Site of the earliest experiences of the Coalition in Appalachia, Clairfield is located in the Cumberland Mountains near the Kentucky border in a coal-rich landscape with a history of community organizing that became a role model for subsequent Coalition work. Since the early 1960s, activists with Presbyterian and Catholic organizations had already established a clinical and social presence. In 1969, they welcomed Vanderbilt students Bill Dow, Pat Maxwell, and others, introducing them to community leaders. Over time, community leaders in Clairfield became role models for others around the region eager to establish community-run primary care clinics. Legal research about taxation and land ownership in and around Clairfield inspired the foundation of SOCM (Save Our Cumberland Mountains).
See the 1969 SHC Annual Report for more information.
Related People:

Charles Schiff

Martha Stucker

Marie Cirillo

Welmoet Spreij
Related Stories:

Margaret Ecker, new NP, treats a young girl with severe allergic reaction

Memories from the mountains

Maureen O’Connell’s introduction to SOCM and the SHC

“Liberté, Egalité, Frivolité”

Bill Dow as a community organizer in Appalachia

Decline of coal camp healthcare and subsequent basis of need for reform

Rick Davidson on what led him to work in the mountains with the Coalition

Mo & Boomer

A conversation with Martha Stucker

On the SHC’s process identifying post-health fair follow-up needs in East Tennessee
Related Resources/Links:

Interview with Marie Cirillo by David Cline, May 26 2010, Southern Oral History Program, UNC Chapel Hill

Richard Davidson Photograph Collection, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill

Interview with Maureen O’Connell by Jessie Wilkerson, August 11 2010, Southern Oral History Program, UNC Chapel Hill

Article: “Health Care for those off the beaten path,” from the Tennessee Valley Authority
