17 Headline-Making Moments on The Oprah Show

AIDS in a Small Town—1987

In 1987, the small town of Williamson, West Virginia, became the epicenter of a national conversation about homosexuality and AIDS. When Mike Sisco, Mike Sisco, a gay man with the disease, jumped into a local swimming pool the town flew into an uproar. At the time, misinformation about how the disease was spread touched off a full-blown panic in Williamson—and Oprah was there to hear all sides of the story.

Read what happened when The Oprah Show returned to Williamson in 2010