The term hillbilly refers to white Americans with origins in rural and mountainous areas, often in the South, Appalachia, or the Ozarks. It is often considered pejorative but has a complex history in the 20th and 21st centuries. While it has been used to depict rural Americans as uneducated and unsophisticated, popular performers including Minnie Pearl and Hank Williams as well as the television program The Beverly Hillbillies came to personify a charming down-home persona.
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