Now & Then: The Magazine of Appalachia, a quarterly published magazine at East Tennessee State University from its Center for Appalachian Studies and Services, commissioned a dozen scholars and researchers to comment on “The Future of Appalachia” for its Winter 2017 issue. William H. Turner, Research Scientist Leader, Social Systems and Allied Research, commented on the future of blacks in coal mining, historically one of the Region’s primary industries. The Appalachian Region follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York to northern Mississippi, including 420 counties in 13 states: all of West Virginia and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Forty-two percent of the Region’s population is rural and 91 of its 420 counties have poverty rates 1.5 times the national rate.

Parts of the Appalachian Region—particularly its rural, isolated, interior, where Southern WV, Eastern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia meet—are much like the Strikeforce Counties in Texas insofar as long term poverty is concerned.  Our Cooperative Extension Service serves many of these areas, and we are focused on providing evidence-based research of the populations and communities.

Dr. William Turner

 

William Turner, Ph.D.
Research Scientist Leader (Social Systems and Allied Research)
whturner@pvamu.edu
(936) 261-5006