Jesse Jackson advocates for rural poor at rural campus in Appalachian Ohio

The Rev. Jesse Jackson held a rally against rural poverty at Ohio University's flagship campus Monday, evoking the "War on Poverty" launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Meanwhile, two student organizations on campus passed out fliers denouncing Jackson's call for "A Great Society" and advocating for more libertarian, free-market approaches to helping America's rural poor.

Jackson told the campus student newspaper, The Post, that Appalachia is "ground zero" for the problem of American poverty. The university is based in Athens, Ohio, and has branch campuses that serve all of Appalachian Ohio.

“We are more able today than ever before to wipe out poverty,” Jackson told the newspaper. “Given how pervasive the issue is, there’s no place for us to start than at ground zero for American poverty and that’s Appalachia.”

An estimated 500 students and staff attended the rally, as did top administrators from Ohio University. A few dozen students representing libertarian organizations passed out fliers arguing "help the poor; reject Jackson's ideas." One of the organizers of the protest told The Post, "We heard Jackson was coming to speak, and we thought, ‘Well, he’s kind of wrong about everything."

Jackson challenged Ohio University to become a center for combatting rural poverty, and also urged students to make the university a national headquarters for a student-focused branch of his Rainbow PUSH organization. “The whitest, poorest and hardest working people in America are in Appalachia,” Jackson said at a press conference. “It’s time for a change, and you are that change.”

Athens County is in the southeastern corner of Ohio, a state that has 23 32 counties that are in Appalachia along the Ohio River Valley. According to a recent report from the Athens County Job & Family Services, about 30 percent of families in the county live at or below the federal poverty level. The county has the highest percentage of people living below the poverty level in all of Ohio, despite the relative affluence in and around the small town of Athens from the university.