Describe the Appalachia area and economic status in the 1950s.

During the 1950s, Appalachia was already in economic decline. Appalachia has never been a rich region, and from the early colonial days, it was an area where almost everyone was a poor farmer, and rich people were rare.

However, during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century there was a sort of economic boom in the area, basically boosted by the coal mining industry that provided the coal needed in the industrial heartlands of the Midwest and the Eastern United States. The problem during the 1950s was then, the problem of mechanization or automation, which led to the replacement of lots of human labor, and increased unemployment and poverty. Ever since, the region has not fully recovered and some areas of the region like West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, are among the poorest in the United States.