The War on Poverty: Experiencing Poverty Firsthand in America

When Detroit natives, Robert and Rosemary Reid, visited Kentucky for two weeks for humanitarian work, they had no idea how it would impact the rest of their lives. Robert was working at Ford Motor Company in the 1960s when President Lyndon Johnson declared a national “war on poverty”. This political effort aimed at not only relieving the symptoms of poverty but also to cure it and prevent it in the future. It was during the 1960s that citizens started to realize that poverty was more prevalent in America than commonly assumed. During this time, Henry Ford Ⅱ provided incentives for employees to take part in community service. Robert and Rosemary packed up their belongings and their 4 young children to stay in Appalachia, Kentucky for two weeks. Their community service included taking care of the children, cleaning the houses, and cooking for the families of impoverished clergymen in the Appalachian Mountains. This opportunity showed them all of the aspects of daily life in Detroit that they had taken for granted such as access to clean water, food being readily available, access to education, and high wages. After their two weeks were over, they returned home and Robert went back to his job in Finance at Ford. However, they had learned how fulfilling it felt to help others and they did not want to stop after such a short period of time. Robert and Rosemary arranged with Ford to take a year-long unpaid work leave in order to return back to Appalachia and continue to provide help to the impoverished citizens.

After Henry Ford Ⅱ granted their request to take a leave of absence, they said farewell to Detroit and moved to Kentucky for a year’s worth of humanitarian volunteering. While in Kentucky, they helped to establish a program called “Programs in Appalachia through Christian Effort” (PACE). Through PACE, they developed a free medical clinic, five used clothing stores, a series of bible schools, and a home visitation program. Robert worked as the financial manager of the Program and also taught finance, economics, and accounting part-time at a community college in a nearby town in order to earn a small wage of $4,200 a year in order to pay for their daily necessities because they had no income or medical insurance. Rosemary, pregnant at the time, raised her four children and wrote letters to family and friends in order to receive donations for the program such as nonperishable foods, used clothing for the stores, and money to help the people of Appalachia. Through these programs that they started, they were able to provide work, shelter, food, education, and medical assistance to the citizens. They wanted to form a program that would not only help the citizens today but would also help them tomorrow.

          Adjusting to life in Kentucky was difficult but they have no regrets about this life decision they made. For example, while in a town near Appalachia, Rosemary gave birth to her fifth child. However, the hospital was very understaffed with no available nurses or doctors so she gave birth to her son alone with no medical assistance in a hospital room. This was very different compared to the well-staffed and well-maintained medical facilities in Michigan. Another example of the differing lifestyles is when Rosemary saw a dirty newborn baby for the first time. This heartbreaking experience still brings tears to her eyes over 50 years later. The family lived in a shack on one of the mountain peaks and their well was on the other side of the mountain. When she visited the family, they introduced her to their two-week-old newborn that was covered in dirt and had not been washed since being born. The family only had enough water to spare to wash their hands and their faces. When Rosemary was visiting them, the mother offered her a glass of water. The water was clearly contaminated due to the placement of the outhouse in vicinity to the well but nonetheless, Rosemary drank the water that was offered to her because she knew what a sacrifice it was for the family to give a stranger a glass of water from their limited supply.

Throughout this year of service, Rosemary, Robert, and their children all gained powerful memories attached to Appalachia. They became thankful for things that they had previously taken for granted, they gained a new understanding of the poverty that exists in America, and they firsthand participated in the President’s effort to fight the “war on poverty”.  As the year came to a close, the Reid family headed back to Michigan despite Robert being offered a full-time position at the community college. As a result of the Race Riots that had occurred in Detroit while they were in Kentucky, Robert was offered a new position at Ford that aimed to recruit minorities into salary positions. In 1967, Robert and Rosemary were selected as Ford’s “Citizens of the Year” as a result of their humanitarian efforts in Appalachia. To conclude in the words of Rosemary Reid about this experience: “The year that we spent there was very important to us and I can’t say that anything has changed there now. If I went back, it might still be the same because it has been generations but it changed us”.