Hillbilly Highway

The Hillbilly Highway is a term used to describe the outward migration of poor whites from the Appalachian Highlands region of the United States to industrialized cities in northern, midwestern, and western states, starting in the years following World War II. Many of those who left were looking for better-paying industrial jobs and higher standards of living. Many of these migrants were formerly in the coal mining industry, which started to decline in 1940s. The word hillbilly refers to a negative stereotype of poor whites from Appalachia.

The etymology of the term hillbilly is not clear, though there is some consistency to the idea that it may be of Scottish origin, combining the term hill-folk and the term billy which referred to someone as a "companion" or "comrade." The term first appears in print in the United States in 1900 to refer to someone in the south who is poor and does not comply with acceptable behaviors and appearances of late Victorian white society.

Many of these Appalachian migrants have gone to major industrial centers such as Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Toledo and Muncie, while others have travelled west to California. Many of the Appalachians live in concentrated enclaves, an example being Uptown, Chicago, which was nicknamed "Hillbilly Heaven" in the 1960s. While most often used in this metaphoric sense, the term is sometimes used to refer to specific stretches of roadway, such as U.S. Route 23, or Interstate 75. The participants in the Hillbilly Highway are known as Urban Appalachians. The migration is not a finite process, as it is continuing today and the migrants commonly move back to their home states during retirement, or relocate only temporarily.