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

Chapter 2

2 Although I had lived in Appalachia all my life, I was stunned by the conditions that I saw during the initial weeks of looking into the hollows of Mingo. T he visible effects of poverty were everywhere-the shacks, the filth, the pale, pot-bellied babies, the miners with silicosis, coughing and gasping for breath, the out-houses, the dirt roads, and the onc-room schools_ Up and down the hollows, the front yards were strewn with junked cars, and the seats from the abandoned automobiles were used for beds and sofas. Fifty per cent of the county's inhabitants were poor; 20 per cent were welfare recipients; and the unemployment rate was ]4 per cent. The remainder of the county's poor were the elderly, most of whom were receiving either Social Security or miners' welfare benefits. Fifty per cent of the homes were substandard. As a result of the leaky roofs, gaping holes, and inadequate heat, infant mortality, usually as a result of pneumonia, was fantastically high com· pared to the national average. The people were powerless to counteract the avalanche of individual and community problems inflicted upon them by the selfish economic system that had been organized to remove the coal and timber, leaving the area devoid of wealth. They had also fallen prey to a vicious welfare system that tended to frustrate them with its rules and regulations -imposed by middle class investigators and case workers with less compassion than commitment to the political status quo. Adding to the problem was the fact that Mingo's middle class went to great lengths to hide the injustices inflicted on the poor. Many claimed that there was no poverty in the county. In my own mind, the task before us was clearly defined, and the idea of organized community groups became more appealing day by day. Since Floyd had indicated a general willingness to cooperate, I decided that we might as well take advantage of any assistance that he might be able to offer, regardless of his motives. Manpower was the initial problem. I knew that, if our plan was to work, we had to reach as many of the poor as possible and as fast as possible. The only available source was the AFDCU enrollees assigned to what everybody called "the State Road." I talked with Floyd and explained that we must make a survey before we could begin to develop federa lly funded programs. I also said that I would like to borrow at least thirty AFDCU enrollees from the State Road. He gave me an affirmative answer without any hesitation and said that he would call the commissioner of welfare and tell him what we were going to do. Within a week, the welfare department had transferred thirty men to our agency for a three-month period, and, after two days of informal training, the men began their assignments. They were to tell the poor about the new poverty program and invite them to attend community meetings. ' 4 After several days in the field, we called the first com· munity meeting for a black community known as Vinson Street-actually a hollow located within the Williamson city limits. I had felt that it would be wise to invite Floyd to the first meeting, primarily to expose him to the ideas of com· munity action and then to observe his response. He came about fifteen minutes be£ore the meeting began, and I had an opportunity to introduce him to Ed Safford and Allen Templeton, who worked for the Council of the SOlithem Mountains and who had traveled from Berea, Kentucky, for the meeting. The Council, fu nded by the OEO to provide technical assistance to poverty agencies in West Virginia , Kentucky, and North Carolina, was attempting, as we were, to develop a basic direction for community action . Ed had been a newspaper reporter for a Washington paper, and Allen had just graduated from college. Floyd responded to the introduction by explaining that he was a member of the state Senate and chairman of the Democratic Party in the county. He also said that the EOC had made a fine selection when I had been hired as director. Jerry Chafin missed the meeting. He was conducting a funeral the following morning and had to stay at the chapel, which was located in his huge two-story funeral home, while the friends and relatives...