Human Resources in the Rural Mississippi Delta: With Emphasis on the Poor

Excerpts from the report Introduction: The Mississippi Delta extends from the Bootheel area of Missouri to the Red River in Louisiana. The region in this study consists of 43 counties fully in the Delta in four States (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri) and has often been characterized as containing the largest number of poor people in the United States. The continuing mass outmigration from the Delta to other regions of the United States during the last 30 years makes the poverty problem of the Delta a part of the national poverty that cannot be solved locally or regionally. This study focuses on the identification and estimation of the magnitude of the disadvantaged group in the rural area of the Delta and what might improve their condition.