“Offers a new interpretation of the war on poverty by demonstrating the centrality of moderate local leadership (both white and black) in launching and operating antipoverty programs.”—Marisa Chappell, author of The War on Welfare: Family, Poverty, and Politics in Modern America “Hawkins has done a remarkable job of mining the sources and reconstructing the reality of what was going on in eastern North Carolina.”—Frank Stricker, author of Why America Lost the War on Poverty—And How to Win It While many scholars have argued that confrontation and protest were the most effective ways for the poor to empower themselves during the social change of the 1960s, Karen Hawkins demonstrates that moderate leadership and biracial cooperation were sometimes just as forceful. Everybody’s Problem shows these values at play in the nation’s first rural-based Community Action Agency to receive federal funding as a part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. Hawkins describes the founding of Craven Operation Progress in one of the poorest regions of North Carolina. She discusses the philosophies and tactics of its directors and outlines the tensions that arose between local leadership and federal control. Using previously untapped primary sources, including oral interviews with antipoverty workers and local citizens, records from the U.S. Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, and documents from the North Carolina Fund, Hawkins adds to the story of the factors that helped lower poverty rates and advance economic development during the 1960s and beyond. A volume in the series Southern Dissent, edited by Stanley Harrold and Randall M. Miller

In telling his life story, Rev. Aaron Johnson takes us to the front lines of the fight for civil and human rights in our country over the last fifty years. Whether being beaten and dragged from a dime store lunch counter, standing blindfolded before a Ku Klux Klan meeting, or praying arm-in-arm with a death-row inmate, Johnson shows us how human hatred and fear smells, sounds and feelsand how it feels to empower others with hope and trust. Told with humility and humor, Johnsons story reminds us that one individualwith focus and faithcan effect great change despite repeated hurdles. Readers will come to know Aaron Johnson as a friend and inspiring hero who suspects that God still has a few projects waiting for him on his to-do list.

In 'Klansville, U.S.A.', David Cunningham tells the story of the astounding trajectory of the Klan during the 1960s by focusing on the pivotal and under-explored case of the United Klans of America (UKA) in North Carolina. Why the KKK flourished in the Tar Heel state presents a puzzle and a window into the complex appeal of the Klan as a whole.

Considers. S. 3164, to amend the Equal Opportunity Act to increase authorizations, tighten community action program grant criteria, improve agency management program control, and encourage volunteer service in War on Poverty programs. S. 2908, to extend prohibition of political activities by community action agency and VISTA employees and volunteers. S. 3139, to amend the Equal Opportunity Act to reorganize community action programs under HUD, establish community action citizens advisory boards, and prohibit political activities by program workers.