The Southern Crescent is a geographic area that stretches from the Tidewater part of eastern Virgina southward through the Carolinas along Interstate 95.  It then turns west through Georgia and lower Alabama before curling northwesterly to the Mississippi Delta.  Home to millions, this soft underbelly of the American South has been underserved for generations.  It has a higher than normal incidence of poverty, unemployment and health problems that stretch through nine states.

You can see the Southern Crescent in these two maps. The first highlights poverty in 2008 in the Crescent area with the darker red indicating a higher percentage of people living in poverty.  You can see the same hook-shaped figure in maps of the South various data sets, including unemployment, number of single parent families, rate of people not graduating from high school and various health indices including heart disease, chlamydia, obesity and diabetes. To take a look, click on our Map section.

The second map highlights something even more compelling.  It shows where slaves lived in the 1860 Census with a higher number dwelling in the Crescent region.