Media Contacts:

Dr. Ron Wimberley, 919/515-9026 or wimberley@ncsu.edu
Dr. Libby V. Morris, 706/542-3464
Pam Smith, News Services, 919/515-3470 or pam_smith@ncsu.edu

Feb. 23, 1998

Sociologists Hope Book Will Put Spotlight on Black Belt Poverty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Poverty and race converge in the rural South where 40 percent of the black population lives below the poverty line -- a sharp contradiction to the region's New South image of prosperity.

The Old South/New South dichotomy is made clear in The Southern Black Belt: A National Perspective, a new book by Dr. Ronald C. Wimberley, a sociology professor at North Carolina State University, and Dr. Libby V. Morris, a professor of higher education at the University of Georgia. The book was released this month by TVA Rural Studies Press at the University of Kentucky.

The sociologists have spent more than a decade researching rural issues in the nation's poorest region. They hope their work will prompt comprehensive regional strategies for change that ultimately will improve the quality of life for those excluded from the prosperity in the New South.

According to Wimberley, "We need a systematic way of addressing the issues. It's time to find ways to invest in the social and economic infrastructure so that people can overcome dependency and become self-sufficient."

Morris says, "The implications of this research are important for all Americans. The nation's poverty as a whole would be reduced dramatically if the Southern Black Belt were on economic par with the rest of America."

The authors let the numbers tell part of the story in a series of maps based on the 1990 U.S. census: The South has more than 45 percent of the nation's people living outside metropolitan areas, with more than 55 percent of them living in poverty and 40 percent of adults who have not graduated from high school.

Race and poverty converge especially in the Southern Black Belt, Wimberley says. Here more than 40 percent of the black population lives below the poverty level. Poverty is deeply etched in the lives of citizens who share a substandard quality of life marked by unemployment and underemployment, scarce public transportation, lack of job opportunities, and poor education, health care and housing.

The researchers define the Black Belt as 623 counties that cut across 11 states -- Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas.

Earlier this year, it appeared that the national media's focus on the plight of the Southern black farmer might broaden to reveal the full specter of rural poverty to spark serious policy discussions, the authors say. But that hasn't happened.

"The farm issue is serious, but it is only the tip of the iceberg for the Black Belt. Traditionally, farm and rural policies have been rolled together, but it's time to recast the prevailing farm policy to consider the new realities of rural, black America," Wimberley says. While the number of family-owned farms is shrinking nationwide, black farm ownership is all but nonexistent. Barely 4,000 black-operated farms earn more than $10,000 annually.

Research shows that while advances such as electricity, Social Security, telecommunications and civil rights have helped, many facets of poverty remain in the rural South. "Higher poverty rates translate into poorer health care, lower educational achievement and higher infant mortality, and diminish other quality of life conditions," Morris says.

Wimberley believes that the Southern Black Belt story easily can be overlooked in light of current national employment figures. "They don't take into account discouraged workers who have stopped looking for jobs, discouraged by lack of transportation or day care. Employment statistics also don't reveal the working poor who work full time in the lowest paying jobs," he said.

Wimberley says lack of job opportunities in rural areas forces the flight of the potential work force. Left behind are high percentages of the over-65 and under-18 dependent populations. In some rural counties, such dependent populations, including the disabled, account for as much as half the populations.

The researchers believe that true to their land-grant university traditions, NC State, the University of Georgia and others, can become catalysts for change. Wimberley and Morris hope to establish a regional consortium that would provide a scientific base of rural social and economic research for Southern programs and policies. "We teach and do the research. Now we want to apply the knowledge," Wimberley says.

--smith--