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The article presents information on a tiny enclave in the vast Los Angeles Basin, California, that, according to the author, inverts the demographics, politics and poetics of what Americans consider normal urban life. It is reported that it stands the traditional population pyramid on its head, that is only about 6 percent of its 36,000 residents are under 18 years of age, and a quarter are over 60. Its 1.9 square miles contain hardly an inch of undeveloped land; even without many conspicuous high-rises, it has the densest population of any city west of the Mississippi.

Commends the poor African Americans for managing preschool programs and attendant adult action programs in communities throughout Mississippi through the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM) under the Project Head Start grant from the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). Components of the CDGM that could help in developing the communities; Harassment experienced by sharecroppers who registered their children for a Head Start center; Role of U.S. Representative John Bell Williams (D-Miss.) in attacking the Head Start program and CDGM; Resistance put up by CDGM staff against the demand of OEO to move its headquarter from Mount Beulah to West Point.

Discusses the campaign to save the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM), a combination Head Start preschool system and community action program, from politics, parsimony, racism and bureaucracy. Concern shown by the Office of Economic Opportunity regarding the efforts of CDGM to involve the poor; State politicians who want to control the rate of speed at which African Americans attain political power through CDGM; Governmental investigation of the accounts and operations of CDGM; Problems encountered by CDGM regarding grants and funding.

Presents information on voting rights of the African Americans. View that the voting rights bill is a fair attempt to let Southern African Americans participate in the democratic process; Opinion that the existence of Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) is unsettling to conservative civil rights groups; Role of MFDP in encouraging rural Mississippians to participate in the civil rights movement.