What is the Southern Black Belt?
The Southern Black Belt is a term made well known in 1901 by Booker T. Washington to describe the color of the rich southern soil on which slaves worked. The term is now often used to describe the Southern region in a political sense—the Black Belt remains a collection of 11 states containing counties with higher-than-average percentages of black residents stretching across Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
Related Questions
- What percentage of the Southern Black Belt’s poor, over the age of 16, works part-time or full-time, yet cannot earn enough to secure the basic necessities of life?
- What is the official poverty level for a family of four living in the Southern Black Belt?
- How do the rural and urban poverty rates compare for the Southern Black Belt?
