Why is West Virginia so White?
From early settlement to coal’s collapse — the forces that kept West Virginia 96% white
While researching where Utah fell among the whitest states in America, I discovered that Utah ranked 10th in whiteness, with West Virginia ranking 1st, according to the World Population Review. The five states surrounding West Virginia all have significant Black populations. Kentucky is the whitest of the bunch, but the time I’ve spent in Louisville and Lexington revealed no shortage of Black people. I’ve driven through a small portion of West Virginia and was paying more attention to the highway than to the racial makeup, but I’m surprised to learn that West Virginia was so white.
West Virginia today is almost 96% white, making it one of the least racially diverse states in the United States. Its diversity score is just 2 out of 100, far below the national average. This demographic reality is not an accident of the present — it is the product of centuries of historical forces, geographic isolation, and economic patterns that have shaped who settled there, who stayed, and who left.
1. Early Settlement Patterns
The roots of West Virginia’s racial makeup go back to the colonial era. The region that would become West Virginia was part of Virginia until the Civil War. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the rugged Appalachian terrain attracted mostly Scots‑Irish, English, and German settlers moving westward from the Tidewater and Piedmont regions.
Unlike the fertile plantation lands of eastern Virginia, West Virginia’s steep hills and narrow valleys were poorly suited to large‑scale cash crops like tobacco or cotton. That meant enslaved African labor was far less common here than in the plantation South. By 1860, enslaved people made up only about 4% of the population in the counties that would become West Virginia — compared to over 30% in eastern Virginia.
This early demographic imbalance meant that, even after emancipation, the Black population in the region was small and scattered.
2. Civil War and Statehood
West Virginia was born in 1863 out of the Civil War, when the northwestern counties of Virginia broke away to remain loyal to the Union. While the new state abolished slavery, it did not become a magnet for freedpeople in the way some Northern states did.
Several factors discouraged large‑scale Black migration:
Geography: The Appalachian Mountains made travel and settlement more difficult.
Economy: The state’s economy was dominated by small farms, timber, and later coal — industries that did not initially recruit large numbers of Black workers from the South.
Social climate: While not as rigidly segregated as the Deep South, West Virginia still had entrenched racial prejudice and limited opportunities for African Americans.
3. Coal Mining and Industrialization
The late 19th and early 20th centuries brought industrialization to West Virginia, primarily through coal mining. This period did see an influx of workers from outside the state, but they were mostly European immigrants (Italians, Poles, Hungarians) and white migrants from other parts of Appalachia.
Some Black workers did come, particularly from Virginia and the Carolinas, to work in the coalfields. In certain southern counties, Black miners made up 20–30% of the workforce. However, this was a localized phenomenon. Many of these communities were company towns, and when the coal industry contracted, Black families were often the first to be laid off, prompting out‑migration.
4. The Great Migration — and West Virginia’s Role
During the Great Migration (1916–1970), millions of African Americans migrated from the rural South to the industrial jobs in the North and Midwest. West Virginia was geographically between these regions, but it was not a major destination.
Instead, many Black West Virginians joined the migration themselves, leaving for cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Detroit, where wages were higher and Black communities were larger. This outflow further reduced the state’s Black population.
5. Geographic Isolation and Limited In‑Migration
West Virginia’s topography has always been a double‑edged sword: it offers natural beauty and resources, but also isolation. The Appalachian Mountains historically limited transportation, trade, and migration.
Even in the modern era, the state has attracted relatively few newcomers from other parts of the U.S. or from abroad. According to census data, only about 1.5% of West Virginians are Hispanic and less than 1% are Asian — far below national averages. Without significant immigration, the state’s racial composition has remained essentially unchanged.
6. Economic Decline and Out‑Migration
The collapse of the coal industry in recent decades has hit West Virginia hard. Coal production has dropped by 30% since 2010, and coal mine employment has fallen by more than 27%. Many young people — of all races — have left in search of work.
Because the state’s population was already overwhelmingly white, this out‑migration has disproportionately affected the small minority populations, making the state even less diverse. Economic stagnation also makes it harder to attract new residents from more diverse regions.
7. Persistent Racial Disparities
Although Black West Virginians make up only about 2.7% of the population, they face significant disparities in income, employment, and health outcomes. A 2020 report found that per‑capita income for Black West Virginians was 27% lower than for white residents, and Black women had higher infant mortality rates.
These disparities can discourage in‑migration by people of color, who may perceive the state as offering limited opportunity and support.
8. Cultural and Political Climate
In recent decades, West Virginia has shifted from a Democratic stronghold to one of the most Republican states in the country. The state’s political culture is often characterized by skepticism toward federal programs, resistance to immigration, and a strong attachment to traditional social norms.
While political affiliation does not map perfectly onto racial attitudes, the state’s cultural conservatism — combined with its lack of existing diversity — can make it less appealing to newcomers from more diverse urban areas.
9. The Feedback Loop of Homogeneity
Demographers note that racial homogeneity can be self‑reinforcing:
Few minorities live in the state, so there are fewer social networks to attract others.
Media portrayals and stereotypes can deter potential movers.
Institutions and policies may be slow to adapt to diversity, making integration harder when newcomers do arrive.
In West Virginia, this feedback loop has been operating for generations.
10. Comparison to Neighboring States
It’s instructive to compare West Virginia to nearby states:
Pennsylvania and Ohio have large urban centers (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Columbus) that attracted diverse migrants during the Great Migration and later waves of immigration.
Virginia has the Washington, D.C. metro area, one of the most diverse in the country.
West Virginia lacks a major metropolitan hub to serve as a gateway for new populations.
Conclusion: A Demographic Legacy
West Virginia’s whiteness is the product of:
Historical settlement patterns favored white European immigrants.
Geographic isolation that limited both slavery in the past and immigration in the present.
Economic structures that did not draw large numbers of Black or immigrant workers — and that, when they did, often pushed them out during downturns.
Cultural and political factors have not encouraged diversity.
The result is a state that remains demographically similar to its 19th‑century self, even as the rest of the country has grown more diverse. Changing that would require not just economic revitalization, but also intentional efforts to attract and retain people from a broader range of backgrounds.
Historically, if you look at the migratory patterns of those who went to Appalachia in Virginia before 1863, it wasn't wealthy landowners, yeoman farmers, or the merchants of the Tidewater region. Appalachia attracted the poor. The Scots-Irish were desperately poor.
After the defeat of Hugh O'Neill, an Irish lord, known as the "Great Earl" of Tír Eoghain, today known as Tyrone, a kingdom and later earldom of Gaelic Ireland; Hugh led the confederacy of Irish lords against the English Crown's conquest of Ireland during the Elizabethan era. This war, called the Nine Years' War, was won by England. In the early 1600s, King James I, who was originally James VI of Scotland, sought to consolidate his rule in Ireland and establish a stable Protestant kingdom. He promoted the settlement of Protestants, including Presbyterians from the Scottish lowlands, to weaken the influence of native Irish Catholic lords, particularly in the counties of Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone in Northern Ireland. The scheme was called the Plantation of Ulster.
As in early colonial America, James I divided the plantation into estates for British undertakers. Note the term British, meaning that the opportunity was not extended to just the English. James gave estates to favored Scots, too, like Sir James Hamilton and Sir Hugh Montgomery of Ayrshire, a Scottish region opposite today's Belfast on the coast.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 Scots, many of them Lowland Scots, were facing poverty and engaging in petty crime. Mostly Presbyterians, they came to dominate the native Irish. Some, however, like a forebearer of the Dinsmore line in America--an exception to the rule because his father was a Laird (lord) and he was a second son. After a spat with his father, he moved to Atrim in Ulster. Like many of his fellow Scots in Ireland, he did not find success. Within twenty years, he left Ireland behind and moved to the piedmont region of northern Appalachia in Connecticut, where he bought a farm. Most of his countrymen were not so fortunate. Many were still poor, so they either spent what money they had or hired themselves out as indentured servants and came to America. Unable to find cheap land in the Tidewater region of the southern colonies or sustainable rents in the middle colonies, they moved west. Many were recruited by colonial authorities for frontier regions, valuing their hardiness to serve as a buffer against Native Americans.
So they came. They murdered and pushed out the indigenous, conquered nature, and farmed the least suitable land in the colonies. They lived in isolation in the valley pockets within the mountains. Eventually, many Scots-Irish would push past the limitations of the frontier established by tribal treaties following the French and Indian War and the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Among the Scots-Irish who pioneered the west were Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, the Dinsmore descendants, and others in my maternal grandmother's lineage.
After the Revolutionary War, industrialization, education, the railroads, canals, and business ventures expanded into Appalachia, particularly the areas of North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, where "hillbillies" were known to reside. Only two industries entered this region: lumbering and mining, especially coal mining. Both destroyed the land and paid scant wages, further impoverishing the people.
Mining drew Germans to the region. Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood of Colonial Virginia--he was Virginia's governor when the revolution began-- recruited 42 Germans from the Siegen area of present-day North Rhine-Westphalia. The region was known for its iron production, and Spotswood hoped to tap into this expertise to develop mining in Virginia. The Germans were brought over as indentured servants to pay for their passage.
Palatine Germans, including the Beckers and Stimelings on my father's side, experienced repeated wars, the Nine Years' War (1688–97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), a devastating "Great Frost" and harsh winter in 1708-1709, which led to widespread crop failures, destitution, starvation, and because they were members of the German "reform" calvanist church, they fled religious persecution. Thirteen thousand "Poor Palatines" migrated to England. The British government later sponsored large groups to immigrate to America, where they worked to pay for their passage to the colonies, becoming the first substantial wave of German-speakers to North America. Many German settlers in Pennsylvania moved south into western Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in search of land. These German settlers helped establish other early communities and contributed to iron production and other industries. They were also brought to mine iron in Frederick, Maryland, in the 1740s and 50s.
In the early 20th Century, Italians from southern Italy, the poorest region in Italy, emigrated to West Virginia seeking economic opportunities in the coal mines during the coal boom. Labor agents offered jobs and housing, though they often told the new employees nothing of the dangerous work ahead. This immigrant group was the only "non-white" group to have any impact on West Virginia culture. The pizza roll is West Virginia's state food. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWXSUm3OD2g
I have traveled to nearly every state in the Union, and though my step-father (my Dad) was born in Logan, West Virginia, I have not had the pleasure of visiting the state. What I know of the state comes from stories of the Hatfield and McCoys, the history of the United Mine Workers (I wrote a paper), the devastation caused by the mining industry, and a series of reports released in 1964 for LBJ's War on Poverty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlA7_5ZbPDU, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VyZ_vKuY-M, https://hungermuseum.org/exhibits/televising-the-war-on-hunger/,
https://hungermuseum.org/lobby/.
Sadly, along with Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia (southern regions where cotton has ruined the soil and racism prevents its Black citizens from escaping poverty), and areas of urban decay like Detroit, Flint, Michigan, West Virginia remains one of the poorest places to live in this nation. Predominantly white, undereducated, and caught up in religions that promote superstition, the citizens too often wear their prejudices on their sleeves and wear blinders when they enter the voting booth and vote against their interests.
Oh, I hadn't considered that. Location, Location, Topography. No space for the planting of large crops requiring the needful purchasing of fellow human beings to gather one's crops like the selfish lazy bastards they are....
West Virginia does look beautiful, but as a born in Washington State, never been there, I have inherited a condemnation and assumption of West Virginnia akin to the shade for the other Southern States. I often refer to Idaho as the Mississippi of the North. But there is a flourishing art community and pockets of more liberal minded people stranded, sorry, living there.
Truly, Racism and Bigotry are not locations that can be printed out on maps, they are things of the mind. Racism is a malignant philosophy of bias, fear and hatred rooted in greed and fear of scarcity and personal insecurity. There are no demarcation lines on the globe that cut off Hate Filled Peoples from Tolerant Inclusive Peoples. Whether sea scape, mountain top, fertile plain, desert sweep, urban, rural, under populated, overpopulated, Norh, South, East or West, that Paltriness of Thought and Inhumanity that is Racism is not born of the land but of ourselves. It is fomented and cast relative and irrelative to where we find ourselves and the experiences we have might enhance or hinder these views, but ultimately, it is a Choice. Wherever we are, to Hate.