Civil-rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson will visit Ohio University Monday to launch a national anti-poverty campaign he hopes will be reminiscent of former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.
In 1964, Johnson became the first president to visit Athens while in office. During his speech, he promised a crowd of 15,000 that Appalachia would see governmental action in reversing poverty by announcing a $100,000 Redevelopment Agency Grant for OU to establish an institute for regional development.
“I came here to see you today because you can’t see poverty from the capital in Washington,” Johnson said during his speech. “Poverty hides its face behind a mask of affluence.”
Unemployment in Appalachia during that time was at 7.9 percent compared with the national 5.7 percent. Southeast Ohio exceeded both with an outrageous 9 percent unemployment rate. The nation dubbed Appalachia “the poverty belt,” and it has not entirely escaped that reputation today.
“Poverty is still a huge problem in Athens, and a campaign is always welcome and appreciated here,” said Nick Claussen, community relations coordinator for Athens County Job and Family Services, of Jackson’s new initiative.
Today, Athens County still has the lowest unemployment rate of any of its surrounding counties. At 32 percent, Athens’ current poverty rate is more than double the national rate of 15.1 percent.
“Poverty destroys hope,” Jackson wrote Tuesday in a Chicago Sun-Times column. “Let’s honor the American promise to provide for the huddled masses that are tired, poor and yearn to breathe free.”
The nation’s current poverty rate is at its highest in 18 years. Almost 46 million Americans fell under the poverty line in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and even since Johnson’s 1960s War on Poverty campaign, Appalachia has consistently shown higher poverty rates.
“Today, Johnson is forgotten, even among Democrats,” Jackson wrote Tuesday. “The War on Poverty was lost in the jungles of Vietnam.”
Jackson’s last visit to Athens was in June 2004 for his Appalachian Bus tour. He also came to Athens in 1998 for OU’s 30th annual Communication Week.
The two-time presidential candidate and founder of the National Rainbow Coalition focused his speech on “Communication and Democracy” that year.
Jackson will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Monday outside Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, where Johnson held his speech almost 50 years ago.
His speech will follow at noon in the Baker University Center Ballroom.
oy311909@ohiou.edu
