LEWISTON-WOODVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Tucked away in northeastern North Carolina is Bertie County —a rural, primarily black community in one of the state's poorest areas with many of its fastest-shrinking towns.

There are plenty of pothole-marked roads, mobile homes, and overgrown lots of weeds and shrubs scattered among fields of tobacco, cotton and sage. But there aren't many stores, banks or other businesses.

"This part of the state is forgotten," said Larry Drew, mayor of Aulander, a town that has seen its population drop by over 9 percent, from 895 people in 2010 to 813 in 2016. And last year,...