President in history and future in order your copy today wherever books and ebooks are sold. Good afternoon everybody. Thanks for coming, thanks for omcoming out my name is travis im aam bookseller here and im in charge with the club organ to some quick housekeeping in them and jump right in them and take a quick second to reminded one sensor cell phones, were also going to be recording video and audio so just let you know also and it comes time for the q a portion we have a standing mic right here at the end of the aisle we ask you speak clearly into it and you keep your question to a question. And then following everything, we have all of the books on sale behind the Cash Register in front of the store if you want to get those and come back match will be happy to sign them. And we ask you keep your tears in place we have another talk after this and we greatly appreciate that. Also, as many as you know we host a lot of events this year or every year really. If you need any help keeping track of all of those we have calendars of the info desk and all you have to do is check our website. We update that all of the time its the best way to get information. Ti today we have the pleasure of hosting matthew algeo. He is an awardwinning t journalist his authored many books the president is a segment among them here he is here to discuss his new book all this marvelous potential. Robert kennedys tours of appalachian and told of kennedysnn tour starting in mid february before his assassination. Books like these have recast the century story of appalachian life and what was in place to generate the world where it had became. Myself live near cumberlandea for years has seen how the story, told in the books title t alone still resonatess with the people there. But even later in the pictures, people will find much to discover everyone please help me in welcoming matthew algeo. [applause] thank you, thanks travis, and going to address this just a little house everybodyin feeling . Everybody feeling okay . Got this with the handshakes . Its great to be at politics and prose bookstore again. This is like Madison Square garden, just know, its better. Travis, as you mentioned some of my earlier books i kind of like where this fits in to the previous books i have done. A person youll be growth the book and giving your money to ed like to tell you a little bit about him. I grew up in a town about 30 miles north of philadelphia its an indian word that means where nuts were cracked. I went to college at the university of pennsylvania in philadelphia and i majored in folklore. Got that going for me after i graduated i couldnt find any work and my parents were surprised. [laughter] s was hardworking and public radio thats kind of the place were folklore people wince at the time i met my wife in st. Louis and 97 were married in 98 and 98 she was hired by the state department and join foreign service. Since then, i have been able to write these books because my wife has a real job. [laughter] the string of non bestselling books has given me something to do at least we are overseas quick plug for my earlier books was my first book was last team standing, thank you, thank you big fan. Its 1943 merger of the steelers and the eagles they came this spiegels because theyre so short of players during world war ii they had this put the two teams together. The quarterback is blind in one a and one had ulcers, they decided to call last man standing. Its a good book. The next was Harry Trumans excellent adventure we trace that road trip hairy and best truman took in the summer 53 right after they left the white house. This is a four ex president s had pensions or secret service protection. So harry investors guarded their chrysler and drove from independence missouri to the eastnd coast to visit their daughter margaret who lived in new york at the time and drove back again. Its kind of a sweet book, harry and bess are just staying in motels and eating in diners. That really speaks to a bygone era. When truman last office he was the last president to return to something that resembled a normal life. Its a lot of fun to do that story. That i did the president is a sick man which is a secret operation on Grover Cleveland to read to enchant remove a tumor from his mouth. How are these not bestsellers i just cant believe it . [laughter] pedestrian ism the most popular spectator sport with a 6mile walking race, okay . Okay . Abe and fido which was widely acknowledged as the greatest biology written of lincolns dog. [laughter] i mean lincoln plus dog come on people what do i have to do . [laughter] so we will see about all of this marvelous potential and how well it fits into things. Bais is 2016 youre probably where donald trump is president and a lot p of people were surprised when he was elected and they went looked at the numbers they were specially looking at the overwhelming majorities he picked up in counties in appalachia and this writing about it and that was interesting i wondered how it happened i knew about the kennedy trip, just as a piece of political trivia that Robert Kennedy and succeeded, one of his famous poverty tours to Eastern Kentucky. At the time kennedy was not officially a candidate was but was considering running against Lyndon Johnson and a democratican primary. It was an Effective Campaign stop i had all of the tray beings of a Campaign Stop with the speeches and photos and gatherings pretty thousand interesting and Robert Kennedy and 68 is a liberal went credibly to campaign in all these years later we have donald trump going into these counties was 60 or 70 of the vote i thought i would write a book about it and everybody else wrote the same thing. To this one ended up being a little more different, i focus on the trip itself. I didnt go into the analysis of why things change more of how things have changed i will leading up to the reader to decide whether the changes are for better or worse. R they are worse. I went down to kentucky, i went down to kentucky and a group up in the deaf ear outside of philadelphia to the story of appalachia was woodstock the chicago convention, San Francisco you dont really think of kentucky when he think about the 60s at least i didnt where i came from. But the sick he sees happened in kentucky there is a lot of crazy things going on in appalachia and crazy kentucky, it really surprised me iat thought maybe that was the way to approach the story about the what the 60s were like in Eastern Kentucky. Just by way of background before the rfk trip, and 1960 brother jack ran in West Virginia f was important primary for him to win. Bobby was his campaign manager. It was the first time jack and bobby were exposed to american poverty upca close. As a funny story from the 1960 campaign a West Virginia the oldac coalminer came up to jack kennedy and said is it true you never work today in your life . Check kennedy said will yes there is some truth tok that. The coalminer said will dont worry you havent missed a damn thing. [laughter] he is enamored with the people in West Virginia in july of 63 they wrote from a book coming to the cumberland spiritt it was in expose about the people coming there for the Coal Companies and major corporations in the u. S. That depended on coal. And then in october 63, homer was a reporter for the New York Times wrote an expose about poverty in Eastern Kentucky. I think jack kennedy had seen both of these and they made quite an impression on him. He had planned to go to Eastern Kentucky to see with the conditions were like for himself. That trip was scheduled for december of 1963. So of course, that never took place. However after his assassination, lbje. Stepped up to the anti poverty campaigns in january 1964 stated the Union Address he declared war on poverty. In august of 64, just seven months later the Economic Opportunity act was passed tray andic the office of Economic Opportunity the agency that oversaw all the war on poverty tsa programs. Some of them are headstart, medicare is really something that came out with the school lunch program, things like this. So rfk, he went to Eastern Kentucky in january 68 he had a few reasons to go, one was it was still in the back of his mind his brother had wanted to visit Eastern Kentucky december 63 it never made it pretty wanted to gauge the success on war and poverty as well. The bill to re appropriate the office of Economic Opportunity was coming up, and he wanted to see what progress had been made on warren poverty. He Robert Kennedy also wanted to show that poverty was not just an o africanamerican or native american or mexicanamerican problem it was an american problem it affected every community and group in the country including white people. The white people in Eastern Kentuckyky particularly and i think he thought it was important to show that to the country. The trip itself was two days, he held hearings in a oneroom schoolhouse. And then add a gymnasium and a town called neon high schoolsi gymnasium. And then as i was writing the book i really thought it was more interesting i mean Robert Kennedy a lot of books have been written about Robert Kennedy, obviously, the retired wrote an excellent biography and he gave me a good blurb, which really is the most important thing. I did not want to write a book really about Robert Kennedy and a biography is much as explaining what he did on this trip, the people he met and the issues he faced. Try to put them into some kind of context of what was happening in the 60s. And whats happening today. Also, to show what changes have happens since the 60s and what changes happened. Just a few of the issues that he discuss, or he confronted in Eastern Kentucky, one was stripmining. At the time there is a system called the broad form deed, not sure why they called it the broad form deed maybe it was big these were deeds people it signed over the mineral rights to their properties, often 50 to 100 years earlier. These deeds gave companies the right to strip mine, strip the land that the coald was on in the companies werent required to repairhe the land, they werent required to do anything to fixan the damage that was created by stripmining. So people would see Coal Companies kevin dig up the land and leave. I was very, environmentally disastrous. It stripped hillsides of all the covering, so the hollows would flood every spring. Not to mention very exploitation of since it really destroyed the land people had an ad no benefit from the coal that was taken out. T. I think Something Like 1 trillion of coal was extracted from easternik kentucky. Not much of that money made it back. Another issue that was pressing at the time was the concept of maximum feasible participation for the Economic Opportunity act provided that the people most affected by these programs, i. E. , the poor people would be given maximum feasible participation in deciding how the money would be spent. What the money would be spent on, where the money would be spent. So just as an example theres a grassroots citizens committeemm that was organized, they got 40000dollar grant from the federal government to build newdo roads. This was a committee that had been c formed by the minors they were unemployed and the two counties that seemed like aem really fantastic thing they could get this money, but who you think didnt like the fact the federal government sent money directly to grassroots citizens committees . Theenen state in the county politicians. They were used toy having the money goes to them first and they would decide whoo got to spend it. So when the money started going bypassing state and local politicians and going directly to poor people, this was kind of the final straw for a lot of people who were opposed to t the war on poverty in the Economic Opportunity act. In a way think the Economic Opportunity act by maximum feasible participation was one of those things is a fantastic ideal bit in a way plants at a little seed of its own demise right there in the act. That it triggered such a backlash among the entrenched interests but not just in kentucky but anywhere this money went. Of course, 1968, the president ial campaign was heating up at the time Lyndon Johnson had not withdrawn yet from the campaign, that would come in march. Bobby would not officially announced his candidacy until march so we are in february when the trip takesid place, we are about six weeks before Robert Kennedy officially announces his candidacy. But like is it earlier, it really the trappings of a campaign trip. Its funny i have pictures in the book, kennedys aides did not expect quite the crowd of press to accompany the senator on this trip. He would see these long caravans of cars following him for it he would stop somewhere and going house to talkngo somebody he be done and onto the next house before the caravan even finished pulling up to thefo house. It was kinda funny how much attention it got. Although i was surprised to learn that the networks did not archive nightly newscasts until august 1968. When the Democratic Convention came. Thered be occasional newscasts you would find someone thought it was important to save for one reason or another, that the network newscasts from kennedys trip i was not able to find, i think they just didnt archive the newscasts at that time. There are a host of issues, real briefly food stamps was one of the fascinating issues to me that i learned about in this book. Mainly because people had to pay for food stamps. Which i had not really appreciated. When the Food Stamp Program began you paid for certain denomination of stamps and then in addition to that youre given free stamps. He would pay say 10 and get 15 worth of food stamps. The feat was determined by a number of factors, the size of your family, income, that kind of thing. It could be a fairly big price. Kennedy one of the people he talked to on the trip of one of the hearings was an unemployed minor names wang go, i love these nays. Its good for 94 in foods densely had to pay 72 just to get 22 in food stamps. Another minor was a guy name kristin click berg johnson. A father of his monthly income was 60 Kristin Johnson at the hearing said to kennedy have you ever seen 15 kids in three beds . And Robert Kennedy said im headed in that direction. [laughter] he w had ten kids of the time i think. After the trip, one of the things it did come out of this was that eventually the purchase requirement was noted although it did take effect until the food stamp act of 1977 that did not take effect until january 1979 when the purchase requirement was finally ended in participation the Food Stamp Program one of 1. 5 million in one month. So it made a big difference in a lot of people lives just by lifting that purchase requirement. It was also interesting to find that food stamps are a Welfare Program for people for the hungry. So Welfare Program with walmart is 4 of walmart sales comem from food stamps. Always interesting to see walmart, how they come down on legislation that makes it harder for people to get food stamps because it cuts into their revenue. Course afterer rfks assassination in june of 68, Richard Nixon was elected president. He had to appoint someone to oversee the office of Economic Opportunity, basically oversee the war on poverty. Of course republicans for the mostot part hated the warm poverty and hated the programs. It took nixon in a tough spot whos heou going to find to do this thankless job nobody wants. W he found a congressman from illinois, a guy name donald rumsfeld. [laughter] he took over the office of Economic Opportunity. One of his first hires was a young ambitious congressional is intern from wyoming, a guy named dick cheney. So 1981, the office of Economic Opportunity, oto was finally abolished altogether. You can give rumsfeld and cheney credit for ending att least one war, that was the war on poverty. Too soon . [laughter] finally a couple statistic was one is that poverty is reduced from 1959 it was 22 of poverty thats pretty95 crazy. Its like dont make me do the math, what 14, one and five. In 1973 was 11 it was cut in half and the space of 14 years. When you look atpa a graph of a chart of where poverty was headed, from 1959 to 1973, its just straight down. Since 1973 when the effect of putting the brakes on world poverty took effect, it is held steady up until about 11 to 15 . In some ways i think the war on poverty was a success in other ways it was not. Have be happy to take any questions if anybodys got them to step up to the microphone and let it rip. Somebody has to have a question. Thank you for being here and for your talk i look forward to reading the book. I wondered if you could speak more about the decline in poverty. I work in Montgomery County with the Patient Population of uninsured adults. It should be blue tuna 50 of the enteral Poverty Level and its the same across United States even across the United States. He sits 22 to 11 can you give us context aware this numbers came from . Guest one of the things i talk a beta in the book in excruciating fascinating details how you determineta poverty. It was huge when kennedy came in and 61 and said what we do about poverty, the person he wanted to know whats the number, people said we dont know the number. So i think it was rita for schantz gate was her name with the department of agriculture was a woman who came up with the formula for determining what the poverty line was. And basically, she took the usda giving a longwinded answer she took the usda figures for nutrition for a lyfamily of four she figured out average housing prices et cetera et cetera she came up with this number. That formula has been unchanged now for what with 60t years. Problem is, the time housing was very cheap and food is very expensive. Now you have the opposite, food is cheap and housing is expensive. But if youve made any changes to the poverty line it would immediately put millions of people into poverty, no politician was to do that they dont a change that sue have these things where the criteria keep going so to hunt a of the poverty line will why dont we move the poverty line why dont we make it fluid by regions, by metropolitan regions and things like that. Think the problem is it so politically difficult for people to come up with a comprehensive and uptodate formula for exact determining who is in poverty and where theres just not enough political will to do that nobody wants to touch it. With the war in vietnam, these young men who were out in the appellations and other poor areas of the country, how did he deal with sometimes the military was her only way out. And it how did he convey the fact that this was an unjust war is best not to participate in it and yet the military was often the only way out for these young men and often time these young mens, coming from these regions would be on the front lines more likely to be killed or injured. Guest kennedy come out just the month before in his deepening swamp speech in chicago where he hadad unequivocally comee out on expanding. The war in vietnam. You are right, if it werent for the war appalachia was strong. However, i think there is a lot of even among people who supported the work, there is a lot of people opposed to the way was being managed. Theyd. Saw their sons in Eastern Kentucky were dying at higher rate than any other region in the country, West Virginia had the highest casualty rate of any state in the vietnam war in Eastern Kentucky or consider their own state. It would have an even higher rate. Appalachians i was gonna say appalachian boys, their men were considered especially good at walking points because they were familiar with mountain terrain, they were fantastic marksmen and they were familiar with living in rough environments for long periods of time i think it was of the combat veterans, the combat soldiers in vietnam were fromrs appalachia. The 15 were from there. Its a pretty big disparity. So to answer your question there was ambivalence, definite ambivalence at the unequivocally oppose the war and think their parents were moree ambivalent, they supported the war but they certainly did not like seeing their children go off and fight it and die in such proportion. What is known about the Health Effects of the war on poverty certainly must be something that has been studied. I dont know anything about it for sure. Guest in terms of saying the health . Thats where the really fastening things and i have not mention some of the people and i will be searching the book just amazing people. One of the war on poverty was that creation of Committee Health clinics. There stilllt Health Clinics founded 50 years ago in Eastern Kentucky that are the primary healthan care providers for communities there. I was saved statistically i dont not the top of my head the incidence of childhood diseases there are still prevalent into the early 60s, home or bigger 20 wrote his article and 63 talked about the number of cases of child malnutrition that were documented there. They certainly that decrease the school lunch mmprogram helped immensely, this was a guaranteed meal kids had every h day. They hadnt had before even there we had political problems trying to get those implemented. A lot of the School Districts there were basically little fiefdoms that people ran and they did like the idea people coming and telling them what to do even if that meant offering free lunches and besides in many of the schools were oneroom School Houses and didnt have facilities to cook lunch is. Did not have indoor plumbing. There were a lot of hurdles to tackle but i think overall as far as Public Health the effect was positive. You mention the people you met i wondered what reflection or did you hear reflections of people about kennedys trip . Guest it was cool, this book is the one ive done the most recent to happen thats not very well worded but you know what i mean is only 50 years earlier, Something Like that. Theres a lot of people still around whod met kennedy. The problem i had a mention swine go few gates, there were a few gates everywhere there were isomers everywhere. Everyone had the same name it took little work to track people down. A lot of people had memories, firsthand memories of the itself. I think it was interesting to look at the impact it had on people even to this day, people got emotional talking about eating Robert Kennedy, one of the people i talked to was a woman whod gone with her sister to see kennedy at the high school in neon. Shed written on a piece of paper and excuse slip and then had kennedy sign it so she could get excused from school. Which was a good thing because a lot of the schools did not want the children to attend they didnt think off Bobby Kennedy was a positive influence on the children at thatat time. So yeah it was a lot of fun finding people who remembered the trip and had firsthand memory. One of the guys i talk about in g the book scooby caywood he was at the university of kentucky a law student and a friend of the congressman from Eastern Kentucky. One of the reasons kennedy went to Eastern Kentucky was originally going to go to South Carolina. But prince hollings is running for reelection at the time, he was like a bobby maybe not shine n a light on poverty in South Carolina one running for reelection. Ee so kennedy said okay and later he supported some of the legislation. He went to kentucky because there is not a senator up for reelection and the congressman was karl perkins. He had held the job like the pope. He had until he died which is exactly what happened. Steve k was with the law student would occasionally come to washington and help out karl perkins office he finagled a ride in the car with kennedy so the state trooper that drove kennedy, karl perkins, and Steve Caywood at 23yearold kentucky law student. Course it had a huge effect on Steve Caywoods life and he basically has worked in environmental Poverty Issues ever since then. Ill even know if answer to question did i . Two yes. Guest thank you good answer. Part of the enduring narrative the 1968 president ial campaign , the ability of Robert Kennedy to talk to and gain the support of africanamericans as well as workingclass whites and all of your preparation for this book, and all of your research, background, did you find trayce of that . Would you uphold that particular theory . Guest yes absolutely. One of the quotes i have in go book, not going toy through but there is a quote from somebody, a reporter who asked a voterer in indiana aye kid, do you support Bobby Kennedy and he said yeah, i said will you dont like negroes around you very muche and he said no we dont like negroes and he said will kennedy was improve life for the negro whitey support kennedy . He said k i dont know i just do. A lot of people suck kennedy hed been the attorney general he had the background of law and order people saw him as being someone who would balance the interests of communities with law and order. The other thing that was interesting and 64, George Wallace ran as a democratic president ial candidate in the primary in indiana got Something Like 2426 of the vote just raining straight out racist candidate. Four years later he ranr in indiana when the primary with 40 of the vote so clearly some of the people voted for George Wallace in indiana voted for kennedy and 68. By the way i go into George Wallace i and hear a little bit because i think kennedy and wallace were kind of competing for the same voters. George wallace was a piece of work man, at the time in 68 when he was campaigning, he could not run for reelection so he got his wife lean elected governor of alabama. Her lane when shed had their third child and 61 h or 62, the doctor saw some suspicious tissue but of course told george not arlene and said you need to get arlene to get this checked out it might be s cancerous. And it was cervical cancer. But george was running for reelection the times that i dont want to deal with that. He never told her lane heard it wasnt to late 67 that she was formally diagnosed with cancer and died and it was march or april of 68. Then of course wallace was running for president at the time and farmed out his three kids to relatives. Not a nice man im just going to go out on a limb and say that. Is really fascinating to look at George Wallace and Bobby Kennedy there is definitely overlap in their constituencies there it was fascinating. So back i would support that i was 18 years old in 1968, i had friends and new acquaintances people thought George Wallace or Bobby Kennedy. Without any hesitation. And then wound up voting for ronald reagan. How that works out for them . Thank you. No more questions . Very good. Thank you all for coming out. I was say the most important thing to take away from this today is to remember to buy the book. [laughter] thank you. 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