When President Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty issued its report The People Left Behind in 1967, the rural poverty rate in America was 25 percent, twice the urban poverty rate. In this webinar, Bruce Weber of Oregon State University and Ann Tickamyer of Pennsylvania State University review the nation’s progress in reducing rural poverty in the United States, summarizing what has been learned about changes in the economics, demography and geography of rural poverty and about the impact of the social safety net over the last 50 years, and they offer suggestions about needed research and policy going forward.