Poverty Tour Returns to Kentucky

Bobby Hall whittles a piece of cedar wood as his niece Bridgett Mitchell looks on in Grethel, Ky., Monday, July 16, 2007. Presidential candidate John Edwards plans to stop in Whitesburg, Ky., on Wednesday as part of his poverty tour. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke) (Ed Reinke - AP)

Edwards' campaign has said his lifestyle of means shouldn't hurt his candidacy, pointing out the nation's 37 million living in poverty and that nearly all the leading candidates running for president in 2008 are wealthy, as well as those in the past who have championed poverty _ including Kennedy.

In the past four decades, much has improved here. Four-lane highways have opened communities to retailers and chain restaurants and, thus, more jobs. Regional hospitals have put health care within reach. Community colleges have expanded into the mountains, making higher education affordable.

Yet, mobile homes built shortly after Kennedy's visit are now rusting and inadequate. People in remote hollows still await water lines. Many feel chained to coal mining _ a fluctuating industry that's left many jobless due to mechanization.

Nearly 25 percent of residents in both Letcher and Floyd counties live below poverty, according to U.S. Census figures. It's an improvement from 40 years ago, when 40 percent of Letcher and 60 percent of Floyd lived below poverty, but remains a major problem. The median household income in most eastern Kentucky counties is at or below $25,000, with individuals making an average $12,000.

"If you compare the eastern Kentucky of today with the eastern Kentucky of the 1960s, then we are a very prosperous area," said Tom Gish, who has published the Mountain Eagle newspaper in Whitesburg for more than 50 years. "But if you ask me do I consider the area prosperous, I'd say no."

While Gish believes that poverty tours in the past have been "mostly rhetoric," he said it wouldn't hurt for another to come through and highlight the problems again.

Edwards "will just have to prove himself," added John Malpede, a Los Angeles-based documentary filmmaker who worked with eastern Kentuckians for a 2004 reenactment project, called "RFK in EKY," to rekindle Kennedy's 1968 visit. "People there can smell a phony. They are very acute judges of sincerity and integrity. They'll make the verdict."

Still, he applauded Edwards for tackling the touchy issue of poverty: "I think the case could be made that he's more credible and sincere than other candidates who don't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole."

Cecil Newsome, a 58-year-old disabled coal miner in Teaberry, a small community in Floyd County, was looking forward to Edwards' speech in Prestonsburg.

"He's for the working people and that's one thing that we need," Newsome said.

"He's not outgrown his roots. He was raised hard but he's been blessed to grow and prosper with money and it's not gone to his head," Newsome added. "He's like the Kennedys _ they're down to earth people."

Eula Hall, the founder of a Floyd County clinic that serves the needy, said any effort to give national attention to poverty in the region should be encouraged.

Hall was a 41-year-old mother of four when Kennedy stopped in Prestonsburg. She didn't get a chance to hear him speak, but she says the problems today are nearly as bad as they were then.

"We didn't have running water, we didn't have a clinic, no black lung compensation," said Hall. "We still have poverty, a lack of jobs, education and affordable health care."

She hoped that Edwards' visit will result in change.

"In one trip, he ain't going to learn everything, but it'll help," Hall said.