NET JOURNAL: APPALACHIA: RICH LAND, POOR PEOPLE (TV)

Summary

One in this weekly documentary series. This program examines the impoverished people who inhabit the coal-rich land of the Kentucky and West Virginia highlands in the Appalachian Mountains Region. Narrator James Blue provides historical background about the out-of-state, independent coal companies that bought mineral rights to the land for a small price in the early 20th century. Several Appalachian men discuss the mine closings and increases in plant mechanization, which have cost them their livelihood. Blue comments that the companies did not retrain the displaced workers and that they do not invest locally in the community, leading to high levels of Appalachian illiteracy and poverty, as well as pollution. The program also focuses on the struggle of unemployed worker Frank Collins and his family to survive. Collins, a 38-year-old former miner with no other marketable skills, explains that he had no alternative but to accept welfare when mechanization eliminated his job. In other program highlights, coal company representatives argue that increases in corporate taxes to benefit local people is Communist dogma; VISTA volunteers are shown organizing unemployed miners; the Rev. Andrew Young of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) preaches about the need for poor people to organize a movement; and middle-class Kentucky citizens attend an anti-Communist meeting. Members of the documentary camera crew are referred to as "filthy beatniks" by one of those present at this function, who becomes enraged when they question him about his impoverished neighbors.

Acquisition and cataloging of this program was made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Details

• NETWORK: NET National Educational Television / PBS forerunner
• DATE: November 11, 1968 9:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 0:59:27
• COLOR/B&W: B&W
• CATALOG ID: T:11109
• GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
• SUBJECT HEADING: Appalachian Region - Economic conditions; Communism - 1968; Coal miners; Coal-mining machinery; Employment/Unemployment; Mechanization; Miners; Poverty
• SERIES RUN: WNET (New York, NY) - TV series, 1966-1970
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Jack Willis … Producer, Director, Writer
• Catherine Clarke … Associate Producer
• Norma Davidoff … Researcher
• James Blue … Narrator
• Frank Collins
• Andrew Young