North Carolina is reported as the 10th poorest state in the US of A.
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| Miss North Carolina USA 2011 Brittany York |
We like to cover our blight, and poverty is a blight, to create appearances that don't reveal the blight. We also like to pretend our root problems don't exist, and the South has mastered the art of condemnation in the Lord's name, and been learning to adjust to gay communities, educated Negroes, enterprising Indians, integration, and a shrinking economy.
North Carolina is a beautiful place. I love going there. I sometimes dream about living there. I have visited the state a few times, and I am by no means deeply invested in its culture, politics, or its history. But, I do know enough of the history to appreciate its wild beauty with a calm eye, and brace against the subtle hatred from educated whites, and poor rednecks, and the suspicious but friendly Blacks, and the Cherokee people's open contempt for Blacks and Black Indians. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
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| Clarence E. Lightner, first popularly elected Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina |
Clarence Everett Lightner (August 15, 1921 – July 8, 2002) was the first popularly elected Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina and the first African American elected mayor of a metropolitan (defined as having a population of 50,000 or more) Southern city. Lightner, a Democrat, was also the first and to date only black mayor of Raleigh, serving in office from 1973 to 1975.
His mayoral election gained national attention since only 16% of registered voters in Raleigh were black, and it was unique for a white-majority city to elect a black candidate for mayor. Even more surprising to some was the fact his race was rarely mentioned in the campaign. Lightner came of age in an era when most blacks in the South were still disfranchised, was elected to the City Council two years after passage of the Voting Rights Act, and was elected mayor six years later. Lightner was a man of "dignity and perseverance", who brought people together when he entered public political life, as he had for years in his community work.
In a 1976 book on Southern politics, authors Jack Bass and Walter DeVries wrote "
Perhaps no political campaign better reflected changing attitudes on race than the 1973 mayor's race in Raleigh, in which black City Councilman Clarence Lightner won support from a coalition of white suburbanites concerned about urban and suburban sprawl." [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
10. North Carolina
- Median income: $43,275
- Poverty rate: 16.1 percent (tied for 9th highest)
- Without health insurance: 16.7 percent (13th highest)
- Unemployment: 10.1 percent (9th highest)
North Carolina has one of the lowest median incomes in the country. It does not perform much better on other metrics related to poverty. There have been a number of programs implemented to help combat poverty in the state recently. One example is the No Kid Hungry program which aims to end childhood hunger in North Carolina by 2015. According to information from the program, “more than 1 in 4 children in North Carolina do not get sufficient food.”
