All the young men : a memoir of love, AIDS, and chosen family in the American South / Ruth Coker Burks & Kevin Carr O'Leary.

"In 1986, twenty-six-year-old Ruth Coker Burks visits a friend at the hospital when she notices a door to one of the rooms is painted red. A patient cries for his mother on the other side, but no one goes to help him. Ruth steps into the quarantined space, comforting the young man in his last moments. And in doing so, Ruth's own life changes forever. As word spreads that Ruth is the only person willing to help these young men afflicted by AIDS, Ruth goes from being a young single mother to an accidental activist. Ruth forges deep friendships with the dozens of men she helps, working tirelessly to find them houses and jobs, burying their ashes in her family's own cemetery, and ultimately advising then-Governor Bill Clinton on the national HIV/AIDS crisis."--From publisher.