The “War on Poverty” (in Rocky Mount)

[donbosco]

In retrospect this moment was futuristic in its artificiality, opportunism, and cynicism coupled with just enough reality and good, old fashioned exploitation. #OTD (May 7) in 1964 LBJ and Governor Terry Sanford visited #RockyMount’s Marlow family. Tenant farmers, the Marlows were a PhotoOp for ‘The War On Poverty’ in #Appalachia (all despite the actual location-was it the name?). They WERE poor at least. “To emphasize the family’s living conditions for the visiting journalists and politicians, the Marlows were instructed to hang a load of laundry on their clothesline and to keep their children barefooted. After the visit, the family struggled with the stigma of poverty. Having never thought of herself as poor, Mrs. Marlow later wrote the president, ‘We have just found out that we are the joke of a whole nation.’”

As exploitative as this stunt was, and there is no doubt that it was a mercenary move, the intention was to sell voters on a series of programs aimed at reducing the national poverty measure - at the time it was pegged at 19.5%. Against stiff GOP opposition Johnson managed to push through Congress the Economic Opportunity Act which established such noteworthy federal programs as Head Start, VISTA, TRiO, and Job Corps.

The resulting welfare has been excoriated from all sides - as far from enough to stifling of human initiative and all stops in between. Wading through the mass of statistics and graphs “out there” show varying outcomes for Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” There is relatively good indication that a measure as low as 10% was reached in the late 1970s and again in the late 1990s. Today the number appears to sit at about 13% at the end of 2023.

Contextually speaking it is stunningly surreal to review this government program in its straightforward humanitarian pronouncements and unabashed concern for the condition of fellow citizens. It is as if it is a broadcast from another planet.

READ ON here more about The Marlows: https://www.ncdcr.gov/.../war-on-poverty-photo-op-in...

At this link is a promotional video for the program - amazing in its focus and rhetoric. At the 13:50 mark, the visit with The Marlows in Rocky Mount, NC is chronicled:

 

[donbosco]

 

[05C40]

. . . in 1964 LBJ and Governor Terry Sanford visited #RockyMount’s Marlow family. Tenant farmers, the Marlows were a PhotoOp for ‘The War On Poverty’ in #Appalachia (all despite the actual location-was it the name?). . . ..

When my older sister started college at UNC-G, she was in a dorm room with two other girls. My sister was from Mount Olive. One of the other girls was from Rocky Mount. And the third girl was from, IIRC, Waynesville. My sister and the girl from Rocky Mount were complaining about how hilly Greensboro was. The girl from Waynesville was confused and insisted that Greensboro was flat. A discussion ensued where it was explained that the names Mount Olive and Rocky Mount were entirely metaphorical.

 

[superrific]

When my older sister started college at UNC-G, she was in a dorm room with two other girls. My sister was from Mount Olive. One of the other girls was from Rocky Mount. And the third girl was from, IIRC, Waynesville. My sister and the girl from Rocky Mount were complaining about how hilly Greensboro was. The girl from Waynesville was confused and insisted that Greensboro was flat. A discussion ensued where it was explained that the names Mount Olive and Rocky Mount were entirely metaphorical.

Metaphorical? Tell it to the gravel industry, which sources tell me rules Rocky Mount with an iron fist.