To Our Readers

By ELIZABETH VALK LONG President

Senior correspondent Jack E. White has witnessed poverty in its worst degrees, from the refugee camps of Africa to the inner cities of America. But his experience failed to prepare him for the sights of Lake Providence, Louisiana, which according to Census figures is the poorest place in America. In this decrepit town he found crumbling shotgun shacks, burned-out houses and a poverty so desperate it has resisted all the remedies of the past three decades. "People told me, 'Be prepared for something like you've never seen,' " says White. "They turned out to be right. Most Americans would not believe that such destitution exists in their country."

White, who is from a small town in North Carolina, spent weeks in Lake Providence observing everyday life and listening to the town's residents. "They have the fewest institutions of any Black Belt town I've ever been to," he says. "They have no social club, no public park or swimming pool, no nothing."

White is a born-again magazine journalist. He first joined TIME as a staff writer in 1972, became senior editor of the Nation section in 1990, and then decided in 1992 to try his hand at television. He joined ABC News as a senior producer, but was away from TIME just eight months "before I started missing my notebook," he says. He returned in March 1993 to cover the lives of ordinary people.

Telling the stories of those in Lake Providence reminds him of the buoyancy of the human spirit. "What's amazing to me is the extent to which people can remain cheerful," White says. "If it were not for the black church, their morale probably would have already collapsed." Lake Providence's glimmer of hope is its prospect of becoming a federal "empowerment zone." If it does, White plans to continue visiting the town to see the results. Though it will take years to turn things around, White has seen how government intervention can improve the lives of the poor. "Were it not for government assistance, these people could not survive," he says. "They couldn't feed themselves. They couldn't afford homes. What they really need is jobs."

Even without federal help, White has observed, a few things in Lake Providence have changed for the better. "When I first visited, they had these packs of wild dogs roaming the streets," he says. On an ensuing visit he learned that "they finally got around to hiring a dogcatcher."