This chapter discusses the founding of Craven Operation Progress (COP) and the broad and enthusiastic support it received from the North Carolina Fund, its first funding agency. When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act in August 1964 critical antipoverty plans and programs for Craven County and nearby counties had been under way for more than half a year. These included a strawberry marketing program, a rural environmental sanitation program, adult basic education classes, and manpower training. From the very beginning, plans and incentives to combat the causes of poverty in Eastern North Carolina did not await direction or guidance from the federal government but grew instead out of local needs and circumstances.
Commonwealth Bank - Head Office - Construction, opening of new premises: View of Martin Place looking to George Street - 22 August 1916 (plate 365)
