Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States
Premilla Nadasen
Language: English
Pages: 344
ISBN: 0415945798
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
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the working poor is not basically a ‘leftish’ or liberal initiative, but rather an essentially conservative move which, while appealing to liberals, is rooted in the concept of making work as rewarding as welfare in a system which in many cases has reversed the incentives.”76 The Nixon administration was less concerned about cost than reducing the number of single-parent families and reinforcing the work ethic. Although politicians preferred to contain the costs of any reform, most proposals,
theory, the suitable home provision encouraged mothers to maintain high moral standards in their homes. In practice, however, the suitable-home requirement was used to exclude families, especially African American.51 In addition, welfare departments denying assistance did little to protect children from these ostensibly unsuitable circumstances or to improve their living conditions. In 1954 Mississippi passed a suitable home clause and over the next few years removed 8,400 families from ADC, over
control, 212 Recipient exclusion, 87 Recipient leadership, 240 Recipient organizers, 154 Recipients as activists, 27 as consumers with economic clout, 117 as convenient scapegoats, 197 as "dependents," 24, 117, 141 initiative of, 32 as needing political guidance, 134 political actions of, 65 as a potential consumer market, 113 as undeserving, 47 Redress in the legal system, 45, 75 Regional economic depression, 188 Reisman, David, 91 Renewed welfare rights activism, 240 “Rent
with WROs, becoming advocates for welfare rights. For example, according to one study that surveyed members of the National Association of Social Workers, 45 percent of respondents in 1968 believed that poor people must organize to demand better treatment.165 These social workers assisted welfare recipients in articulating and pushing for their rights. Betty Niedzwiecki, chairman of a WRO in Milwaukee County, illustrates this point: When I went on welfare, they stuck me in an experimental zone.
150-mile “Walk for Decent Welfare” drew attention to the inadequacy of welfare benefits in Ohio. When the marchers left Cleveland on June 20 they were 100 strong, and several hundred supporters joined them as they passed through towns and cities along their journey. Indicative of the racial hostility directed at the AFDC program, bystanders heckled and harassed the Ohio marchers, calling them bums and chanting “work, work, work” One night a cross was burned nearby as they slept.1 Upon their
