They'll Cut Off Your Project

288 Pages·2011·23.4 MB·English

by  Huey Perry

“(cid:2)is is a wonderful account of the poverty wars of the 1960s as they
unfolded in Mingo County, West Virginia. Inspired (and funded)
by the federal war on poverty, the presumably apathetic Appala-
chian poor mobilized with gusto. And so did the challenged lo-
cal power structure. Read this book to learn about this moment of
American history.”
—Frances Fox Piven,
Professor Political Science and Sociology, City University of New York
and author of Poor People’s Movements : Why (cid:2)ey Succeed, How (cid:2)ey Fail
“Huey Perry’s account of the War on Poverty in West Virginia is a
classic. Nothing I have read gives such an insider’s account of both
of the promise of LBJ’s initiative, and the way this hope was largely
subverted by state and local politicians and coal companies. (cid:2)e
book is, as well, a quirky, funny page-turner. I was hugely indebted
to this book while writing my novel (cid:2)e Unquiet Earth. WVU Press
is to be commended for keeping this important account available
both to historians and the general public.”
—Denise Giardina,
author of Storming Heaven and (cid:2)e Unquiet Earth
Praise for the first edition
“Perry’s story, told simply and without polemics, shows how hard it
is to do something that seems simple—get funds into the hands of
the poor.”
—Edward Magnuson, Time magazine
“(cid:2)is book is one of those unexpected delights that comes along
every once in a while, but not o(cid:3)en enough.”
—New Republic

“(cid:2)ey’ll Cut Off Your Project”
WEST VIRGINIA AND APPALACHIA
A series edited By Ronald L. Lewis, Ken Fones-Wolf, and Kevin Barksdale
VOLUME 13
Other books in the series:
An Appalachian Reawakening:
West Virginia and the Perils of the New Machine Age, 1945-1972
By Jerry Bruce (cid:2)omas
An Appalachian New Deal: West Virginia in the Great Depression
By Jerry Bruce (cid:2)omas
Culture, Class, and Politics in Modern Appalachia
Edited by Jennifer Egolf, Ken Fones-Wolf,
and Louis C. Martin
Governor William E. Glasscock and Progressive Politics in West Virginia
By Gary Jackson Tucker
Matewan Before the Massacre
By Rebecca J. Bailey
Sectionalism in Virginia from 1776 to 1881, Second Edition
By Charles Ambler
Introduction to the second edition by Barbara Rasmussen
Monongah: (cid:2)e Tragic Story
of the 1907 Monongah Mine Disaster
By Davitt McAteer
continued in back of book
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“THEY’LL CUT OFF YOUR PROJECT”
A Mingo County Chronicle
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(cid:38)(cid:43)(cid:53)(cid:50)(cid:49)(cid:44)(cid:38)(cid:47)(cid:40) HUEY PERRY
Foreword by Jeff Biggers
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West Virginia University Press
Morgantown 2011
West Virginia University Press, Morgantown 26506
2011 West Virginia University Press
All rights reserved
Second edition published 2011 by West Virginia University Press
First edition published 1972 Praeger Publishers, Inc.
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
cloth: 1-933202-80-7
978-1-933202-80-8
paper: 1-933202-79-3
978-1-933202-79-2
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-75692
Printed in the United States of America
To the grandchildren,
Hallie Cross, Josie Cross, Janie Cross, Madison Perry, and Stewart Perry.
“May you always remember your roots.”

Foreword
Huey Perry’s War
Standing on the streets of Williamson, West
Virginia in the winter of 1966, Huey Perry dazzled a New York
Times reporter with the achievements of his native Mingo
County’s thirty community action programs. Roads into the
back hollows had been repaired; schoolhouses had been ren-
ovated. Carpenters assisted by men on relief had torn down
abandoned shacks and built and painted new homes. Swim-
ming pools had been fixed; a park overlooking the dramatic
valleys had been built.
As director of the county’s antipoverty program, Perry
swelled with his pride in his work.
“(cid:2)is must be the most beautiful community action group
in the nation,” Perry told the Times.
(cid:2)anks to Perry’s tour, the reporter noted that six-hun-
dred children now attended Head Start classes, three-hun-
dred teenagers took part in self-help employment projects,
and medical checkups had become routine.
(cid:2)e crowning achievement, which had garnered the head-
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