Abstract
This analysis reassesses the importance of the combined legacies of race, class, and culture by using the concentration of African Americans in a county as a general measure of this phenomenon for thirteen Southern states. Explanatory variables associated with labor force structure, social well-being and region provide evidence that those areas of the South with the highest concentrations of African Americans continue to be the most disadvantaged. These results suggest little change for metropolitan counties with increased concentrations of African Americans. The analyses point toward the need for a focused assessment of the efficacy of existing public and private programs to provide a foundation for overcoming the negative dimensions of the regional legacy.
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Notes
As with any undertaking, the efforts of many more people than those of the authors are involved. We are very grateful to Joyce Allen-Smith for her encouragement, clarification of interpretations, and helpful editing.
See Jerry R. Skees and Louis E. Swanson, “Farm Structure and Rural Well-Being in the South,” pp. 238–322 in Louis E. Swanson (ed.),Agriculture and Community Change in the U.S.: The Congressional Research Reports (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1988); and Jerry R. Skees and Louis E. Swanson, “Education and Socioeconomic Decay of the Rural South,” in T. T. Williams, W. A. Hill, and R. D. Christy (eds.),Rural Development Issues of the Nineties. Proceedings of the 47th PAWC, Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, Alabama, 1989), as well as the article by Bellamy and Parks on this issue.
For a discussion of Legacy see Cornelia B. Flora, Jan L. Flora, Jacqueline D. Spears and Louis E. Swanson,Rural Communities: Legacy and Change (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1992).
Jerry R. Skees and Louis E., Swanson. “Farm Structure and Rural Well-Being in the South.”
See Flora et al. (1992): Chapter 4.
We wish to thank two reviewers who brought to our attention the need to distinguish between that portion of culture born in resistance to the material legacy of African Americans and cultural legacy shaped by persistent poverty and disenfranchisement.
Dwight Billings, “The Rural South in Crisis: A Historical Perspective,” in Lionel Beaulieu (ed.),The Rural South in Crisis (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1988), pp. 13–29.
Dan Lichter, “Race and Underemployment: Black Employment Hardship,” pp. 181–197 in Lionel Beaulieu (ed.),The Rural South in Crisis (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1988).
Lionel Beaulieu (ed.),The Rural South in Crisis (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1988).
Jack Temple Kirby,Rural Worlds Lost (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987).
Stuart A. Rosenfeld. “The Tale of Two Souths,” pp. 51–71 in Lionel Beaulieu (ed.),The Rural South in Crisis (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1988).
Dan Lichter. “Race and Underemployment: Black Employment Hardship,” pp. 181–197 in Lionel Beaulieu (ed.)The Rural South in Crisis (Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1988).
Jay R. Mandle,The Roots of Black Poverty (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1978).
Jerry R. Skees and Louis E. Swanson, “Farm Structure and Rural Well-Being in the South.”
Harry M. Caudill,Night Comes to the Cumberlands (Boston: Little, Brown, 1963).
Ronald C. Kessler and David F. Greenberg,Models of Quantitative Change (New York: Academic Press, 1982).
Ronald Kessler and David Greenberg,Linear Panel Analysis: Models of Quantitative Change (New York: Academic Press, 1981).
M. Henry, M. Drabenstott, and L. Gibson, “A Changing Rural America,”Economic Review (July/August 1986), pp. 23–41.
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Swanson, L.E., Harris, R.P., Skees, J.R. et al. African Americans in southern rural regions: The importance of legacy. The Review of Black Political Economy 22, 109–124 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02689982
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02689982