Video: A Mississippi Town Ranks as the Poorest In The Nation

MACON, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s a little unwelcome recognition. Mississippi ranks as the poorest state in the country. That news is bad enough, but according to the 24/7 Wall Street Special Report of the Top 10 Poorest Cities, Macon holds the distinction of being the poorest city in the nation.

Residents say Macon is known for many things, but it’s not for being the poorest town.

Macon, Mississippi. The state’s capitol during the Civil War, an Alternate 45 traveler’s stop, and a small town of almost 3,000 residents.

“I’ve seen places that I feel like are poorer. I don’t know the actual statistics, and I don’t know the actual numbers, as far as income and what goes, but I find that a difficult statistic to believe,” says Noxubee General Hospital Administrator, Danny Mckay.

The Wall Street Journal points to the fact, nearly one out of every two households fall below the poverty line, and the median average salary of $18,000 dollars, as reasons it calls the city the nation’s poorest.

“I think that people realize articles like that for what they are, and you have to consider who wrote it and where it came from,” says Senter’s Hardware owner, Alan Senter.

Senter and his family have owned Senter’s Hardware in Macon since 1921,  and he says money isn’t the only way to measure a town’s worth.

“It may be close to being the poorest economically, but it’s certainly not culturally, or in many other ways.”

Mckay says there’s more to community than money, and the people are what makes Macon the richest.

“It’s the heart of the people. The character of the people that make such a difference in Noxubee County and in Macon whenever you come through it, that you just don’t see unless you become involved, unless you get at the grassroots level of it. They’re just charming people, and that’s a part that you miss when you look at something statistically.”

Cities  in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida made the “bottom 10” as well.