They'll Cut Off Your Project: A Mingo County Chronicle

Chapter 4

4 At the end of eight months, Jimmy and L,rry Hamrick and I had organized twenty-six community action groups throughout the county. (Not long after, Jimmy left the EOC to go hack to the country music business .) Many of the groups were involved with such projects as fencing a community cemetery or developing a small recreational area. Several were making demands upon the Mingo County Board of Education to extend school bus services farther up the hollows or to build small roadside shelters for the children to stand in while waiting for their bus. Others were sending to the State Road Commission delegations demanding better roads up the hollows. Both the Board of Education and the Road Commission were reacting favorably, and, in many instances, hollow roads were graveled and school bus services improved. 1t was evident that both groups wanted to avoid another confronta tion with the people like (he one the Board of Education had encountered with the Road Branch group. Practically every community group feared the local politicians , but many of the poor were beginning to speak out 3' against the school board and Noah Floyd. Panicipation in a community group afforded them security for the first time in their lives. More and more, they were describing and complaining openly about the injustices of the welfare department and Noah's control of the recipients of checks and the transfer of AFDCU enrollees to undesirable jobs if they failed to obey his commands. By now, it was becoming an increasingly difficult task to defend community organization to the Board of Directors of the EOC, which was primarily made up of members of the county's established institutions. We were getting in· quiries daily regarding the activities of the community groups. At a Commission meeting, O. T . Kent, representing the Board of Education, rose to his feet and asked for recogni. tion; "Mr. Chairman, may I say a few words? It has come to my attention that many of those so-<:alled poor people have been coming into the Board of Education office and demanding that Mr. Morgan do such and such. They are not asking; they are demanding. Now I think there is a right way and a wrong way for people to act. When I want to see someone in authority, I always call for an appointment , and I don't demand ; I ask." (Kent, a man in his late sixties, worked as a land agent for the Cmega Development Company, one of the largest absentee landowners in the county.) "I think it is outrageous the way those people carried on down at Road Branch a few months ago. Every one of them could have been put in jail for threatening a school strike, and we've had groups from Browning Fork and Big Branch wanting school buses run farther up the hollows. For example, in order just to satisfy them over at Browning Fork, we are running the school bus an extra 33 mile just to pick up three kids. I'll tell you one thing, it won't hurt people to have a few hardships. I had them when I was growing up. Our whole family had to work. People have got to want to help themselves. Now, we've been do· ing a lot of things these groups have been wanting done, and mainly we don't want them to embarrass the county like the Road Branch group did. Anyway, I think, Mr. Chairman, that you should instruct Mr. Perry there to calm these people down and tell them what they can have and what they can't have." As Kent sat down, several of the EOC board members nodded in approval of what he had said. Many of the people against whom he was directing his criticisms were standing in the back of the room observing the meeting. They had no voice on the Commission but were listening very intently to Kem, for the first time hearing an ele<.:ted official express discontent with many of their groups' actions. Chafin asked me whether I would explain to Kent the function of the community action groups. I rose to my feet and explained once aga in the Economic Opportunity Act, placing spe<.:ial emphasis on "maximum feasible involvement of the poor." Kent was very attentive as I said, "They arc organized for the purpose of identifying community problems and then seeking a solution. We arc obligated to provide assistance to the groups in solving their problems." I was quite evasive with the remainder of my explanation. I knew the time was not right for a showdown with the Commission regarding the direction community action would take in Mingo. If the Board of Directors knew we had encouraged the poor at Road Branch and Browning Fork to take the 34 actions they took, we would be dismissed immediately. Next, there were questions concerning the Vulcan meeting . Several of the Commission members stated that they had heard a number of rumors concerning the meeting and that Troy Blankenship had used it to embarrass the polio ticians. } did not attempt to give an explanation [or Troy's behavior. When a retired coal miner in the back of the room, Clyde Robinette, asked for permission to speak, he was told by Chafin that he would have to wait until after the meeting was over, because he was not a member of the Board of Directors. Robinette became angry. "} thought, Mr. Chafin, that this poverty program was for the poor, and why don't we have a right to say what's on Oul" mind?" Chafin rapped the table for order. "Mr. Robinette, I will have to declare you out of order." Although it was difficult to restrain myself, I felt it better to keep quiet. Robinette was perfectly correct and should have had the privilege of speaking. He told me later he was waiting to reply to O. T. Kent's statement. Clyde lived at Road Branch and had five children in school. During the same meeting, Chafin announced that the EOC had received $150,000 from the Department of Labor to operate a Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC) program for the in·school children of low income families. The students would work two hours a day and earn $1 .25 per hour. It had been the strategy of the staff to get this program developed primarily to bring some federal money into the county to keep the Board of Directors happy. Its concept of a successful poverty program was determined by the amount of federal dollars that could be brought into the 35 county. If additional money would appease the EOC di. rectors, then it would give us time to organize the poor so that they could have a genuine voice in developing the types of programs that would best serve their needs. Chafin announced that the agency would be hiring a director for the NYC program and appointed an interview· ing committee. It was made up hom practically the same group that had interviewed me. Evidently the word got back quickly to Noah that a staff position was open, [or he came to my office early the next morning. Chewing on a cigar, he came directly into my office with· out asking Donna, the EOC secretary, whether I was in. "Hi there, Perry. How are things going?" "Fine," I replied. "Say, 1 heard you were looking for a new person," and without hesitation, "I've got just the man you need, Tony Gentile." Tony had been football coach at Williamson H igh School and had dabbled in local pOlitics practically all of his life. He had been elected to the state legislature, but Noah's machine had failed to support him during the last election, and he was badly beaten by T. 1. Varney. To the poor, he was just another politician, and, in private conver· sations with many of the local community leaders, I had been highly critical of the pOliticians. If we were to hire Tony Gentile, it would be the end of the poverty program. I explained to Noah that the EOC board had selected an interviewing committee that would consider applica. tions within five days. "Do you have the applications here?" he asked. I replied, "Yes," and gave him one. H e continued. "Now, the reason I want to hire T ony is, simply, I want to get him off my back. There is a rumor going around that he plans to run against me next time. Now, I am not concerned about him beating me, but I would prefer not to have any opposition. Besides, he has a lot of Jewish friends here in Williamson, and it would help the party. There are a lot of them mad because I didn't support him the last time, but he was developing too much power, and I was afraid he would double-cross me. "I tell you what: You keep the application here, and I'll send Tony up this afternoon and have him fi ll it out. You can call Gerald Chafin and tell him I want T ony." Noah left, and I sat there in utter confusion as to what to do about the situation. Finally, I called Richard Cutlip, who was chairman of the committee, and told him of Noah's request. Richard had been going to several community action meetings with me, and he was the one person on the Board of Directors whom I could trust. But he had to be very careful also, because Noah had a great deal of influence with West Virginia University, where Richard taught, and could have him moved from the county. He had told me of an incident in which his secretary had lost her job when she refused to contribute $10 a month to Noah's fund. The County Court paid her salary and, after she refused to contribute, found an excuse to withhold it, thus leaving her no choice but to resign. Richard was still angry about the incident, but he had not protested, because he had bought a home in Mingo and didn't want to leave. He was in full agreement with me about Tony and felt that hiring him would certainly create mistrust of the agency. He said that he would discuss the matter with one or two of the other committee members and get their opin37 ion. In the meantime, we sought other applications. Five people appl ied for the job-all schoolteachers. On the evening of the interviews. I met with the committee and openly voiced my opposition to Gentile. Cutlip did the same thing, and, fortunately, Gentile was not hired. Cutlip and I both feared that our opposition to Gentile would get back to Noah. But, as it happened, Noah blamed Gerald Chafin. H e felt that Chafin, as chairman of the board, could have used his influence to get Tony the job. Noah didn't visit the office during the next two weeks. My next contact with him came in the dining room of the Mountaineer Hotel, where most of the pol iticians, lawyers, and office workers ate. He was sitting with Sheriff Steve Adkins at a table facing the entrance and waved [or Larry and me 1O join them. We pulled chairs up to their table and sat down. Noah seemed friendly enough. He didn't mention the Gentile incident, but said he had been to Washington with a delegation from the local Chamber of Commerce to secure funds for a local airport construction project. We chatted a few minutes after lunch, and he insisted on paying the bill, assuring Larry and me that he would do anything he could to help us. After they left, Larry and I sat bewildered, for we had not expected Floyd to forget so easily the fact that he had failed to get Gentile hired. Nevertheless, we felt relieved that he was not angry. We went back to the office at I :30 P.M. Donna informed me that Ben McDonald, our field representative, had called from Washington and wanted me to return his call , which was very urgent. When I got Ben on the phone, I could hear the anxiety in his voice. "What the hell was that delegation doing up here yesterday from Williamson?" he asked. "What do you mean? At the OEO office?" I questioned. "No, they weren't here but over at Senator Byrd's office," he replied. "Oh, don't worry about that. It was Noah Floyd, the county chairman, Howard Coleman, Chamber of Commerce president, and Sid Copley, director of the Chamber of Commerce, plus a few others, who were up there talking with Byrd about getting money to construct an airport in Mingo. How did you know they were up there?" He replied, somewhat puzzled, "I don't understand it. I just got a call from Byrd's assistant, asking me to come to his office as soon as possible. He didn't say what it was about other than he wanted to discuss a request made by a delegation from Williamson, Mingo County. Okay, I am going over there now, and I will call you back if it means anything." "Fine, Ben. I 'll be in the office late, so be sure to call me." At 6:00 P. M., Ben called back. "Huey, I've got serious news. You are going to be investigated." "What the hell are you talking about, Ben?" "I am serious. That delegation from Mingo was evidently not up here for airport funds at all. They have asked Byrd to investigate the EOC because you arc supposedly involved in political activity." "Why, those dirty sons of bitches!" I shouted. Then I proceeded to tell Ben about having lunch with Noah and the fact that he had not given the slightest indication that he was disturbed. Ben explained, "Actually, what will happen is this. The regional office will request someone from OEO headquarters inspection staff to come down and check out the COlll39 plaints. As an analyst, I haven 't been through this before. Anyway, I am sure you will come through with flying colors." Once Ben was off the phone, I d iscussed the entire situation with Larry, and together we drafted an immediate news release for the local paper. We felt that it was best to let the public kn ow what was taking place, and, besides, it appeared that the agency had nothing to lose. Apparently, this was Floyd 's way of getting even. Floyd was blam ing Chafi n for not hiring Gentile, and Chafin was somewhat angry with Floyd. We decided to try to take advan tage of the opportunity to com pletely d ivide Floyd and Chafin by persuading Chafin to release the n ews article. I called Chafin and explained in detail what had happened , and convinced him that Noah had to be stopped . H e agreed to be quoted in a n ews release, which he pre· sented the following morning to the local daily paper. It read, in part: T he recent trip to Washington made by Noah Floyd, Mingo County State Senator; Howard Coleman, president of (he Tug Valley Chamber of Commerce; and Sidney Copley, Chamber director, in addition to inquiring into further feasibility of an airport for Mingo, also asked to have the activities of the Mingo County E.D.C. investigated. During a conference with U. S. Senator Robert Byrd, the men made the request. This information was confirmed by Sidney Copley in a telephone conversation with me. These representatives feel that the " Mingo E.D.G, through its 26 community action groups, are attempting LO set up a political machine, and they indicated they bad heard such rumors. I am completely surprised by the action of these men, and it appears LO be an allempl by county politicians to take over the E.D.G and, like everything else, make it a political foot40 baU, and use it to hand out jobs to political friends, instead of helping the poor people of the county. On numerous occasions, certain politicians have ap· proached me in regard to placing certain people on the E.O.C. staff. Not a member of the staff has ever been hired as a result of politics. I can point with pride to the E.O.C. record and to the fact that 26 communities have aClion groups, making an effort to bene!" themselves. As long as I am president of the Mingo E.O.C., no politi. cian will ever dictate policies. If politics gets in, it is doomed