“Still Hungry in America. In the spirit of Walker Evans’ Depression-era photographs, [the book] chronicled poverty in the American South during the 1960s, a time when the mass mechanization of farming had pushing thousands of sharecroppers out of work. The book — with photographs by Al Clayton and text by the eminent psychiatrist Robert Coles — challenged the notion that the United States was a land of plenty, with its grim portrait of malnourished children and families crowded in tarpaper shacks.”
“It was so graphic with the small folks,” recalls Clayton. “The face of a hungry child or their demeanor just really prints on me. It’s unforgettable.”
“Our story starts with those historic hearings — and ends in Belzoni, Miss. It’s the seat of Humphreys County, still one of the poorest counties in one of the poorest states in the United States. The median household income is around $20,000, and about one-third of the residents receive food stamps.”
“But instead of hunger, poor nutrition — and an obesity epidemic — now pose the greatest food-related threats to the town’s poorest residents.”
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