Appalachia more than on the larger, Old South region.

In 2002, for example, the Black Belt Initiative that was launched by the University of Georgia in collaboration with other universities and interest groups, moved to an independent organizational status. This effort is based in The Southern Black Belt and other products of Wimberley and Morris' research on demographic and socioeconomic conditions of the historic Black Belt South. The Georgia part of the initiative launched a study via $250,000 in congressional funding and a matching amount by a private businessman for a feasibility study for a regional Black Belt commission as earlier recommended by the research team. This work produced a report, Dismantling Persistent Poverty in the Southeastern United States, that was published in 2002 through the Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. Wimberley and Morris' research was also used in community and regional programs by the Association for Quality of Life in America, the U.S. Forest Service, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, the West Alabama Regional Skills Consortium, Alabama Power, the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development, the Southern Food Systems Educational Consortium (SOFSEC), and other public and private sector organizations. In the U.S. House of Representatives, for example, the Wimberley and Morris research was also a basis for the development of H.R.3618 in 2002 and for H.R.141, "The SouthEast Crescent Authority [SECA] Act of 2003," a regional development program promoted through East Carolina University. Also in the House, the research was a basis for H.R.678, "The Southern Empowerment and Economic Development Act to Authorize the Delta Black Belt Regional Authority," as promoted through the Tuskegee University portion of the persistent poverty study. In the U.S. Senate, S.527, "The Southern Regional Commission Act of 2003," has also been introduced from the University of Georgia portion of the persistent poverty study. All of these legislative efforts draw upon The Southern Black Belt and follow proposals by Wimberley and Morris in 1990 and in 1993-94 when their proposal for a Black Belt regional commission was introduced in Congress as H.R.3901 for a regional organization similar to the Appalachian Regional Commission in the upper South. The Black Belt research program also led to earlier initiatives in many other organizations. For example, a Washington, D.C. foundation targeted its food-for-the-hungry program to the Black Belt counties the research designates. In its major, 1938 to 1998 report on "Education and Progress in the South," The Southern Regional Education Board drew upon the research to show how poor conditions linger in the South since President Roosevelt launched his social programs for the region 60 years ago. The Southern Growth Policies Board, the research and outreach organization that serves the Southern Governors Association, used the research to launch a series of work groups on minority economic development. As a result of The Southern Black Belt, the Southern Growth Policies Board established, "The Next South," as one of its three major areas of work. The North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development uses the research findings, books, and other writings as a basis for its outreach programs. Tuskegee University has recognized Professor Wimberley for his work by the George Washington Carver Award and induction into the George Washington Carver Hall of Fame for "Performing the greatest good to the greatest number of people." Contact Professor Ron Wimberley, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, NC State University 27695-8107, email Dr. Wimberley at Wimberley@ncsu.edu, or call (919) 515-9026 for further information. Ron Wimberley William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor