Poor But Proud: Alabama's Poor WhitesFirst published in 1989 by The University of Alabama Press, Poor but Proud was met with critical acclaim and awarded the 1990 Lillian Smith prize in nonfiction, as well as being named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book. This new paperback version will make the classic work available for general readers, bookstores, and classrooms. Wayne Flynt addresses the life experiences of poor whites through their occupations, society, and culture. He explores their family structure, music, religion, folklore, crafts, and politics and describes their attempts to resolve their own problems through labor unions and political movements. He reveals that many of our stereotypes about poor whites are wildly exaggerated; few were derelicts or "white trash." Even though racism, emotionalism, and a penchant for violence were possible among poor whites, most bore their troubles with dignity and self-respect - working hard to eventually lift themselves out of poverty. The phrase "poor but proud" aptly describes many white Alabamians who settled the state and persisted through time. During the antebellum years, poor whites developed a distinctive culture on the periphery of the cotton belt. As herdsmen, subsistence farmers, mill workers, and miners, they flourished in a society more renowned for its two-class division of planters and slaves. The New Deal era and the advent of World War II broke the long downward spiral of poverty and afforded new opportunities for upward mobility. |
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acres agents agricultural Alabama Press Alabamians antebellum Appalachian Aubrey Williams Auburn University average B. B. Comer Baptist became began Birmingham Calhoun County Census Cherokee child labor church coal miners convicts corn cotton mill Covington Covington County crop croppers culture Democratic dollars earned economic farm federal Flynt Geneva County hill counties hookworm House of Happiness Huntsville ibid income indigent industry Jackson County John L. A. House land landowners legislature Lillie Mae Beason Lipscomb lived livestock M.A. thesis mines Mobile Montgomery mountain mule Negro north Alabama officials Oral history organized owners percent planters political poor whites population Populist poverty racial reform relief Report rural Samford University sharecroppers social South Southern state's strike tenant farmers textile mills textile workers town union University of Alabama University Press W. W. Jewell wages Walker County Winston Winston County Wiregrass women yeomen