Documentary. Still Hungry in America. Text by Robert Coles. Photographs by Al Clayton.

Introduction by Edward M. Kennedy. NAL/World, 1969.  Wraps, 1st printing, 118 pages. Ex-library, spine taped, neat tape repair on inside of rear cover, card pocket and spine label removed, covers crimped, piece of cello tape on front cover.  Photos by Al Clayton. Insert about Advisory Committee for Hungry Americans. Fair, all pages present, reading copy.  Four previous books by Robert Coles listed; he subsequently wrote many others.

Still Hungry in America (1969), featuring text by child psychiatrist Robert Coles, photographs by Al Clayton, and an introduction by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, is a landmark documentary work exposing the widespread reality of severe poverty and malnutrition in the United States during the late 1960s. Combining Coles's empathetic prose—drawn from oral histories, personal observations, and clinical insights—with Clayton's stark black-and-white portraits, the book chronicles the lives of impoverished families across the Mississippi Delta, Appalachian coal towns, and southern tenant farms. It highlights not only the physical toll of chronic hunger and medical neglect on children, but also the systemic economic barriers and political apathy that perpetuated deep-seated poverty within the wealthiest nation in the world. By pairing humanizing narrative accounts with haunting visual evidence presented directly to congressional lawmakers, Still Hungry in America served as a powerful catalyst for public awareness and legislative action, helping drive federal reform and the expansion of national food assistance programs.

Al Clayton (1934–2014) was an American photojournalist and activist photographer whose stark, compassionate imagery played a pivotal role in exposing rural poverty in the United States during the late 1960s. Born in Etowah, Tennessee, Clayton studied fine arts before embarking on a career in photojournalism, working for major publications such as Look, Life, and Time, as well as documenting the Southern civil rights movement. He gained national acclaim for his 1969 book Still Hungry in America, which presented unflinching black-and-white portraits of impoverished families in the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia, and Georgia. Clayton’s powerful visual evidence was presented before the United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, directly influencing federal anti-poverty policies and leading to the expansion of national food assistance programs like the School Breakfast Program and the Food Stamp Act.