RACISM IN THE WELFARE SYSTEM SOCIAL SECURITY ACT IN 1935

WHEN AFDC WAS BEGUN as part of the Social Security Act in 1935, the program was mainly for white widows, excluding most people of color. In the Southern states particularly, black mothers were forced off the welfare rolls in order to work in the factory or the fields, or as domestic workers. It was not until the War on Poverty and the welfare rights movement in the 1960s that large numbers of black mothers received welfare.