there's a lot more to appalachia than that. - in 1964, lyndon johnson declared his war on poverty. a good thing, yes? but the accompanying press tour portraying people here as an incapable and bewildered, helpless mass missed the basic essential character, the pride, and the self-reliant core of the people here. that damage is lasting. - when you come in and keep telling us how poor, fat, how all these things are, i think we've all felt it at some point: shame. - what should people know about this area that they don't know, that they're not getting? - it's just how much that people in this area have been exploited. [bell rings] [industrial music] the land agents who came in and bought up all the mineral rights. the coal and timber companies that started extracting and taking everybody's labor rights. - i can't fight a big coal company.