The Appalachian Regional
Commission:
Historical and Contemporary
Politics of Appalachia’s
Federal/State/Local Government
Agency
In the Beginning….
• Land deeds and land ownership after the
American Revolution
• Native American presence and forced migration
(partly because they sided with British)
• Social hierarchies within Appalachia created on
backs of slave labor and tenant farmers
• Social hierarchies exacerbated after Civil War
with outsider speculation and purchase
• Local color writers
• Missionaries and settlement schools
1838-39 Cherokee Trail of Tears
20th Century Comics Built on Local
Colorists
“The comic strip had 60 million readers in over 900 American newspapers and
100 foreign papers in 28 countries. Author M. Thomas Inge says Capp ‘had a
profound influence on the way the world viewed the American South.’"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li'l_Abner
Early Twentieth Century
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U.S. industrialization
Mono-economies/single industry communities
Split real estate
Fights to unionize/recognition of labor rights
Boom and bust cycles
WW I and WW II
Mechanization
Consequent job loss
Central Appalachia Industrializes
• Post Civil War growth of eastern cities and
industries creates demand for Appalachian coal
and timber. Canals are not feasible. Steep grades
of mountains and hard to navigate rivers are
obstacles to steam locomotives, steam ships, and
barges. “Isolation” becomes a trademark
descriptor.
• Northern and some English investors pool capital
and purchase large tracts of coal and timber land,
or just the mineral rights, and build railroads into
mountain valleys.
Intentional Creation of Mono-Economy
& Paternalistic Society
Boom or Bust
Whipple Company Store
1930s Bloody Harlan County
From LOC, c. 1915-25
Mid-Twentieth Century
• Decades of natural resource and human
resource exploitation
• Flow of capital with flow of natural resources
• Taxes (note split real estate issue again)
• Strip and surface mining increases
Widow Ollie Combs
• JFK visits West Virginia in 1960
• Council of Appalachian Governors 1960 (Alabama,
Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West
Virginia)
• Council meets with JFK in 1961
• Harry Caudill publishes Night Comes to the
Cumberlands in 1962
• JFK creates President’s Appalachian Regional
Commission in 1963 (advisory group)
• LBJ declares War on Poverty in 1964 after visiting
Eastern Kentucky with Lady Bird
Christmas in Appalachia (1965)
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One of every three Appalachians lived in poverty
Per capita income was 23 percent lower than the U.S. average
High unemployment and harsh living conditions had, in the
1950s, forced more than 2 million Appalachians to leave their
homes and seek work in other regions
• Congress enacts the Appalachian Regional
Development Act in 1965
• Signed into law March 9, 1965, by LBJ
• Appalachian Regional Commission created (federalstate partnership)
• Co-Chair Oversight: Federally-appointed individual
and governor of “Appalachian” state
Appalachia?
ARC Today
The Appalachian Region includes all of West
Virginia and portions of 12 other states:
Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland,
Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and
Virginia.
ARC serves 420 counties that encompass
roughly 205,000 square miles, with a population
of more than 25 million people.
Late Twentieth/Early Twenty-First
Centuries
• Despite great budget cuts, i.e. more than half
cut from 1965, ARC continues to positively
impact the Region.
• In FY 2012 budget recommendations,
Republicans suggested eliminating ARC
entirely.
“When Poverty Was the Enemy, Not
the Poor,” Yes Magazine, 10/9/14
“Although it is now widely—and inaccurately—
portrayed as a costly welfare program, the War
on Poverty was not a failure. If not for
government anti-poverty programs since 1967,
the nation’s poverty rate would have been 15
percentage points higher in 2012, according to a
study published recently by the National Bureau
of Economic Research.”
From the ARC
The Region’s poverty rate has decreased from nearly 31 percent in 1960 to 17 percent
today; and the number of high-poverty counties (those with poverty rates one and a
half times the national average) has decreased from 295 in 1960 to 90 today.
Between 1970 and 2012, in counties that received ARC investments, employment
increased at a 4.2 percent faster pace, and per capita income increased at a 5.5
percent faster pace, than in similar counties that did not receive ARC investments.
The percentage of adults in the Region with a high school diploma has increased by
more than 150 percent, and students in Appalachia now graduate from high school at
nearly the same rate as the national average.
The percentage of homes in Appalachia with complete plumbing has increased from
86.4 percent in 1970 to 96.8 percent today, in line with the national rate of 98.0
percent.
The infant mortality rate in the Region has been reduced by two-thirds since 1960.
ARC Strategic Plan
ARC’s Vision:
For Appalachia to achieve socioeconomic parity
with the nation.
ARC’s Mission:
To innovate, partner, and invest to build
community capacity and strengthen
economic growth in Appalachia.
2016-2020 Strategic Plan
• Goal 1: Economic Opportunities
Invest in entrepreneurial and business
development strategies that strengthen
Appalachia's economy.
• Goal 2: Ready Workforce
Increase the education, knowledge, skills, and
health of residents to work and succeed in
Appalachia.
• Goal 3: Critical Infrastructure
Invest in critical infrastructure—especially
broadband; transportation, including the
Appalachian Development Highway System; and
water/wastewater systems.
• Goal 4: Natural and Cultural Assets
Strengthen Appalachia's community and
economic development potential by
leveraging the Region's natural and cultural
heritage assets.
• Goal 5: Leadership and Community Capacity
Build the capacity and skills of current and
next-generation leaders and organizations to
innovate, collaborate, and advance
community and economic development.
ARC State Program Manager for VA
Tamarah Holmes, Associate Director
Policy and Strategic Development
Virginia Department of Housing and Community
Development
Main Street Center
600 East Main Street, Suite 300
Richmond, VA 23219
804.371.7056
email: [email protected]
ARC FY 2017 Budget Request
$120M Total
$70M for Base Area Development
$50M to support Administration’s POWER
Initiative (Partnerships for Opportunity
and Workforce and Economic
Revitalization; focused on communities
transitioning to post-coal economies)
Performance Targets for FY 2017
1. Create/strengthen 2,500 businesses
2. Create/retain 20,000 jobs
3. Strengthen/improve skills of 22,000 workers or
leaders
4. Provide 22,000 households with basic
infrastructure services
5. Improve capacity of 250 communities
6. Leverage $6 of private investment for every $1 of
ARC funds invested in job-creating projects
Recent Examples of ARC Impact
• $1.8 million in investments to help strengthen
western North Carolina’s economy by expanding
the region's advanced manufacturing training
programs and bolstering wi-fi capabilities in ten
rural communities
• Broadband Planning Primer and Toolkit released
in October 2016 (offers information and
resources to guide rural Appalachian
communities as they undertake broadband
planning and implementation efforts)
• NIDA and ARC announced in February 2016 funding
opportunity for research projects to address opioid
injection use and its consequences in the Appalachian
Region
• ORAU (Oak Ridge Associated Universities) awarded in
March 2016 project from Appalachian Regional
Commission for social media strategy to combat drug
abuse and overdose
• ARC’s sponsorship of the National Rx Drug Abuse and
Heroin Summit held in Atlanta, Georgia, March 28-31,
2016 (largest national collaboration of professionals
from local, state and federal agencies, business,
academia, clinicians, treatment providers, counselors,
educators, state and national leaders, and advocates
impacted by Rx drug abuse and heroin use)
• $1.5M to Appalachian Sustainable Development
• Bon Appétit Appalachia! (searchable online map of
local food businesses and entrepreneurs operating in
the Appalachian Region. The map includes more
than 830 local farms, restaurants, bakeries,
breweries, wineries, and festivals in the 13
Appalachian states)
• Appalachian Teaching Project
Radford University ATP:
Clinch River Valley
Initiative
Upcoming
ARC, EPA, and partner agencies invite rural
communities to apply for planning assistance
through Rural Advantage, a suite of programs
that help communities develop strategies to
grow their economies and revitalize downtown
neighborhoods. EPA will host a webinar on Rural
Advantage on October 20; applications for
assistance are due November 6.
Check out the ARC website!