Welfare Rights

In the early 1960s, welfare-rights activists began to organize against the politically motivated attacks on Black welfare recipients. Despite the fact that more white people were on welfare than Black people, Black single mothers were portrayed as “welfare queens” and as leeching off of the system. In 1966, the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) was founded to fight for welfare rights and to challenge the negative portrayals of poor people.