Historian: Appalachia has record of social injustice
The Athens News
Athens, Ohio
April 6, 2014
Historian: Appalachia has record of social injustice
By David DeWitt
The people of Athens County know the Appalachian struggle against poverty intimately, and with wealth and income inequality at some of the highest levels ever in America, historian Ron Eller spoke Friday on the record of social injustice in Appalachia.
The speech was part of a conference at Ohio University commemorating the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Baines Johnson launching the War on Poverty, and his speech in Athens in May 1964.
Eller, a West Virginia native and professor at the University of Kentucky, has written multiple books on Appalachian poverty, including his latest, "Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945."
He explained that the victims of poverty often are the ones blamed for their predicament, and that their situation of generational struggle is often placed at the feet of a "culture of poverty.".... MORE at http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-42126-historian-appalachia-has-record-of-social-injustice.html
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"We learned, along with other poverty warriors, that it was not some deviant culture that causes the inequality in our communities, but the consequences of race, class and gender subjugation, that had allowed some to succeed and others to be trapped in generational poverty."
"Appalachia is not part of some other America, but is a reflection of America," he said. "Anti-poverty programs did little to address problems of inequitable land ownership, capital outflow, or political cronyism in Appalachia."
I'm definitely going to find some of Eller's books. 