WOW! Your comparing rural Kentucky to urban Memphis? At least I was comparing apples to apples.

Kentucky was not a Confederate state, it was under Unionist control during and after the war and through reconstruction. So what ever happend there is Kentuckies Unionist governments to deal with.

As I pointed out on Tennessee, the cities and tourist destinations are doing quite well and have been since the 1970's and before, I know because our family spent two weeks every Fall in East Tennessee. Tennessee then, compared to Mississippi, was more advanced and more economically sound. Look at the education systems they enjoy...

University of Tennessee
East Tennessee State
Bryan College
Carson-Newman College
King College
Lee University
Lincoln Memorial University
Maryville College
Milligan College
Johnson Bible College
Tennessee Wesleyan College
Tusculum College

Look at the big money makers in East Tennessee...

Oak Ridge is where the Manhattan Project, the first nuclear weapons program was headquartered.

Alcoa Aluminum is headquartered in East Tennessee.

Eastman Chemical of Eastman Kodac in located in East Tennessee.

These alone would boost East Tennessee quality of life lightyears beyond most of Mississippi and Louisiana and West Tennessee.

East Tennessee was poor prior to World War II, it was poor during the Unionist Reconstruction with East Tennessee Unionist Andrew Johnson as President and abusive Governor Brownlow's anti-Confederate government in rule. It was poor before during centuries before the Civil War. The conditions in that part of the state are directly connected to how much the economy can bare. It was never considered prime farm territory, not much bottom land.

Blaming current road conditions, electricity, and general infastructure on the Confederates is quite...lets say...reaching a bit. TVA supplied electricity and jobs to East Tennessee when in middle Mississippi people were still using candles and coal-oil lamps.

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David Upton