Poor But Proud: Alabama's Poor Whites

969 Pages·2002·3.52 MB·English

by  Wayne Flynt

title: Poor but Proud : Alabama's Poor Whites
author: Flynt, J. Wayne.
publisher: University of Alabama Press
isbn10 | asin: 081730424X
print isbn13: 9780817304249
ebook isbn13: 9780585224534
language: English
Rural development--Alabama, Rural poor--
subject
Alabama, Alabama--Rural conditions.
publication date: 1989
lcc: HN79.A133C64 1989eb
ddc: 305.5/69/09761
Rural development--Alabama, Rural poor--
subject:
Alabama, Alabama--Rural conditions.
Page iii
Poor but Proud
Alabama's Poor Whites
Wayne Flynt
The University of
Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa and
London
Page iv
Copyright ã 1989 by
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Publication of this book was made possible, in part, by a grant from
the Auburn University Humanities Fund.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Flynt, J. Wayne, 1940-
Poor but proud.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Rural developmentAlabama. 2. Rural poor
Alabama. 3. AlabamaRural conditions. 1. Title.
79. 133 64 1989 305.5¢69¢09761 88-20859
HN A C
0-8173-0424-x (alk. paper)
ISBN
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data available.
SECOND PRINTING 1990
Page v
TO ANCESTORS REMEMBERED
Julius Homer and Annie Phoebe Flynt
Felix Maxwell and Shirley Belle Moore
Lou Allen and Mae House
Harris Washington and Julia Ann Smith
Page vii
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Part One
Origins
Chapter 1 3
"Unknown and Forgotten Ancestors"
Chapter 2 36
"A Poor Man's Fight"
Part Two
Occupations
Chapter 3 59
"Looking for Something Better": Alabama's Farm Tenants
Chapter 4 92
"A Sight to Gratify Any Philanthropist": Alabama's
Textile Workers
Chapter 5 113
"Dark as a Dungeon, Damp as a Dew": Alabama's Coal
Miners
Chapter 6 146
"A Man That's Lumbering as Long as Me Knows a Few
Things": Alabama's Timber Workers
Chapter 7 157
"Barefoot Man at the Gate": Iron Workers and
Appalachian Farmers
Part Three
Society, Culture, and Politics
Chapter 8 173
"We Ain't Low-Down": Poor White Society
Chapter 9 211
"Out of the Dust": Poor Folks' Culture
Chapter 10 243
"The Fight Is Not Social": The Politics of Poverty
Page viii
Part Four
Disruption and Integration
Chapter 11 281
"We Didn't Know the Difference": The Great Depression
Chapter 12 333
"The Poor You Have with You Always": The Enduring
Legacy
Appendix 1 367
White Tenancy in Ten Selected Alabama Counties in 1880
Appendix 2 378
1897 Populist Voting Patterns and Agricultural Indigence
in 1880
Notes 380
Bibliography 428
Index 453
Page ix
PREFACE
The most fundamental question concerning Albama's poor whites is
also the hardest to answer: how does one define them? Although poor
whites were often powerless, that was not always the case. In the
antebellum years an alliance of yeomen and poor whites controlled a
substantial share of political power, perhaps greater than that of
planters. In later years, various organizations of poor whites,
sometimes allied with blacks, wielded power through labor unions and
political factions. Certainly "poor" does not refer to culture, for their
culture sustained a remarkable sense of pride and dignity. Through
religious and musical expressions, crafts, and lore, poor people
created a subculture that had meaning to them, that survived various
homogenizing influences, and one that they often considered superior
to the culture of their economic "betters." All generalizations contain
exceptions, and some poor whites consistently stood outside the state's
political, social, and cultural institutions. To the extent that "poor
white trash" had any meaning at all, it described a small residue of
people who may be distinguished not only from middle and upper
class whites but from impoverished poor whites as well. Refusing to
pursue whatever meager opportunities came their way, they were
satisfied with a subsistence existence consisting of a bit of corn and
whiskey, freedom to hunt and fish whenever they chose, the most
casual kind of living arrangements with the opposite sex, little effort
at child rearing, and no institutional involvement in churches, political
parties, farmers' organizations, or schools. Illiterate and transient, they
moved through Alabama's history like a shadow, leaving little if any
impression. But most poor whites occasionally made their mark on
church rolls, census lists, union membership, or voting records.
Striving, not accomplishment, often became their legacy.
Although degenerate poor whites appear only infrequently in the
historical record, they dominate the fictional accounts of the white
bottom class. From the southwestern humorists to Harper Lee, poor
whites appear as an object of satire and scorn, characterized by
shiftlessness, racism, violence, and demagoguery. Perhaps every
society feels com-