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The
Case For Appalachian Studies
page 9
The
present Appalachian school systems do not, by any stretch of the
imagination, begin to represent an attempt to build democratic
beliefs. With their heavy reliance upon force, authority,
compliance, and physical repression, it is little wonder that the
typical Appalachian views it with suspicion and bitterness.
Few of the returning migrants from Chicago to Breathitt County, Kentucky
-- and there are an increasing number of them -- probably ever heard of
Mike Royko or read his book Boss. And even if they did read it,
they would probably be bored by all its descriptions of Mayor Daley's doings;
for, in Breathitt County, "Ma" Turner and her clan have been
out-doing Daley for thirty years. In Breathitt County, they say
that the only thing that the Turners don't control is the flood-prone
Kentucky River, and that "Ma" hasn't stopped it because it
always floods the home of one of her few remaining rivals.
The Turners came to power in the Depression days by controlling
patronage jobs provided by the government's public works programs.
Using this patronage, they gained control of all locally elective
offices, including the school board. Though "Ma" herself
is no longer school superintendent, one of her chosen is. She has
always seen to it that the county judge, the county's chief fiscal and
administrative officer, is close kin to herself or her late husband,
himself a county judge. Her daughter, Treva Howell, is the
director of the four-county Middle Kentucky River Community Action
Program, which controls Head Start and several job programs. Treva
had some trouble keeping her job during the Nunn administration -- a
Republican one that frowned upon the blatancy of "Ma's"
Democratic machine -- but the Governor lost. Treva's husband Jeff
is the representative to the Kentucky General Assembly from Breathitt.
Jeff had a little problem getting elected again last year -- he didn't
receive the most votes -- but a special committee of the General
Assembly found some "irregularities" in a couple of precincts
and named him the winner. Jerry Fonce Howell -- close kin again --
is a former State Senator who chairs the board of the eight-county
Kentucky River Area Development District, which controls all Appalachian
Regional Commission money directly that comes into the area and,
indirectly, passes on all federal funds coming into the area except for
Social Security.
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