How women led movements for social change in Appalachia

Author Jessica Wilkerson will talk about her new book, "To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social Justice" Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. in Ming Hsieh Hall.

Launched in 1964, the War on Poverty quickly took aim at the coalfields of southern Appalachia. There, the federal government found unexpected allies among working-class white women devoted to a local tradition of citizen caregiving and seasoned by decades of activism and community service. Wilkerson tells their stories within the larger drama of efforts to enact change in the 1960s and 1970s.