Eras in Social Welfare History Social welfare policy and programs in America have roots going back to early Colonial days. Some entries may appear in more than one time period, as historical periods overlap and events or issues may persist over multiple eras. Use the search bar (at upper right) to locate additional programs…
Continue Reading »Search Results for: war on poverty
Ora Brown Stokes and the Richmond Neighborhood Association
Ora Brown Stokes founded and was the driving force behind the Richmond Neighborhood Association (RNA), an organization which has received little attention despite its centrality to social welfare work among Richmond’s African Americans between 1912 and 1924, particularly among children and young women.
Continue Reading »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.
Continue Reading »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.
Continue Reading »Education of Deaf and Blind African Americans in Virginia, 1909-2008
History of Virginia’s first school for African American deaf and blind children.
Continue Reading »Fellowship of Reconciliation USA
The Fellowship of Reconciliation USA (FOR-USA) was founded in 1915 by pacifists opposed to U.S. entry into World War I. Open to men, women, and people of all classes and races, its membership would include Jane Addams, Bishop Paul Jones, Grace Hutchins, A. J. Muste, and Bayard Rustin.
Continue Reading »Virginia Home and Industrial School for Girls
The Virginia Home and Industrial School for Girls opened in Bon Air, Va., in 1910 as a reform school for the “care and training of incorrigible or vicious white girls … without proper restraint and training, between the ages of eight and eighteen years.”
Continue Reading »Your Girl and Mine (suffrage film)
Your Girl and Mine by Alice W. Campbell, VCU Libraries The author is grateful to Ray Bonis, Special Collections and Archives, for bringing the ESL photograph and coverage of the event to my attention. and to John McClure of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture for help identifying several members of the Equal Suffrage…
Continue Reading »Contemporary Housing Issues
By Catherine A. Paul, 2018. Housing has been an issue throughout American history, from urbanization to overcrowding. While this article does not provide an exhaustive list or analysis of all of America’s issues related to this topic, gentrification, affordable housing, eviction, and homelessness are all issues that have risen to prominence in recent years.
Continue Reading »Tenement House Reform
Primary sources related to tenement house reforms in the State of New York and the passage of the New York State Tenement House Act of 1901.
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