898 
COUR UC CANS Urs © seta ney Ot ect wericew cus © 8 reweerse. econ se 
stated: ‘Our rural areas are being: depleted and re-examined by numerous public and 
of people... What becomes of these people ? private bodies. Finally, in 1965, Conpresce 
They move into our preat cilies... Ry creat- passed the Appalachian Regional De velopment 
A ° y R 
ing a kind of urban crush they create a problemp Act, which created a State-Pederal partnership 
in the cities to which they go. By depopulat- for repional economic development. Congress 
ing the countryside, they create a problem in that ycar also added ‘Tithe V to the Public Works 
the rural areas from which they come, '' 
and Economic Development Act recognizing 
that other regions had similar problems and 
That same year, while most Americans] could probably benefit from a similar approach. 
sere nervously watched looting, shooting. © od | In 1966 and 1967, five other Regional Meonomic 
burning in these great cities, the Presid! + Development Commissions were established: 
National Advisory Gommittee on Rural soverty 
reminded us that ''The heavy migration from 
rural America to the blighted areas of our 
major cities clearly shows how bad economic 
and social conditions are in rural areas.... 
Rural poverty is so widespread, and so acute, 
as to be a national disgrace, and its conse- 
quences have swept into our cities violently. 
1 New England, which included all of 
the six New Fingland States; 
2. Upper Great Lakes, which includes 
portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, 
g and Michigan; 
3. Four Corners, which includes 
portions of Arizona, Colorado, 
New Mexico and Utah; 
"Contrary to popular impression, all’ 
the rural poor do not live on farms, nor are 
all of them Negros. Most live in smail towns 
and villages. Only one in four of these rural 
families lives on a farm. And of the 14 million 
rural poor, il million are white. "' 
4. Ozarks, which includes portions 
of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, 
and Oklahoma; and 
5. Coastal Plains, which includes the 
159 counties in Georgia, South 
Carolina and North Carolina which 
lie between the Piedmont and the 
Atlantic Ocean. 
As different interested groups helped 
Congress focus on the problems of hinger, 
malnutrition, substandard housing, cronic ill 
health, functional illiteracy, inadequate train- 
ing, and hollow lives, Federal programs began 
to proliferate. Most of them attacked these 
symptomsof the basic deficiencies inthe nation! 
economic structure. Because they were piece- 
meal approaches, usually unrelated, and some- 
times in conflict, they become difficult to ad- 
minister. Because they engaged Federal 
officials in hand-to-hand struggles with local 
problems, they threatened the continued ex- 
istence of the Federal System. 
The Coastal Plains Regional Commission 
The Public Works and Economic 
Development Act of 1965 authorized the Secre- 
tary of Commerce to designate regions com- 
posed of contiguous states or parts of states 
which have close geographical, cultural, his- 
torical, or economic relationships and which 
have lagged behind the nation in economic 
development. The mountain counties of Georpia, 
South Carolina, and North Carolina were part 
of Appalachia. The Piedmont countics in these 
states were relatively prospcrous, but the 159 
counties of the Coastal Plains were designated 
by Secretary John T. Connor as an economic 
development region on December 2i, 1966. The 
Coastal Plains Regional Commission was offi- 
cially chartered on July 29, 1967. 
in 1965, Congress decided to 
experiment with 4 new type of agency which 
would attack the economic causes ot the social 
symptoms of our national malaise and which 
would reinvigorate the Federal System by 
strengthening the role of the Governors in 
shaping and executing national economic pol- 
icies. 
For many years, the Appalachian 
Mountain range had been given national recog- 
nition as a major problem area. It was studied 
The Commission consists of the three 
Governors and a Presidential appointce who 
