Poverty In The Mississippi Delta

Improved Essays
Due to these factors, poverty has continued on for decades. Approximately, 16.3 percent of the Delta population is living in poverty, alone. High volume of poverty is devastating the great fertile land of the Delta. As we all know, poverty is still alive even in the 21st century. Just as the Mississippi Delta is known as the land of the rich and abundant, it can also be characterized as poor and abandoned. Just like reminiscing on the soft music and sweet words from the authors of this impoverished region, an individual can only imagine the terror and inequality that African Americans have experienced throughout the years living in the Mississippi Delta. Living in poverty is hard, and it is sad that the majority of the citizens are accustomed …show more content…
Nevertheless, some of the programs that were introduced by President Lyndon Johnson are still effective today. They only scratch the surface when it comes to poverty. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development only provides service to a limited number of people. In the wake of the housing crisis and the lengthy recession, with its jobless aftermath along with the drawn-out collapse of many employment sectors and the decline of purchasing power of wages in many other industries left a rising number of Americans struggling to make it from one paycheck, or unemployment checks, to the next. In 2005, Mississippi received a grant amount of $949,098, the majority of it was giving to the Delta, to help develop better and affordable housing for residents in rural areas and economic development programs to help lessen the level of poverty, but it still seems like that is not enough to improve the impoverished …show more content…
For instance, today, Congress is considering cuts to the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program, a program that has lifted millions out of poverty, boosted our economy, and dramatically improved health outcomes for families struggling with food on the table. Based on federal laws, there will be several revisions made to each federal program, such as Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program, aiming to decrease the amount of people that are a recipient of these benefits. Thus, these two federal programs alone highlights that poverty is still an issue in the

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Research has shown that the food stamp program is an extremely valuable investment providing large returns for every American, not just the low income. When food stamps get used, everyone benefits. The spending of food stamps creates an increase in the local economic activity resulting in an increase in both farm and retail jobs and beyond. For every five dollars of food stamps, nine dollars of economic activity is generated. Every one billion of retail food demanded by SNAP recipients’ results in 3,300 farm jobs.…

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Faridatou Issiako Jackie Walorski’s Op-Ed (June 13, 2016) argues that the Obama administration decreased the access of low-income families’ of receiving healthy and nutritious foods. Walorski clarifies her statement by briefly explaining what a food desert is how rural and urban communities are greatly affected. In order for Walorski to inform people about the setbacks of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), she must aim her attention, specifically on the low-income families in the community.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Alanna Bowers Chapter 1 – Life on the Mississippi When reading chapter 1 it was very interesting and sad. East St. Louis was one of the most distressed cities. There was a lot of fetal death, crime and drugs. East St. Louis did not have any obstetric service. Many blacks where sick and didn’t have the greatest living environment.…

    • 213 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For instance, Katz (1998) states that President Lyndon Johnson proposed a major housing legislation named the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 which called for federally subsidized housing for low-income families every ten years. This program was then reestablished in such a way that low-income families could get allowances so people could choose their own housing. According to Katz, the government overspent each time they engage in a new program. However, engaging in these activities decreased the proportion of disadvantaged Americans. In fact, many of the government implemented programs in the mid 1960-1970 allowed to assist many people out of poverty especially the elderly.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As students, we were asked to take the (SNAP) Food Stamp challenge. SNAP is the foundation of the nutrition assistance programs. This program provides over 47 million individuals in nearly 23 million low-income households (Rosenbaum, 2013). We, students, were allotted only seven dollars a day to spend on food per person. What I realized while taking this challenge shocked me; to understand how families who are less fortunate than mine manage to feed themselves is astounding for what little they are given.…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dbq Social Security Act

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Poverty was a social problem addressed by the Social Security Act of 1935. In the United States, poverty has been a contributing factor to various issues like homelessness. “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary services”. The right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, and old age were included. With the passage of the Social Security Act, workers were guaranteed basic protections against poverty (Hansen, 2008).…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Delta Underdeveloped Place

    • 1521 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Why is Mississippi Delta still underdeveloped place? Throughout the America, cities and towns are booming yet the Delta stays the same. People are moving to the Southwest for jobs and opportunities to have a better life. Why not be the for Mississippi? The simple reason why the Delta is still in poverty because of after effects of slavery.…

    • 1521 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The United States, considered a land of opportunity, equality, liberty, is not lived out. Opportunity being a predominant factor as to why many are proud to be citizens of this country and or migrate here. Even in this land of suppose prosperity, poverty is a struggle across the nation. Programs such as Section 8 work towards the bettering of national poverty. Section 8 is the federal government’s primary program to provide housing for Americans who live in poverty, are elderly or disabled.…

    • 1480 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his article, Black Family In the Age of Mass Incarceration, Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about his concerns with how poorly African American families are treated in society. Coates mentions how the government is not taking the mistreatment of African American communities problem seriously and is afraid this is going to have a very negative effect on their community and future generations. Throughout the article, Coates brought up numerous issues; however, the biggest dilemma discussed was the issue of poverty. Poverty is an important issue people should focus on because it causes great damage to families economically and socially. According to Coates, poverty in the African American culture increases the chance of discrimination and injustice;…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Snap Advantages

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) acts as America’s safety net and is the main foundation for nutrition assistance programs. The program offers over 50 million participants in approximately 23 million low-income households with cards they can use to purchase food each month. Because eligibility is not limited to restricted, SNAP serves different kinds of people who live in low-income households, this includes families with children, disabled people, elderly folks, and those who are temporarily unemployed. “About 72% of SNAP recipients live in households with children; more than one-quarter live in households with seniors or people with disabilities.” Although the SNAP program offers many types of benefits such as food security,…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Food Stamps

    • 1978 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Despite huge agricultural surpluses in the United States, food insecurity remains a massive and constant problem for millions of low-wage households. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, has a basic goal of providing help to those households in attempt to fight growing food insecurity. Flaws in the food stamp system make that goal much more challenging to reach. These flaws have caused many applicants to be deemed ineligible for aid for little to no reason.…

    • 1978 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, why are so many people in poverty? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the “official poverty rate in 2014 was 14.8 percent, which means there were 46.7 million people in poverty” (U.S. Census Bureau). Poverty is an important and emotional issue. To understand poverty in the United States, it is essential to look behind these numbers to see the actual living conditions of the individuals the government deems to be poor. The U.S. Census Bureau uses a set of guidelines to determine if families meet that poverty threshold.…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The question as to how the government can reduce African American poverty receives substantial political attention from the American public; nevertheless, a conception of an effective public policy that not only reduces poverty amongst African American communities but prevent its recrudescence requires the elimination of the poverty’s cause. In debate concerning the issue, some blame violence and deterioration of family within Black communities as the cause, whilst others attribute racism as the barrier to economic development. A socioeconomic investigation of low-income African American households indicates that cultural problems amongst some African Americans may have indeed create a poverty-ridden environment, and the presence of influential…

    • 220 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “The United States has the highest poverty rate of any advance industrial nation” (Elizabetha, 2013). To illustrate, African Americans held the highest percentage rate on the poverty scale for decades. Despite, the government programs created to assist with short-term needs of the lower class. Still, the numbers of participants utilizing such programs remain the same. The inquiry is, why does poverty still exist among African Americans in the United States?…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Hunter Depalma ECON 221 Butler February 13, 2015 Racism & Income Disparity: Income Effect Income disparity is an ongoing complication within the United States not only between men and women, but between races. Many people in our country are poor, and the improvement in their lives that the ending of income inequality can bring them is great. For the most part this shifts demand curves from the incomes increasing and decreasing, negatively and positively. Some argue that our society here in America is set up to where the lower working class cannot escape poverty. We have provisions and burdens in our economy that will keep regressing the lower class.…

    • 2619 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays