Social Welfare History Project Eras in Social Welfare History

Social Work in Divisive Times: Navigating Dual Roles Across Eras and Movements

Social work is often celebrated for its commitment to social justice, aiding vulnerable populations, and driving societal change. Yet, this narrative too frequently fails to grapple with the darker elements of the profession’s past—namely, the instances where it has caused harm to those it intended to help. Throughout its history, social work has not only offered support and advocacy but has also, at times, played a role in perpetuating injustices and societal harms.

Jean E. Lokerson (1937-2016)

Jean E. Lokerson, Ph.D. was an influential educator who devoted her life to the field of learning disabilities. Lokerson began her career in the 1960s, at a critical moment in the disability rights movement in the US. She became deeply involved in multiple organizations lobbying for improved education for children with learning disabilities.

Elderly Homeless Crisis: History and Origins

The growing number of elderly persons experiencing homelessness requires an extensive overhaul of the welfare systems originally designed to assist houseless individuals. Elderly persons are more likely to need medical assistance, supportive housing, and disability assistance, services that the U.S. government is straining to accommodate.

Watts, Lucian Louis (1888 – 1974)

Lucian Louis Watts was a Virginia statesman who advocated for government services to support blind citizens. As the first Executive Secretary of the Virginia Department for the Blind and Visually Impaired, he promoted campaigns to prevent blindness, oversaw the development of educational programs for blind adults, and was instrumental in the introduction of sight-saving classes for children with impaired vision in Virginia’s public schools.

History of the Veterans Affairs Caregiver Support Program

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is charged with fulfilling the nation’s promise to care for those who have served in our nation’s military, and for their families, caregivers, and survivors. In fulfillment of one aspect of that promise, the Department has developed and administers a program of caregiver support for caregivers of eligible veterans. The program’s mission is “to promote the health and well-being of family caregivers who care for our Nation’s Veterans, through education, resources, support, and services.” This article presents a history of the programs origins and expansion through 2023.

Precarious Learners: Race, Status and the Making of Virgin Islands Education from 1917-1970

When the United States purchased the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) from Denmark in 1917, the change in the islands’ political status profoundly impacted the educational options afforded to those residing in the territory. Being new subjects of a U.S. empire primarily concerned with preventing enemy expansion in the Caribbean basin both improved and complicated Virgin Islanders’ access to comprehensive education. For those residing in the U.S. Virgin Islands, American citizenship both exposed and exacerbated the precarious conditions of learning and belonging in a U.S. territory. Warped by a history of racialized domination and economic deprivation, education for Black Virgin Islanders has long been fraught by the conditions of precarious citizenship.

World War II and the Social Work Profession: The Veterans Administration Response to Crisis

With the entry of the United States into World War II and extending throughout the 1940s, there developed a tremendous need for medical and psychiatric social workers. A crisis existed within the profession to which the Veterans Administration responded. The VA became the largest employer of social workers in the nation.

West Virginia Colored Orphans Home (1899-1956)

By Sarah H. Shepherd, 2022. Black politician and businessman, Charles McGhee (1858-1937), was serving as a pastor in Bluefield, West Virginia when he was confronted by the lack of support for Black orphans after the death of his brother-in-law in a mining accident. In the Jim Crow South, few state resources, if any, were dedicated to African Americans. Black orphans were not admitted to white orphanages and faced significant hardships. McGhee founded an orphanage and school for these children.

Colored Conventions Movement

From Colored Conventions Project, 2022. Starting in 1830 and continuing until well after the Civil War, free, freed and self-emancipated Blacks came together in state and national political conventions. Tens of thousands of Black men and women from different walks of life traveled to attend meetings publicly advertised as “Colored Conventions.” where they strategized about how they might achieve educational, labor, and legal justice.

John J. Smallwood and the Temperance, Industrial and Collegiate Institute

John Jefferson Smallwood (September 19, 1863–September 29, 1912) was founder and president of the Temperance, Industrial and Collegiate Institute in Claremont, Va. Smallwood determinedly pursued his own education and his vision of educating others, eventually founding a school “For the Moral, Religious, Educational and Industrial Welfare of the Negro Youth.” Between 1892 and 1928, more than 2,000 students attended the Institute.