War on Poverty Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Public Can Comment On Corridor H Parsons To Davis Until March 27

The Federal Highway Administration intends to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the nine-mile section of the corridor.

The public has a week left to comment on a controversial segment of Corridor H.

The Federal Highway Administration is accepting comment on the Parsons to Davis portion of the long-planned highway until March 27.

The agency intends to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the nine-mile section of the corridor.

The West Virginia Division of Highways prefers a southern route, while some residents and community groups favor a northern route they say would have less environmental impact.

Most of the 130-mile road is complete. About seven miles of the road from Wardensville to the Virginia state line is set to begin construction this year.

The corridor is one of the biggest economic development priorities for the state’s elected leaders. It’s a piece of the Appalachian Development Highway System, created in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty.

A budget bill Congress approved earlier this month includes $12.5 million to help complete the portion of Corridor H east of Wardensville.

Comment on the project here.

Book: ‘All This Marvelous Potential’ Looks At Kennedy’s 1968 Tour Of Appalachia

In February 1968, US Senator Robert Kennedy visited eastern Kentucky to investigate the successes and the failures of the “War on Poverty.” In the new book “All This Marvelous Potential: Robert Kennedy’s 1968 Tour of Appalachia” author Matthew Algeo examined the trip and digs into what Kennedy saw, what has changed since then and what remains the same.

Algeo said he used small stories to try to tell bigger stories in American history. He focused on Kennedy’s tour to highlight bigger issues he discovered in his research.

“I found out some incredible things were happening in Appalachia; protests against strip mining, protests against the school systems and education there, even protests against the Vietnam War,” he said.

Algeo added he was surprised about the war protests specifically because the region supported the war by a large margin.

“But they saw their own sons on the front lines of this war and so that led them to question it,” he said.

One of Algeo’s most interesting discoveries in his research was a recording of Kennedy speaking to students and faculty at Alice Lloyd College during his tour. During an interview with Reverend Lawrence Baldridge, the minister at a Baptist Church in Pippa Passes, KY, Algeo asked about a recording. Baldrige said, “Oh, yeah, Benny Lee Moore. He’s got a copy of it.”

Moore discovered a copy of the recording a few months after the speech and kept it. He later digitized it and gave the school a copy as well.

Algeo said he sees how the country could be different if Kennedy had not died later that year.

“On the one hand, he did have a reputation for being kind of a tough SOB and for fighting crime. But at the same time, he clearly had this innate compassion for the dispossessed and for the poor. And I think in American politics he had the ability to combine those two qualities into real political realities that he could have gotten things done,” Algeo said.

The title of the book, “All This Marvelous Potential” comes from a line in Kennedy’s speech at Alice Lloyd College.

“It really just stuck out to me as his view of the situation in Eastern Kentucky,” Algeo said, “at that time and you know, I think a lot of people would say you could say that the same thing even today.”

It is hard not to apply the line to Kennedy himself, though, thinking about what could have been.

Matthew Algeo’s “All This Marvelous Potential: Robert Kennedy’s 1968 Tour of Appalachia” is available for purchase now.

This interview is part of an occasional series with authors from Appalachia or writing about the region.

What We've Learned About Fighting Poverty: Appalachian Regional Commission Looks Back on 50 Years

The Appalachian Regional Commission was created as part of the War on Poverty, declared by Lyndon B. Johnson in Appalachia in 1964.

Earlier this week Senator Shelley Moore Capito, along with other federal representatives, introduced legislation that would reauthorize the Appalachian Regional Commission. The announcement comes on the heels of a report evaluating the progress of the Commission after 50 years.

We recently spoke with co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, Earl Gohl to talk more about the success, and challenges of the past 50 years and the work that’s left to do.

Gohl says while some things have changed, some parts of the region continue to deal with the same issues. Listen to hear part of this conversation.

Federal Co-Chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission Earl Gohl

My Appalachia is different from other people’s Appalachia. Why did some communities do well while other communities did not?

“It doesn’t really matter where you are whether it’s Appalachia or if it’s some place else in the world, economies that are reliant on single industry, rise and fall with the single industry. Communities that are able to diversify and to really broaden their economic base and their employment base those are the communities who do pretty well. And part of the challenge within Appalachia is being able to break through that and to really broaden and expand what the economy does and who all it employs and the types of skills it warrants and helps push the level of education up a little bit further than what they otherwise would be. That’s the challenge. I think that if you look at communities who have broken out and have expanded their base of economics those are the communities who have done better than other places. I think that is really the fundamental difference that we can find often times.”

And when you say it’s dependent on one industry, is I think in Appalachia are you referring to one energy industry and being dependent on coal?

“Right now it’s coal but there’s a whole history in Appalachia. I mean at one time it was salt another time it was lumber. Extraction poses challenges to communities. It’s an incredible resource. It’s going to be an important part of Appalachia for a very long time, there’s no question about that. And the challenge that we have is and we you know the ARC does not engage with the coal industry we don’t regulate anybody we don’t take positions on a variety of issues. Our job is to work with communities and strengthen their economies. So our focus and our mission is a workforce that’s educated, capitol that’s invested and opportunities that are taken advantage of.”

Since the Appalachian Regional Commission has made such good progress like we’ve talked about before over the past 50 years, do you fear that Congress might eliminate funding for the ARC?

“Well first of all the progress that’s been made has been made by folks who live in Appalachia. We’ve had the really the honor and the privilege of working with them and supporting them but the strength of the economy the work that’s been done is work that they’ve done and that they’ve accomplished. We’re really happy to be here on the sidelines helping to foot the bill but it’s their successes. And I’ll also say that the commission is really seen by the folks who live in Appalachia as theirs. And my sense is that as long as the commission is responsive to the challenges of the region and as long as folks who believe the commission is theirs and they keep this conversation going that that issue will take of itself. But this really is something that when you go into Appalachian communities you learn very quickly whose commission it is. It’s not ours in Washington it is folks who live in communities throughout those states.”

Special thanks to the LBJ Presidential Library for providing audio clips for this story.