NAACP bus tour puts face on NC poverty

WASHINGTON, N.C. - Imagine living without food to eat or power to keep your home warm; it's a reality facing many eastern North Carolinians.

1.6 Million People are impoverished in North Carolina and the east is home to counties with some of the highest poverty rates.

The NAACP along with the NC Justice Center kicked off a bus tour Thursday they hope will put a face on poverty and motivate people to action.

More than 9,000 people are impoverished in Beaufort County alone.  People like Wayland Whitley who returned to Pantego after 20 years away, only to find nothing has changed.

"In the eastern part of North Carolina today, the face of poverty is cold; it's very cold," said Whitley.

"We got to put a face on it, we got to look at it; we got to see people and not just statistics," said Rev. Dr. William Barber, II, NC NAACP President.

The statistics, like the faces, can't be ignored.  The tour will stop in Beaufort, Washington, Pasquotank, Hertford, Halifax, Edgecombe and Nash counties.  Of those, Halifax and Hertford have the highest poverty rating at more than 26 percent.

"Unless we acknowledge that poverty exists, we're never going to get the political will to do away with it," said Melinda Lawrence, NC Justice Center Spokeswoman.

The tour will stop for town hall style meetings in each county, like Thursday's stop in Beaufort County.  They say they’re not offering solutions, but rather, empowering others to find their own.

"We owe it to ourselves to insert ourselves in the situation and make it better," said Whitley.

"As a state we have turned our back on many, many communities particularly communities in eastern North Carolina," said Lawrence.  “If you don't see the faces of some of those 1.6 million dollars that number rings hollow and it doesn't reach your heart."

Faces like Charlette Blackwell Clark who has been trying, for 10 years, to repair her home after a tree tore through her roof.

"My husband is putting away money; I'm putting away money," said Blackwell Clark.

Both Charlette and her husband have jobs but are still below the poverty line.  She told her story of cold nights without heat and fear of losing what's left of her home to a crowd at the Metropolitan AME Zion Church.

"I know I have to pay, that's not a problem," said Blackwell Clark, "Just give us a chance to be somebody.  To get out of the poverty stage and we could do it.  We need jobs; we need financing; we just need somebody to hold our hands for a while."

It's hand holding that Blackwell Clark hopes will start with the NAACP’s bus tour and end with her in a fully repaired home.

"Try us out, and we'll be somebody.  We want to stand on our own feet too," said Clark.

Truth & Hope Tour of Poverty in North Carolina Schedule:
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20

8:30 a.m. - HERTFORD COUNTY. "Old" C.S. Brown High School, Cafeteria, 101 C.S. Brown Drive, Winton, NC 27986

1:00 p.m. - HALIFAX COUNTY. Brawley High School, E. 16th Street, Scotland Neck, NC 27874    

4:30 p.m. - EDGECOMBE COUNTY. Rocky Mount OIC, Auditorium, 402 E. Virginia Street, Rocky Mount, NC 27801