Welfare in the United States: A History With Documents, 1935-1996

Welfare has been central to a number of significant political debates in modern America:



What role should the government play in alleviating poverty?
What does a government owe its citizens, and who is entitled to help?
How have race and gender shaped economic opportunities and outcomes?
How should Americans respond to increasing rates of single parenthood?
How have poor women sought to shape their own lives and influence government policies?
With a comprehensive introduction and a well-chosen collection of primary documents, Welfare in the United States chronicles the major turning points in the seventy-year history of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Illuminating policy debates, shifting demographics, institutional change, and the impact of social movements, this book serves as an essential guide to the history of the nation's most controversial welfare program.

Premilla Nadasen is Visiting Associate Professor and Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies at Brooklyn College. She is the author of Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States (Routledge).
Jennifer Mittelstadt is Assistant Professor of History and Women’s Studies at Penn State University. She is the author of From Welfare to Workfare: The Unintended Consequences of Liberal Reform, 1945-1965.
Marisa Chappell is Assistant Professor of History at Oregon State University. She is the author of The War on Welfare: Family, Poverty, and Politics in Modern America.

Table of Contents
List of Documents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1: AFDC in the early years: 1930s and 1940s

Chapter 2: New Debates about Welfare, Motherhood, and Work: 1950s and Early 1960s

Chapter 3: Welfare Rights and Welfare Reform in the 1960s and 1970s

Chapter 4: The End of Welfare as We Knew It: 1980s and 1990s

Introduction to Documents

Documents

Bibliography

Permissions Acknowledgments

Index
Documents

1 Mother’s Aid, 1931
2 The Social Security Act
3 Bonita Golda Harrison, "Social Security: What Does it Mean for the Negro?"
4 ADC Keeps Families Together
5 Social Security Board, "To Aid Dependent Children"
6 Charles Stevenson, "When it Pays to Play Pauper"
7 Alice Mertz, "Working Mothers in the ADC Program"
8 Frank Higgins, "Maid to Order"
9 Winifred Bell, "Casework with Chronically Dependent Families"
10 Memorandum to National Agencies, American Leaders, Local Urban Leagues, from the National Urban League
11 Minutes of the City Council of Newburgh, New York, June 19, 1961
12 Young Americans for Freedom Marches in Support of Joseph Mitchell’s Hard Line on Welfare
13 Cartoon, "But I’m Just Trying to Clean Up the Mess!"
14 Frank H. Weir, "ABC's of Relief: Image of Recipients Wrong"
15 U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, "Regional and Field Letter" 453
16 Elizabeth Wickenden, "Poverty and the Law"
17 The Negro Family: The Case for National Action
18 Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, "A Strategy to End Poverty"
19 Congress, Senate, Committee on Finance, Hearings on H.R. 12080: Social Security Amendments of 1967
20 Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, "Your Welfare Rights"
21 Congress, Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy of the Joint Economic Committee, Hearing on Income Maintenance
22 NWRO’S Guaranteed Adequate Income Plan
23 Richard M. Nixon, "Special Message to the Congress on Reform of the Nation’s Welfare System"
24 "Welfare Cadillac" written and performed by Guy Drake
25 "Welfare Out of Control – Story of Financial Crisis Cities Face"
26 Archie K. Davis, "Welfare Reform: Time to Do It Right"
27 Johnnie Tillmon, "Welfare is a Woman’s Issue"
28 Merrillee Dolan, "Moynihan, Poverty Programs, and Women – A Female Viewpoint"
29 A cartoonist describes AFDC as unfair to wage-earning mothers (1973)
30 Congress, House of Representatives, Welfare Reform Subcommittee of the Committee on Agriculture, Hearings on HR 9030: The Administration’s Welfare Reform Proposal
31 "Welfare Queen" Becomes Issue in Reagan Campaign
32 DWAC, "Narrative Report, 1982,"
33 RAM Flyer, "Budget Cuts: Stop the Real Welfare Cheats"
34 Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980
35 Barbara Omolade, "It’s a Family Affair: The Real Lives of Black Single Mothers"
36 Women’s Committee of One Hundred, "Women’s Pledge on Welfare Reform: Eliminating Poverty for Women and Their Children"
37 "Wisconsin Works (W-2): A Brief Description"
38 U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 104th Congress, 1st session, "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996"
39 Mission Statement and Vision Statement, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign
40 The White House, "Working Toward Independence"