Sponsored and hosted by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, November 9-10, 2007.

Note the extended registration deadline of Monday, November 5th. Please join us as we share & discuss path-breaking scholarship that re-evaluates the War on Poverty from the perspectives of grassroots activists who sought to harness the Johnson administration’s federal antipoverty initiatives to advance their local campaigns for racial & economic justice. While examining the interplay of federal policy and grassroots social movements, panelists will discuss such topics as the gender, racial, ethnic, and class dynamics of local struggles over War on Poverty programs; the urban and rural variations of the War on Poverty; the impact of the War on Poverty on Chicano, Native American, African American, and poor white community-based movements; and the reverberations of these movements within the Johnson administration.

Schedule of Events

Friday, November 9, 2007
Friday’s conference events will take place in the Scripps Library of the Miller Center of Public Affairs unless otherwise noted.

8:30 AM COFFEE AND LIGHT BREAKFAST
9:00 AM WELCOMING REMARKS
9:00-10:45 AM PANEL I – Urban Politics & the War on Poverty
• Ivy Holliman – “ ‘We do not have large areas of poverty & discontent’: Urban Renewal, Unrest, & Antipoverty Programs in Atlanta, Georgia”
• Guian McKee – “This Government is With Us: Lyndon Johnson and the Grassroots War on Poverty”
• Wesley Phelps – “Local Implementation of Antipoverty Programs in Houston in the 1960’s”
• Rhonda Y. Williams – “ ‘ We Had Better Listen’: Community Action, Poor People, and Municipal Politics in Baltimore”
• Moderator: Tom Jackson

11:00 AM-12:30 PM PANEL II – Movement Politics & the War on Poverty

• Robert Bauman – “Opal Jones and Francisca Flores: Gender, Civil Rights Activism and the War on Poverty in Los Angeles”
• William Clayson – “The War on Poverty and the Origins of the Chicano Movement in Texas: Confronting ‘Tio Tomás’ and the ‘Gringo Pseudo-liberals”
• Laurie B. Green – “Black Women, Community Health, and Racial Justice: The Memphis Antipoverty Movement”
• Moderator: Lisa Gayle Hazirjian

12:45 PM LUNCH
2:00-3:30 PM PANEL III – The War on Poverty in the Deep South
• Susan Youngblood Ashmore – “Going Back to Selma: Organizing for Change in Dallas County after the March to Montgomery”
• Kent B. Germany – “Poverty Wars in the Louisiana Delta”
• Amy Jordan – “Fighting for the Child Development Group of Mississippi: Poor People, Local Politics, and the Complicated Legacy of Head Start”
• Moderator: Benjamin Houston

3:30 PM LIGHT REFRESHMENTS

4:00-6:00 PM FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION Miller Center Forum Room

“Change Comes Knocking – The Story of the North Carolina Fund” (Southern Documentary Fund)
Rebecca Cerese and Steven Channing (tentative)
Moderator: Lisa Gayle Hazirjian

6:00-7:00 PM RECEPTION

Saturday, November 10, 2007
Saturday’s conference events will take place in the Forum Room of the Miller Center of Public Affairs unless otherwise noted.

9:00-10:30 AM PANEL IV – Community, Space, & Identity in the War on Poverty
• Daniel M. Cobb – “No More ‘Lo, the Poor Indian: The War on Poverty in Mississippi and Oklahoma”
• Tom Kiffmeyer – “The Cities in the Hills: Urban and Rural Space and the War on Poverty”
• Marc S. Rodriguez – “Defining the Space of Participation: Tejanos and the Struggle for the War on Poverty in Milwaukee”
• Moderator: Brian Balogh

10:45-11:45 AM CLOSING REMARKS

Annelise Orleck
12:00-1:00 PM LUNCH/DISCUSSION

Moderator(s): Lisa Gayle Hazirjian and/or Guian McKee

Panels will be conducted as roundtable discussions with paper abstracts available in advance via secure website. We hope this format will foster greater dialogue among all present at the two-day event.

The conference is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required for web access to abstracts. For conference information and registration, please visit:
http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/index.php/public/conferences/waronpoverty

Please note the extended registration deadline of Monday, November 5th.
Further inquiries about the conference program may be directed to the conference co-organizers, Lisa Gayle Hazirjian, lgh@andrew.cmu.edu, and Guian McKee, gam2n@ virginia.edu.