| Popis: |
Everybody’s Problem: The War on Poverty in Eastern North Carolina puts forward a new and broader understanding of the factors that contributed to declining poverty rates during the 1960s and beyond. The main focus of this study is Craven County, North Carolina, home to the nation’s first rural antipoverty program to receive federal funds as part of President Johnson’s War on Poverty. After quickly creating local contoversy in its first year, the program—much to the surprise of its conservative critics—survived through the remainder of the decade and into the next. Most responsible was the large presence and influence of moderates, both white and black, who kept it going out of a strong desire to improve economic development and opportunity in their community. In addition to focusing on urban areas, scholars have largely underappreciated the practicality and effectiveness of cooperation, compromise, and other forms of moderate leadership in their analyses of the social change that occurred during the 1960s. They have generally argued that confrontation and direct protest against those in power were among the most effective means for the poor to achieve economic empowerment. While protest and other forms of confrontation were sometimes key tactics in creating change, they were not always the most successful ones in Eastern North Carolina. Aiming to build upon existing research on the War on Poverty, this book tells a fuller story of what community action entailed and how it functioned in a local community. |
