Latest / Gil I Am / 1967 DOCUMENTARY WELFARE OVER FATHERS The Welfare Revolt

Transcript

1967 DOCUMENTARY WELFARE OVER FATHERS The Welfare Revolt · Gil I Am

0:01
Speaker 1: I'm the same man.
0:03
Speaker 2: No you do from here.
0:10
Speaker 3: No more.
0:13
Speaker 4: Welfare.
0:14
Speaker 5: Mothers and the children too feel that they are on
0:17
Speaker 5: a dead end street, that the way things are, there's
0:20
Speaker 5: not enough money and no way to hold up your head,
0:24
Speaker 5: and so they've begun what amounts to a welfare revolt.
0:30
Speaker 6: You look on TV and you see that poor looked
0:34
Speaker 6: from another nation. Oh he looks so pitiful. I feel
0:38
Speaker 6: so sorry for him, But I can't overlook the fact
0:42
Speaker 6: that we have more located in this lation.
0:45
Speaker 5: Missus Eda Horn is a leader of the welfare rights movement.
0:48
Speaker 5: Their principle and their overwhelming complaint is that there simply
0:51
Speaker 5: is not enough money to raise a family, and then
0:54
Speaker 5: that it's given in a self defeating and self perpetuating way.
0:58
Speaker 4: That it degrades the people who receive it.
1:01
Speaker 7: I have children. I look at my kids as and
1:05
Speaker 7: I think, am I going to really prove to them
1:10
Speaker 7: where it starts at? You know, always they're always screaming
1:14
Speaker 7: about delinquents. American Welfare Department makes delinquents.
1:22
Speaker 3: There is an evil system around.
1:26
Speaker 5: Martin Luther King believes that welfare is part of that system,
1:30
Speaker 5: damaging to black and white alike.
1:33
Speaker 3: Well, not get right until this evil system is removed
1:38
Speaker 3: because as I have listened, and as I've looked, and
1:42
Speaker 3: as I've lived in the ghetto, I've seen what this
1:46
Speaker 3: evil system has done to my.
1:48
Speaker 4: Brothers and my sisters.
1:52
Speaker 3: I've seen how it has left little children with clouds
1:58
Speaker 3: of inferiority far in that little mental sky. I've seen
2:04
Speaker 3: how this evil system has transformed nice, decent young women
2:10
Speaker 3: in the prostitutes. I've seen how this system has transformed nice,
2:17
Speaker 3: decent young men into dopadics trying to escape the ugliness
2:22
Speaker 3: of that daily line.
2:47
Speaker 5: Maria Ortiz and her children Kilda, Juanita, Antonio Pedro in
2:55
Speaker 5: the New York apartment. Missus Ortiz gets her welfare check
3:13
Speaker 5: under the eight for Dependent Children program. It comes to
3:17
Speaker 5: about one hundred and seventeen dollars every two weeks, about
3:21
Speaker 5: three thousand dollars a year, not enough to pay the rent,
3:25
Speaker 5: feed and clothe the kids, and provide a diet that
3:29
Speaker 5: a doctor has.
3:29
Speaker 4: Told missus Ortiz she needs.
3:35
Speaker 5: Another child is on the way, but the father of
3:38
Speaker 5: her children has deserted her. The fact that governs everything
3:43
Speaker 5: else in.
3:43
Speaker 4: Missus Orties's life is money.
3:45
Speaker 5: For the lack of it, her inability to give her
3:49
Speaker 5: children the things they need.
3:56
Speaker 8: In that he.
4:03
Speaker 4: Keeps with Ki.
4:15
Speaker 5: But missus Ortiz is comparatively fortunate that she lives in
4:19
Speaker 5: New York, which has one of the highest welfare standards
4:23
Speaker 5: in the country. OK Some places, Mississippi and some other
4:27
Speaker 5: southern states in particular, keep welfare recipients at the edge
4:31
Speaker 5: of starvation thirty cents a day for each child in
4:35
Speaker 5: some areas, fifty cents a.
4:37
Speaker 4: Day in others.
4:41
Speaker 5: In those last days before the welfare check arrives, the
4:45
Speaker 5: children subsist on what their mother bought two weeks previously,
4:49
Speaker 5: mainly cereal, sometimes potatoes. Missus Ortiz, with four children and
4:56
Speaker 5: the fifth on the way, is probably beyond the point
4:59
Speaker 5: of marriage. The men she meets rarely earn more than
5:03
Speaker 5: eighty dollars a week. If she marries, her welfare check
5:07
Speaker 5: would most likely be cut off. The men cannot support her,
5:11
Speaker 5: and therefore they cannot marry her. At age twenty, she
5:16
Speaker 5: may already be permanently consigned to the welfare roles. The
5:44
Speaker 5: problems of the artises are similar to those of welfare
5:47
Speaker 5: families and other cities Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Detroit.
5:54
Speaker 9: I have never received my check on time. Now they
5:58
Speaker 9: say they put them out. But now like Yesterda're supposed
6:01
Speaker 9: to been here yesterday and it didn't arrive, and I'm
6:05
Speaker 9: waiting today for it now. Two weeks ago it was
6:08
Speaker 9: supposed to have been on a Friday, so it didn't arrive.
6:12
Speaker 9: So I waited Saturday until the mailman went by. Still
6:16
Speaker 9: no check. So I called down there for an emergency
6:20
Speaker 9: order like they told me to. There is no such
6:23
Speaker 9: thing as an emergency order on a weekend. So, in
6:26
Speaker 9: other words, my children went without food from Friday afternoon
6:30
Speaker 9: Saturday Sunday until Monday afternoon at two o'clock.
6:35
Speaker 5: Missus Jane Wilson is a Detroit welfare mother. The premise
6:39
Speaker 5: of the ADC program is simple that children without visible
6:44
Speaker 5: means of support must be aided by the state, but
6:47
Speaker 5: to be eligible, a mother and her children must be
6:51
Speaker 5: without a man in the house.
6:53
Speaker 9: Well, my husband left me in September, and then I
6:56
Speaker 9: went down to the emergency shelter welfare shelter, and then
7:01
Speaker 9: I had to go through through the welfare, fill out
7:05
Speaker 9: all these papers, drag all five kids, one of us,
7:11
Speaker 9: go down there, sit there and wait for three four
7:16
Speaker 9: hours until they come around to I felt like the
7:20
Speaker 9: lowest thing on earth when I went to the welfare
7:23
Speaker 9: I felt like they were all better than me, that
7:26
Speaker 9: they could walk all over me. Which I got down
7:28
Speaker 9: on my hands and knees to them and begged them
7:32
Speaker 9: for coats and boots for these children at winter time.
7:36
Speaker 9: I actually got down on my hands and knees. And
7:38
Speaker 9: you can ask anybody down at that office. I actually
7:41
Speaker 9: got down on my hands and knees and begged them.
7:43
Speaker 9: And you know what, and when I went down there,
7:46
Speaker 9: sure they gave me the coats and booch. Sure, after
7:49
Speaker 9: you get down in your hands and knees and you
7:51
Speaker 9: beg that's the only way you're going to get anything
7:54
Speaker 9: from the welfare. And to this day, I have never
7:57
Speaker 9: gotten anything from the welfare.
7:58
Speaker 10: Four mice.
8:05
Speaker 5: Breakfast in the home of Carol King, a Cleveland welfare
8:09
Speaker 5: mother with nine children, on the.
8:13
Speaker 4: Days before the welfare check arrives.
8:16
Speaker 5: There is half an orange for each child. Missus King
8:28
Speaker 5: has become involved in the welfare rights movement because she
8:32
Speaker 5: feels she doesn't get enough money to raise her family.
8:36
Speaker 5: She gets less than eighty cents a day for each
8:38
Speaker 5: of her children. The Ohio legislature approves only three fourths
8:43
Speaker 5: of the amount that the state Welfare Department felt was
8:46
Speaker 5: a minimum necessity in nineteen fifty nine. The rise of
8:54
Speaker 5: ADC recipients in the last six years has been particularly
8:58
Speaker 5: dramatic among Negro family in the northern ghettos.
9:02
Speaker 4: Giving aid only when a.
9:03
Speaker 5: Husband is absent pushes the man out of the house.
9:06
Speaker 4: His presence is an.
9:07
Speaker 5: Economic hardship, and a whole class of women and children
9:10
Speaker 5: are growing up in the northern ghettos knowing neither husband
9:14
Speaker 5: nor father, only dependence on welfare. Life on welfare means
9:20
Speaker 5: waiting in line for food stamps as for everything else.
9:26
Speaker 5: After getting her welfare check each month, Business King's first
9:30
Speaker 5: stop is a food stamp center in the heart of Huff,
9:34
Speaker 5: Cleveland's Negro ghetto. She pays one hundred and ten dollars
9:47
Speaker 5: for one hundred and fifty eight dollars worth of food stamps,
9:50
Speaker 5: which must be spent only on food. The idea is
9:55
Speaker 5: that the state guides the spending of welfare mothers, and
9:58
Speaker 5: the women resent them splicit moral judgment that they don't
10:02
Speaker 5: have the capacity to care properly for their children.
10:06
Speaker 11: We are builter because we are faced with trying to
10:10
Speaker 11: raise children with our money, people on welfare, if they
10:14
Speaker 11: had money enough to at least exist on I'm not saying,
10:19
Speaker 11: you know, cause I don't have a college diploma that
10:22
Speaker 11: I should have you know, three.
10:23
Speaker 4: Hundred dollars a week.
10:24
Speaker 11: But I'm saying that people on welfare have a right
10:27
Speaker 11: to a decent living in a rich country like America.
10:31
Speaker 11: And you know, like we can always you know, send
10:33
Speaker 11: charity overseas and it's you know, for years, you know, uh,
10:38
Speaker 11: we've been.
10:38
Speaker 4: In poverty as a country.
10:40
Speaker 11: And that I'm concerned with your country that you know
10:43
Speaker 11: gets concerned with hunger in India, but it's not concerned
10:47
Speaker 11: with hunger in the United States. You know, they talk
10:51
Speaker 11: about planning for a future, you have to have first.
10:55
Speaker 4: Have something to plan with.
10:57
Speaker 11: You don't plan a meal, you know, unless you got
10:59
Speaker 11: you know, something to eat, and you know, playing a
11:02
Speaker 11: future unless you have something to play with. And this
11:05
Speaker 11: is what you know, society's gonna have to face. They
11:07
Speaker 11: talking about future America and you know, our kids are
11:11
Speaker 11: part of their future society, and you know, and to
11:14
Speaker 11: deprive them from the time that they're you know, babies
11:17
Speaker 11: now they say, you know, work with sixteen year old
11:20
Speaker 11: that's crazy.
11:21
Speaker 3: You know, it's sixteen year old.
11:22
Speaker 11: You know it's too late.
11:29
Speaker 5: Growing up without enough money is hard enough, but there
11:33
Speaker 5: are other cold realities about growing up on ADC.
11:41
Speaker 4: Welfare.
11:42
Speaker 5: Kids usually live in neighborhoods like Cleveland's Huff. They can
11:46
Speaker 5: see the results of violence, even murder, around their own homes,
11:53
Speaker 5: and they must learn to live with it.
12:02
Speaker 2: Hate to see these second generations of warfare is coming up.
12:06
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I think is more
12:09
Speaker 2: more crucial to is the youth to send Togette because.
12:13
Speaker 4: Most of the youth is coming up.
12:14
Speaker 2: You know, they're shamed to tell their buddies, you know, said, well, yeah,
12:17
Speaker 2: we on wearfare. You know, we getting ADC or food
12:20
Speaker 2: stamps and things like this.
12:21
Speaker 12: Here, everybody in my whole neighborhood was on RELEAF.
12:25
Speaker 4: We used to run around of killed about it, cause
12:28
Speaker 4: everybody in my neighborhood was on RELEAF.
12:30
Speaker 12: But I was shamed to go out of my neighborhood
12:32
Speaker 12: and tell somebody that was on ADC.
12:35
Speaker 13: Yeah, shame though.
12:39
Speaker 14: If a child does not have adequate cl clothing, they
12:42
Speaker 14: don't want to go.
12:43
Speaker 15: If they can't participate and go to the.
12:45
Speaker 4: Football games and to the movies, they don't wanna go
12:47
Speaker 4: to school. So it starts with a child is small.
12:51
Speaker 16: They recognize the fact that they don't have, uh, the
12:54
Speaker 16: things that other children have.
12:56
Speaker 4: Children realize when they're different.
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Speaker 10: They know, I don't care how small, oh you are.
13:00
Speaker 4: You know when you're different.
13:02
Speaker 14: And not only that when you go to the public schools,
13:04
Speaker 14: many times the teachers make you.
13:06
Speaker 4: Know that you're different.
13:09
Speaker 14: Set well for children, hair, I was not able to
13:25
Speaker 14: buy you know, white shirts, for ties and things. If
13:29
Speaker 14: my mother go out like I do, I buy my child,
13:32
Speaker 14: uh and the just knit sweaters and bandluns sweaters and
13:34
Speaker 14: things like that. And he wearn't in with his pants.
13:37
Speaker 14: But Friday he got to wear a shirt and a
13:39
Speaker 14: tie and and I just don't have it. They have
13:42
Speaker 14: sent my child home twice, you know, right last year
13:45
Speaker 14: for not being dressed in a tie. And I mean
13:48
Speaker 14: it made me real mad. And I call it the
13:49
Speaker 14: Prinson and told him, you know, I said, look, my
13:51
Speaker 14: child ain't got no a shirt and ties. Now if
13:54
Speaker 14: you want to have one, you buy 'em one.
13:58
Speaker 17: YEA.
14:05
Speaker 5: Even in school, constant and subtle discriminations are made between
14:10
Speaker 5: welfare children and other youngsters to qualify.
14:13
Speaker 4: For most free services such as milk.
14:16
Speaker 5: A pupil must be on welfare and thus declares himself
14:20
Speaker 5: a welfare child.
14:23
Speaker 14: The teacher would tell everybody, the kids, about him being
14:29
Speaker 14: on welfare, and he didn't know he was on welfare.
14:44
Speaker 14: Uh that lunch card they'd give him, it's on a
14:47
Speaker 14: special lunch that he get for welfare children. And it's
14:50
Speaker 14: not enough.
14:51
Speaker 4: They don't get no kind.
14:52
Speaker 14: Of dessert with it, or ice cream, and always have
14:54
Speaker 14: to give him more uh money to go with it.
15:01
Speaker 2: They ain't gonna give but a handful of crumbs to
15:05
Speaker 2: a mother. What do you think the young teenager gonna do?
15:08
Speaker 10: You know?
15:08
Speaker 2: Why do you think that's down here on huff You know,
15:10
Speaker 2: you know, because when he gets dark.
15:12
Speaker 4: They have to go out here and survive.
15:31
Speaker 5: And this is survival and escape and Huff music movement
15:56
Speaker 5: and this moment. But in the morning, no job that
16:00
Speaker 5: will pay a living wage, and it begins again. Brenda
16:55
Speaker 5: is nineteen, unmarried, and she has just had a baby.
17:03
Speaker 5: She's learning to care for him on her own. She's
17:07
Speaker 5: trying to get a job to support him, and she
17:10
Speaker 5: lives with her aunt, who has five children of her own.
17:15
Speaker 5: Money was the reason she decided not to marry Kenneth,
17:19
Speaker 5: the father of her child.
17:22
Speaker 18: Uh, I mean I would have married a you know
17:27
Speaker 18: for while I was scaring the baby, but he had
17:30
Speaker 18: no job and couldn't support hers and the sister get married.
17:33
Speaker 18: When the sister get married, So I.
17:35
Speaker 8: Said, wait, I played, no mayor in the next year.
17:42
Speaker 18: But no, no sooner than next year. You have to
17:46
Speaker 18: give him time and work first. I mean, what's the sister,
17:53
Speaker 18: Mary and somebody.
17:54
Speaker 19: If he can't support you, that's that's his job to
17:57
Speaker 19: support you and the baby, not my job support him
18:00
Speaker 19: the baby.
18:01
Speaker 18: So w after he started working, you.
18:06
Speaker 19: Know, works more than he been working than I'm married.
18:10
Speaker 18: And I think he's able to take care of too.
18:13
Speaker 5: A many hills, a lot of rockter not there many
18:17
Speaker 5: of the girls who go on welfare and never graduate
18:19
Speaker 5: from high school. A girl who gets pregnant in most
18:23
Speaker 5: high schools is automatically expelled.
18:26
Speaker 4: Usually she doesn't come back.
18:28
Speaker 5: She's on her way to a lifetime of dependence on welfare.
18:33
Speaker 4: The Webster School.
18:34
Speaker 5: In Washington, DC is a high school for pregnant girls.
18:41
Speaker 5: A psychotherapy session is a weekly part of the curriculum.
18:45
Speaker 20: May I first found out that I had become pregnant
18:49
Speaker 20: and when I found out.
18:50
Speaker 15: That there was the school called Webster, I thought that
18:54
Speaker 15: I was gonna be shut out away from other people,
18:58
Speaker 15: and that I was gonna be outcast. But when I
19:02
Speaker 15: came in the.
19:02
Speaker 16: Webst it seems that I had more more what you
19:06
Speaker 16: would say, people on my side, more any more attention
19:10
Speaker 16: going towards my way and to with the help of
19:13
Speaker 16: Miss Guilt and then with the help of some of
19:16
Speaker 16: my good friends here, I'm s I seem to be
19:19
Speaker 16: making it in.
19:20
Speaker 21: All being here with these girls.
19:23
Speaker 22: Uh, you know, they are closer to you.
19:26
Speaker 4: I think that all of us are.
19:28
Speaker 21: Closer together than girls that that have not been pregnant,
19:32
Speaker 21: because they all have their opinions and that it they
19:36
Speaker 21: can easily say things, but we have you know, we're
19:39
Speaker 21: all going through the.
19:41
Speaker 4: Experience for the business.
19:43
Speaker 5: Patricia Schiller is a clinical psychology histor school. She directs
19:47
Speaker 5: the conversation toward future plans and prospects.
19:51
Speaker 23: Well, I've got a job. I'm going for interview today
19:56
Speaker 23: and I filed for support from the farm in the
20:01
Speaker 23: court and she'll be coming through by the time I
20:04
Speaker 23: get back in school in September.
20:06
Speaker 20: For a long time I was under the firm belief
20:08
Speaker 20: that no one really has any excuse.
20:10
Speaker 4: For being on public assistance.
20:12
Speaker 20: But when I fer my grandparents and my father found
20:16
Speaker 20: out I was pregnant, their first attitude was, we aren't
20:19
Speaker 20: gonna do anything for you. And my grandmother told me
20:22
Speaker 20: from the beginning, you may not bring this baby into
20:25
Speaker 20: my house. Now she has responsibility for me until I'm
20:29
Speaker 20: eighteen years old. I talked to my social worker here
20:31
Speaker 20: at school, and I've talked to people down a child
20:34
Speaker 20: welfare and it's being made possible right now for my
20:37
Speaker 20: baby's born in September, for me to put that child
20:40
Speaker 20: in a foster home and to visit it and they'll
20:43
Speaker 20: take care of it until after I finished the twelfth
20:45
Speaker 20: grade and I'll be eighteen, I'll be on my own
20:48
Speaker 20: and then I can provide for my child in my
20:50
Speaker 20: own way. And therefore, I think that it can be
20:52
Speaker 20: a good program.
20:54
Speaker 24: When a girl drops out before completing her high school education,
20:59
Speaker 24: she finds is it difficult to get a job.
21:03
Speaker 4: To take care of the baby.
21:04
Speaker 24: In many instances, this would force a girl to go
21:08
Speaker 24: on public welfare if she missus.
21:12
Speaker 5: Pibola Guild is the school's principal, which is terrible.
21:16
Speaker 24: And that doesn't seem to be any way out of
21:18
Speaker 24: this for me. She is likely to have another out
21:22
Speaker 24: of wedlock child, and as the babies continue coming, she
21:27
Speaker 24: gets father and father down into her state of depression.
21:33
Speaker 22: Many of our young girls would like to work, and
21:35
Speaker 22: they have tried. They really have tried to support their family,
21:38
Speaker 22: but the system and everything else just tears them down
21:41
Speaker 22: and eventually they just become satisfiable welfare and they don't
21:45
Speaker 22: try anymore because they see there's no sense of try
21:49
Speaker 22: until this whole system has changed.
21:51
Speaker 5: Jeanette sld her as a welfare mother, works and headstart
21:54
Speaker 5: and receives a small supplement to her check.
21:56
Speaker 24: You know, people talk.
21:57
Speaker 22: About the ADC mothers don't want anything. They're not going
22:01
Speaker 22: to ever get anything. This is the same feeling that
22:03
Speaker 22: they have. They have tried and they want jobs, but
22:05
Speaker 22: nobody's gonna give them a job. And the first thing
22:07
Speaker 22: they holler, will you on ADC? You know, and you
22:10
Speaker 22: don't have any experience, And how can you have experience
22:13
Speaker 22: when you're just coming out of school and nobody's willing
22:15
Speaker 22: to try, you know, to give them a chance. And
22:18
Speaker 22: I'm beginning to believe, and so most of the parents
22:20
Speaker 22: that people want you on ADC, they like you. They
22:23
Speaker 22: you know, they can control you on ADC, and a
22:26
Speaker 22: lot of them just feel, well, I might as well
22:28
Speaker 22: sit here and get what I can. And they do
22:30
Speaker 22: have to cheat and lie and still and to try
22:32
Speaker 22: to beat the system and try to just survive, not
22:35
Speaker 22: really live.
22:36
Speaker 4: Most of them are just surviving.
22:38
Speaker 5: Welfare departments claim that they want to encourage marriage.
22:42
Speaker 4: And thus get women off the.
22:43
Speaker 5: Welfare roles, but the investigation of a woman's eligibility for
22:47
Speaker 5: ADC discourages the beginning of any relationship with the man
22:51
Speaker 5: and marriage.
22:52
Speaker 25: Well, if he's someone who is who is sincerely interested
22:55
Speaker 25: in you, you would like perhaps to invite him to dinner,
22:59
Speaker 25: You would like.
23:00
Speaker 4: To maybe he.
23:00
Speaker 25: Would like to spend the day with you. And if
23:03
Speaker 25: this happens and you have a neighbor who particularly don't
23:07
Speaker 25: care for you, then the welfare department will hear about it.
23:11
Speaker 25: And then they suppose that this man is living there,
23:16
Speaker 25: or that you are supporting him out of your funds,
23:19
Speaker 25: you're feeding him with your funds, or you if you
23:23
Speaker 25: claim you're not feeding him out of your funds, then
23:25
Speaker 25: their answer will be, then he's giving you money.
23:30
Speaker 15: And she said, oh, you can't have a boyfriend.
23:33
Speaker 26: We don't allie that.
23:35
Speaker 15: And I wanted to know why, and she said, because
23:37
Speaker 15: it doesn't look right, you know, with the kids. And
23:40
Speaker 15: so I said, I still don't see what they have
23:42
Speaker 15: anything to do with me with a boyfriend. And she said, well,
23:46
Speaker 15: you have to get rid of him, you have to
23:48
Speaker 15: make plans to marry him. And I told her I
23:51
Speaker 15: wasn't getting married. I wasn't ready, but I just got
23:54
Speaker 15: out of one and I said, now, look, you're gonna
23:57
Speaker 15: tell me here I am he seven years old. At
24:01
Speaker 15: that time, Andy and I had been married, got five
24:05
Speaker 15: kids here in the home, and had married to this
24:08
Speaker 15: one man for sixteen years, and you're gonna tell me
24:10
Speaker 15: I can't have a boyfriend. And so she said, well,
24:15
Speaker 15: we doesn't lie the ADC others with boyfriend. And I
24:18
Speaker 15: couldn't understand that. So she left. When she left, well
24:24
Speaker 15: then she come back to tell me that my case
24:27
Speaker 15: was denied.
24:27
Speaker 4: This is what happened.
24:28
Speaker 15: She come back to tell me that they had denied me,
24:31
Speaker 15: that I could not get on the.
24:32
Speaker 11: Aid if a man marries you, that he should, you know,
24:36
Speaker 11: take on the initiative of supporting your family, and you know,
24:39
Speaker 11: to tell a man that makes you know, a hundred
24:41
Speaker 11: and twenty five a hundred and thirty five dollars a
24:43
Speaker 11: week that he should accept me and nine kids and
24:46
Speaker 11: support us. It's crazy because you know this, you know, realistically,
24:51
Speaker 11: I would feel that if I married a man in
24:53
Speaker 11: this position that you know, it wouldn't take but maybe
24:56
Speaker 11: six months. If it took that long, he would begin
24:58
Speaker 11: to resent my kids. He would hate me, you know,
25:01
Speaker 11: he would beat me and scream at the kids. He
25:03
Speaker 11: started beating the kids out of frustration. And you know,
25:07
Speaker 11: maybe wouldn't be because he didn't love me and the kids,
25:10
Speaker 11: but because he was, you know, being deprived of you know,
25:13
Speaker 11: just having you know, a pair of shoes on his feet,
25:15
Speaker 11: and proper food for himself, you know, for kids that
25:18
Speaker 11: he wasn't responsible for. And this is you know, thinking realistically.
25:29
Speaker 5: In Cleveland and elsewhere, very little economic incentive exists for
25:33
Speaker 5: women to get off welfare.
25:35
Speaker 25: They would like for you to go out and go
25:36
Speaker 25: to work or even seek part time employment. But if
25:40
Speaker 25: you do this, then most of what you make is
25:43
Speaker 25: taken away from you.
25:44
Speaker 5: They receive only a small part of the extra income
25:47
Speaker 5: if they work the jobs which they can get rarely
25:51
Speaker 5: offer very much more money than.
25:52
Speaker 4: The welfare check itself.
25:56
Speaker 5: In a pilot project in Cleveland, they are allowed to
25:59
Speaker 5: keep only enough to bring them up to the state's
26:02
Speaker 5: welfare minimum.
26:04
Speaker 4: They are encouraged to go to school and get training,
26:07
Speaker 4: but even after training, good jobs are scarce.
26:10
Speaker 5: Beverly Siegel, a Cleveland social worker, visits missus Fanny Brooks,
26:15
Speaker 5: who has left a Title five job training program to
26:18
Speaker 5: care for a children.
26:21
Speaker 8: One thing I wanted to talk to you about today
26:22
Speaker 8: is the fact that you'll be going off of the
26:24
Speaker 8: training program and now that you're.
26:27
Speaker 27: Going back onto ADC alone, it will be cut back,
26:30
Speaker 27: you know, to regular ADC, which will be ninety two
26:35
Speaker 27: dollars difference, and that that's quite a bit of difference,
26:39
Speaker 27: and it's going to be difficult, I imagine, to get
26:42
Speaker 27: used to living on that type of budget.
26:43
Speaker 28: Again.
26:44
Speaker 29: Yes, it will be, but I would rather have a
26:48
Speaker 29: small amount and have peace and happiness and harmony in
26:52
Speaker 29: my home than have a lot and have a lot
26:55
Speaker 29: of difficulty and different problems. I didn't choose disposition that
26:59
Speaker 29: I'm in, and I would want my kids to do
27:01
Speaker 29: it for nothing.
27:02
Speaker 30: In the world today itself, the wise man did yesterday.
27:09
Speaker 4: All right, you wanna try that with for us.
27:11
Speaker 5: Mister mcquan Leroy McQueen, who is getting his high school
27:15
Speaker 5: diploma and hopes to go into computer work, is a
27:17
Speaker 5: welfare father on a training program. It's a myth that
27:21
Speaker 5: the welfare roles are filled with able bodied men. Less
27:24
Speaker 5: than one percent of those on welfare are capable of working.
27:28
Speaker 5: In nineteen sixty two, realizing that ADC ignored men intended
27:33
Speaker 5: to break up families, Congress passed the ADCU program, aid
27:38
Speaker 5: for the dependent children of the unemployed. Mister McQueen worked
27:43
Speaker 5: in a print shop for seven years.
27:45
Speaker 4: One day the shop went out of business. Mister McQueen
27:48
Speaker 4: could not find another job.
27:50
Speaker 5: Shortly after he went on welfare, mister McQueen's wife died
27:54
Speaker 5: and he was faced with the prospect of raising his
27:57
Speaker 5: five children himself. The welfare department gave him a temporary
28:03
Speaker 5: professional homemaker.
28:09
Speaker 4: You read it.
28:14
Speaker 8: And do you have some more sometime?
28:15
Speaker 17: Hunt you don't want any water?
28:21
Speaker 5: A mid day snack is water and yello. Now he
28:32
Speaker 5: remains on the welfare roles as he gets an education,
28:35
Speaker 5: he has the added burden of raising a family.
28:39
Speaker 4: Hi, Hi, your head. He does the cooking and cleaning
28:46
Speaker 4: up himself.
28:48
Speaker 28: Right now, not so much noise is do.
28:53
Speaker 4: Not so much noise.
28:56
Speaker 9: Might very right off?
29:03
Speaker 14: Ge c come on E.
29:14
Speaker 4: Mean dinner is usually beans with.
29:17
Speaker 5: Some hamhocks and his most welfare homes no milk, almost
29:22
Speaker 5: all starches.
29:23
Speaker 4: Little meat.
29:27
Speaker 13: That wongs to real.
29:31
Speaker 5: Mr McQueen's dilemma is compounded by the fact that he
29:33
Speaker 5: must find help.
29:34
Speaker 4: For his children while he is at school or work.
29:37
Speaker 28: Ah, so.
29:45
Speaker 31: Dogs are baby donut huh.
29:48
Speaker 3: Take your time woo.
29:49
Speaker 4: Mister McQueen has many problems.
29:52
Speaker 5: He lives for the day when he can earn enough
29:54
Speaker 5: so that his children have proper meals, the day when
29:58
Speaker 5: he can provide for his family adequate when you can relax.
30:01
Speaker 4: With some assurance about the future.
30:08
Speaker 32: Homys muster may.
30:13
Speaker 5: Wall the electric guitar is in and out of the
30:18
Speaker 5: pawn shop, a reflection of mister McQueen's financial fortunes.
30:26
Speaker 32: Harmony see.
30:29
Speaker 10: Muster wind does scene.
30:34
Speaker 32: Before she sees in the scene.
30:43
Speaker 4: How many time.
30:46
Speaker 32: Mustard's canavause be five.
30:51
Speaker 10: Before the world.
30:55
Speaker 32: Who Yeah, let me get in out insert.
31:02
Speaker 9: It is a.
31:06
Speaker 2: W Sir is going in no way?
31:13
Speaker 4: Oh let me change honey to exit.
31:25
Speaker 32: Before listen walk to the seas more my friendly love, come.
31:46
Speaker 13: My baby, and went the street, go to beer.
31:53
Speaker 4: You know, I mean.
32:03
Speaker 5: Today mister McQueen does not go to school because the
32:06
Speaker 5: homemaker didn't show up. His children play in the backyard.
32:23
Speaker 12: If I could get a housekeeper, this would help.
32:25
Speaker 4: Me more than anything else.
32:26
Speaker 12: Just someone to clean the house. Cooking I do generally
32:29
Speaker 12: most myself, but even then, well, the right person cooking, right,
32:34
Speaker 12: I could stand there, I think, But I think mostly
32:37
Speaker 12: what we need here is just the person to be
32:39
Speaker 12: in the house and help with cleaning and uh, getting
32:42
Speaker 12: the kids off the school. You know now that I
32:45
Speaker 12: go to school myself and give them their lunches, and
32:47
Speaker 12: I could take over in the evenings.
32:50
Speaker 8: In the past, I was able to get you an
32:51
Speaker 8: emergency homemaker. And this seems to be a very bad month.
32:54
Speaker 8: They're completely filled up. But the woman says she that's
32:58
Speaker 8: in charge of the referrals, so that she certainly will
33:01
Speaker 8: be having someone come out here as soon as possible. Uh,
33:04
Speaker 8: but I know that in the meantime you can't afford
33:06
Speaker 8: in this anymore.
33:07
Speaker 4: School.
33:08
Speaker 12: I really wanna finish school and get back to work,
33:11
Speaker 12: cause this is my most important objective.
33:13
Speaker 4: And uh, I don't know.
33:14
Speaker 12: It just seemed like it's so far away.
33:17
Speaker 15: You know.
33:17
Speaker 12: The more I look after it, the more it seems
33:19
Speaker 12: like it just gets farther away. And then the problems
33:21
Speaker 12: come along, and you can't get a babysitter or a
33:23
Speaker 12: housekeeper when you need it, like for instance, today, I'm
33:26
Speaker 12: home all day to day because I don't have one.
33:28
Speaker 7: Oh no, Mr mc queen, I w see how you doing?
33:31
Speaker 21: Okay?
33:32
Speaker 7: How are you?
33:32
Speaker 19: Oh?
33:32
Speaker 4: Okay? What happened on the big city?
33:34
Speaker 31: Find anything?
33:36
Speaker 8: As far as I know, they still haven't gotten anyone.
33:39
Speaker 24: Uh.
33:39
Speaker 8: She told me that she'd keep trying. As soon as
33:41
Speaker 8: she would find one, she'd give me a call.
33:44
Speaker 29: Uh, well what about post pull the uh.
33:46
Speaker 12: The pants that the boys were really just about going
33:50
Speaker 12: now and uh they have a lot.
33:51
Speaker 9: Of holes in 'em, and UH give me hues little.
33:55
Speaker 27: I can't promise anything, cause of course it has to
33:58
Speaker 27: be a pooved uh several times along the line.
34:01
Speaker 8: But I will get there to tryna well.
34:03
Speaker 5: The eight billion dollars spent on welfare every year, less
34:07
Speaker 5: than half ever reaches welfare clients.
34:13
Speaker 8: The welfare bureaucracy grinds extremely slowly. The total paperwork, the
34:20
Speaker 8: total number of approvals needed. The total number of departments
34:23
Speaker 8: of a request has to go through takes an offul
34:27
Speaker 8: long time. The most frustrating thing that I run across,
34:31
Speaker 8: and I feel is the reason why many social workers leave,
34:35
Speaker 8: is the fact that there is a volume of paperwork
34:38
Speaker 8: to do. There's a terrific bureaucratic structure through which every
34:43
Speaker 8: piece of paper must go through, making processes very long
34:47
Speaker 8: and drawn out, and there isn't the time to do
34:49
Speaker 8: the casework that one would actually like to do. Also,
34:54
Speaker 8: it takes an awful long time for a caseworker to
34:57
Speaker 8: get to know the system, the welfare system, and to
34:59
Speaker 8: try try and live within it and perhaps even beat
35:03
Speaker 8: it on occasion. Wall I think I'd rather work with
35:11
Speaker 8: people that did have the basic necessities of life. It
35:14
Speaker 8: would make it much simpler. They could feel worthwhile if
35:17
Speaker 8: they were given enough money to live on.
35:21
Speaker 33: I think since sixty two, the emphasis has been on
35:24
Speaker 33: providing services rather than just becoming an agency that provides
35:27
Speaker 33: the doll or, you know, just the money that's needed.
35:31
Speaker 5: Eugene Burns is the welfare director of Cuyahoga County Welfare,
35:34
Speaker 5: which includes the city of Cleveland.
35:36
Speaker 33: With services that we are going into now with the
35:39
Speaker 33: emergency service that we are providing, I think, which is
35:43
Speaker 33: a big improvement over what it was before. In addition
35:46
Speaker 33: to the regular case word services.
35:50
Speaker 5: The emphasis on services, not money for clients has led
35:53
Speaker 5: Cleveland women like Louise Gueston into the welfare rights movement.
35:58
Speaker 5: She wants more money for welfare so that welfare children
36:01
Speaker 5: can grow up with other sense of deprivation.
36:04
Speaker 26: M well, I sell just because we're on welfare, that
36:14
Speaker 26: doesn't mean that we are uh down and the US.
36:17
Speaker 4: We're still people.
36:22
Speaker 17: They still are fond of their father. My daughter, she
36:28
Speaker 17: doesn't care for her, but I try to teach her that,
36:30
Speaker 17: after all, has still is her father. He takes him nowhere,
36:34
Speaker 17: He doesn't come to see him, he doesn't support him.
36:40
Speaker 26: Do you take your trash up?
36:49
Speaker 17: I am having proceeded there for a divorce. It's been
36:53
Speaker 17: uh heck because I had to raise him by myself.
36:56
Speaker 17: But I haven't had too much fun even though they
36:59
Speaker 17: are teenagers.
37:02
Speaker 8: Wow.
37:03
Speaker 5: Tay missus Gaston protests what she feels is the injustice
37:08
Speaker 5: of the American welfare system and not providing enough for families,
37:12
Speaker 5: but organizing against it is not easy.
37:15
Speaker 17: But organizing takes quite a bit out of you. You're tired,
37:19
Speaker 17: sometimes you're bitter. You get angry because people don't seem
37:24
Speaker 17: like you do, especially when things are that you're trying
37:29
Speaker 17: to push are for their benefit as well as yours.
37:33
Speaker 17: I've had women slam the door my face and tell me, well,
37:37
Speaker 17: whatever you're fighting for, if you get it, I'm going
37:39
Speaker 17: to get anyway, So well, I'm going to and fight
37:41
Speaker 17: for what I'm good is not gonna do it for.
37:43
Speaker 17: I mean, these things make you angry, but you learn
37:47
Speaker 17: to look at them and feel sorry for him.
37:51
Speaker 5: Cleveland women meeting Missus Gaston's home. The desire to change
37:55
Speaker 5: and improve the system has brought hundreds of Cleveland welfare
37:59
Speaker 5: recipients into welfare locals. The movement is a young one
38:03
Speaker 5: in Cleveland, and nationally it's about a year old. The
38:07
Speaker 5: experience of being in an organization is a new one
38:10
Speaker 5: for most of the women. Building a membership means gaining
38:13
Speaker 5: a strategy for organizing.
38:16
Speaker 1: I was on an impression and UH I was told
38:21
Speaker 1: that no one, no one person have to join a
38:26
Speaker 1: local to get UH any kind of help h aid
38:30
Speaker 1: from the local.
38:32
Speaker 4: That's what you say, That's right.
38:34
Speaker 33: You don't have to, but.
38:36
Speaker 10: Don't see it like that brought it back to my group.
38:39
Speaker 11: How you are fail Remember that this was primarily.
38:44
Speaker 5: The women believe is the first step in reforming the
38:46
Speaker 5: welfare system is for them to get adequate money. They
38:50
Speaker 5: do not feel they need rehabilitation by caseworkers who make
38:54
Speaker 5: continual investigations into their eligibility for welfare.
38:58
Speaker 4: They want enough money to raise their families. They want
39:02
Speaker 4: a chance of jobs which will pay them decently.
39:05
Speaker 5: They want to share in making the decisions which affect
39:07
Speaker 5: their lives.
39:08
Speaker 11: Put the dollar cut in their check and you're gonna
39:11
Speaker 11: tell them to give them you a dollar. Then you'll
39:13
Speaker 11: see that their check is right.
39:14
Speaker 4: He said, yeah, if.
39:15
Speaker 11: They want to get it raised or if they want
39:17
Speaker 11: their money back, now, this is it. This is what
39:20
Speaker 11: he says. The National Coordinating Committee was supporting, and I'm,
39:23
Speaker 11: you know, in thorough disagreement with that.
39:25
Speaker 13: I think we went over this ground before, and I
39:29
Speaker 13: think we did agree that in terms of Cleveland Organizing,
39:34
Speaker 13: that the denial of service wasn't to take place if
39:39
Speaker 13: a person didn't have their dues.
39:41
Speaker 3: That's where, Yeah, that was the understanding I think we
39:43
Speaker 3: all had.
39:44
Speaker 5: Paul Younger is a Protestant minister who has worked with
39:47
Speaker 5: the poor for a decade.
39:49
Speaker 33: That we're trying to get folks from all over the
39:52
Speaker 33: city into our locals and they'll be coming to the
39:57
Speaker 33: food stamped center.
40:00
Speaker 17: You're trying to find people up to join welfare rights
40:04
Speaker 17: locals and what's been happening.
40:06
Speaker 4: It's people on welfare. We need and really did this
40:08
Speaker 4: mos teat and.
40:09
Speaker 11: That we're there and together to really get something going.
40:12
Speaker 2: We have locals already set up.
40:15
Speaker 11: Somebody was get in touch with you.
40:16
Speaker 4: I can ran it.
40:17
Speaker 8: I have a crated Okay, that's fine.
40:20
Speaker 4: Yes, an interviewer from a local television station. This is
40:29
Speaker 4: former today is your beginning of recruitment.
40:32
Speaker 19: Yes, Uh, we're out here to take a recruit relief
40:35
Speaker 19: client to take and join our local union welfare unions
40:41
Speaker 19: all over the city.
40:42
Speaker 10: Specifically, what does you want to the property there?
40:46
Speaker 19: We want to accomplish better relationships, uh with the relief department,
40:51
Speaker 19: and we want to take and get the things that
40:53
Speaker 19: our workers tell us that we can't have, like household
40:56
Speaker 19: furnishings and clothing orders.
40:59
Speaker 11: And carcerry going back go forward to the hospital.
41:02
Speaker 15: Right as Thomas Diana.
41:04
Speaker 5: Success in organizing is more than getting people to sign
41:07
Speaker 5: a piece of paper. It means creating an organization which
41:11
Speaker 5: can build effective pressure on welfare departments, which can deliver
41:15
Speaker 5: economic benefits to its members, and that means helping persons
41:20
Speaker 5: to receive their full welfare payments under the present laws.
41:24
Speaker 31: If you're trying to help your kids on the times
41:26
Speaker 31: that you're able to mole forgetting in the union, I'll
41:29
Speaker 31: help you pably. Trying to get everybody to stick together.
41:32
Speaker 31: One person just don't have to fight for they say,
41:34
Speaker 31: if all us tide for each other.
41:36
Speaker 5: Welfare authorities in Washington disagree with the emphasis of welfare
41:40
Speaker 5: clients groups. Washington believes that rehabilitation through employment training will
41:45
Speaker 5: solve welfare problems.
41:47
Speaker 4: How is this to be done?
41:48
Speaker 5: The head of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services
41:52
Speaker 5: is Mary Switzer.
41:53
Speaker 4: I think you have to have it organized.
41:57
Speaker 34: You have to find ways to take care of the
41:59
Speaker 34: children if the mother is reluctant to leave home with
42:01
Speaker 34: the children. You have to have increased day care facilities,
42:04
Speaker 34: and you have to begin in many ways at a
42:08
Speaker 34: different level than you did with a handicapped person who
42:11
Speaker 34: may have had some schooling, even though they may have
42:13
Speaker 34: been out of the mainstream of life. I think you
42:16
Speaker 34: have to find the right kind of training with the
42:19
Speaker 34: jobs at the end of it, and I think all
42:22
Speaker 34: elements in the community have to be involved in this
42:26
Speaker 34: employment problem.
42:28
Speaker 4: We should encourage employment.
42:30
Speaker 34: Not only with the end result of getting people not
42:35
Speaker 34: dependent upon public welfare or public assistance, but to help
42:40
Speaker 34: them if there is a low welfare standard, adequately to
42:45
Speaker 34: supplement it. And this has been one of the chief
42:48
Speaker 34: failures I think of the administration of public welfare in
42:51
Speaker 34: this country. I think that it has been a great
42:54
Speaker 34: mistake to not allow and not to give the incentive
43:00
Speaker 34: to people to keep what they earn up to a point. Now. Obviously,
43:05
Speaker 34: when they have a job that is going to be
43:07
Speaker 34: permanent and they are secure in it, then of course
43:11
Speaker 34: you wouldn't want them to be dependent on public welfare.
43:14
Speaker 4: But until they reach that point, what.
43:16
Speaker 34: They earn they ought to be encouraged to earn in
43:19
Speaker 34: order to supplement welfare payments, particularly where they're inadequate. But
43:24
Speaker 34: usually what happens is that if they are in a
43:26
Speaker 34: little they are penalized by having it taken out of
43:30
Speaker 34: their assistance payments, so the incentive to work is not
43:32
Speaker 34: as great as it otherwise would be.
43:37
Speaker 5: Miss Switzer puts her emphasis on the training programs and.
43:40
Speaker 4: Other services which will lead to the employment.
43:42
Speaker 5: Of welfare mothers to The welfare rights movement puts its
43:46
Speaker 5: emphasis on giving enough money to welfare clients to enable
43:49
Speaker 5: them to live decently.
43:51
Speaker 4: The form of the.
43:52
Speaker 5: Welfare grant is not considered as important as its size.
43:56
Speaker 5: Doctor George Wiley is a key organizer of the welfare
43:59
Speaker 5: rights movement.
44:02
Speaker 30: And we are finding across the country that there has
44:06
Speaker 30: been increasing discussion in high places of such things as
44:10
Speaker 30: the guaranteed annual income and other things that are supposed
44:14
Speaker 30: to be panaceas to solve the problems of the poor. Well,
44:19
Speaker 30: welfare was supposed to be a panacea thirty years ago,
44:22
Speaker 30: and all of those people who are poor today know
44:25
Speaker 30: that those kinds of easy solutions did not work. The
44:29
Speaker 30: thing that every welfare recipient knows is that there are
44:31
Speaker 30: two or three basic issues, and the welfare rights movement
44:35
Speaker 30: is beginning to articulate those issues loudly and clearly. That
44:39
Speaker 30: is that the most basic issue for welfare recipient is
44:43
Speaker 30: enough money to feed and clothe and hoes the.
44:46
Speaker 10: Members of his family.
44:48
Speaker 30: And very few people who are talking about a guaranteed
44:51
Speaker 30: annual income. Are talking about giving poor people amounts of
44:56
Speaker 30: money that would allow them to live in decency and
44:59
Speaker 30: with a sense of adequacy. And it is that that
45:01
Speaker 30: the welfare rights movement is going to have to bring
45:04
Speaker 30: across this country. That we won't have any guaranteed annual income,
45:08
Speaker 30: or any family allowance or any other scheme that doesn't
45:12
Speaker 30: provide people with at least the basic necessities of life
45:15
Speaker 30: for their families. And the second thing is that there
45:18
Speaker 30: must be a system of income distribution that gives to
45:22
Speaker 30: people the money that they are entitled to as a right,
45:27
Speaker 30: and you are entitled to your welfare as a right,
45:30
Speaker 30: that gives it to them with a sense of decency,
45:33
Speaker 30: a sense of dignity and respect. That you needn't be
45:37
Speaker 30: the subject of these investigations.
45:41
Speaker 28: This June, the.
45:42
Speaker 30: National Coordinating Committee has organized and set up a campaign,
45:48
Speaker 30: a campaign with a very simple theme that every welfare
45:52
Speaker 30: recipient understands, and that is that welfare recipients are tired
45:57
Speaker 30: of waiting. We are tired of waiting for checks. We
46:01
Speaker 30: are tired of waiting for the little pittance that people
46:03
Speaker 30: give out. But it is going to be a campaign
46:06
Speaker 30: to demand more money now, and so all over this country,
46:12
Speaker 30: welfare recipients will be organizing to go to the welfared
46:16
Speaker 30: department to present a very simple form outlining the most
46:22
Speaker 30: basic needs.
46:23
Speaker 10: That they have for food, for clothing.
46:26
Speaker 30: For shelter, and to demand that the welfare department fill
46:30
Speaker 30: those needs.
46:31
Speaker 24: Now.
46:32
Speaker 28: Everything needs.
46:42
Speaker 10: More garment walking for our sisters and a little children.
47:05
Speaker 5: On June thirtieth, welfare clients in Cleveland marched along with welfare.
47:09
Speaker 4: Recipients and forty other cities. They sought to.
47:12
Speaker 5: Build pressure on local welfare departments to give more money
47:16
Speaker 5: to clients.
47:18
Speaker 10: Now running down Ohio's roads.
47:25
Speaker 33: This is a history lesson.
47:27
Speaker 35: It tells you how you got where yard It ain't nowhere?
47:32
Speaker 10: Okay, oup been down?
47:35
Speaker 21: Hold up being down?
47:37
Speaker 32: Rigo, oh yes, so.
47:39
Speaker 28: Run around mistake getting their kids on adyc How can
47:45
Speaker 28: they say your line when welfare checks are smaller than
47:49
Speaker 28: in nineteen fifty nine, Oh up and down Ohio's roads,
47:54
Speaker 28: dropping down rigo, oh yes, so run around sake.
48:00
Speaker 36: We are walking for more money now and basic needs.
48:04
Speaker 36: Now our checks are too small to buy essential clothing
48:08
Speaker 36: and household items. We call them County Welfare to write
48:12
Speaker 36: a special orders to meet these needs now, because our
48:15
Speaker 36: rent and utility allowance is too small to rent our
48:18
Speaker 36: families decent adequate housing or pay our utility bills. We
48:23
Speaker 36: call them well the State Welfare Department to raise the
48:26
Speaker 36: standards for rent and utilities now because our children cannot
48:30
Speaker 36: live decently on eighty percent of the bare minimum of
48:33
Speaker 36: what it calls in December of nineteen hundred and sixty five.
48:36
Speaker 33: This type of demonstration, an orderly, well mannered demonstration that
48:41
Speaker 33: existed today, brings out to the public and brings out
48:45
Speaker 33: to those public officials in Columbus that there is a
48:49
Speaker 33: real need and that something should be done and has
48:51
Speaker 33: to be done. And I think I hope that they're successful.
48:54
Speaker 33: But as far as as staff, as I mentioned staff
48:58
Speaker 33: as an obligation, we're a service organization. We're government employees.
49:02
Speaker 33: We have to serve the public. Our doors are open
49:04
Speaker 33: every day. Our staff is accountable for that type of
49:08
Speaker 33: service that is uh is mandated under the statute, and
49:12
Speaker 33: we have to perform.
49:16
Speaker 36: My candidate I stepped out.
49:18
Speaker 27: All the things.
49:21
Speaker 33: Well, we can get the gigbook staff, you know who
49:25
Speaker 33: are eligible.
49:26
Speaker 4: What frinds gast We go over.
49:28
Speaker 33: To the g R A t W O want a
49:31
Speaker 33: couple more over there.
49:33
Speaker 5: The usual press coverage of demonstrations gets a different reaction
49:36
Speaker 5: from the welfare client and the welfare administrator.
49:42
Speaker 4: I want you too to hang on you just kick
49:44
Speaker 4: you out.
49:44
Speaker 2: If you're handling, well, I can't hand.
49:46
Speaker 36: I only hand what I know.
49:48
Speaker 33: This is all of for all of it.
49:50
Speaker 24: You're representing all of them for the moment we got.
49:53
Speaker 33: Is that's all right with the rest of I'm sure
49:57
Speaker 33: it is it. Okay, they're all smiling, so must be
49:59
Speaker 33: all right.
50:00
Speaker 18: Give me you smile a little bit.
50:04
Speaker 33: Smile too. Don't don't put it in front of my base.
50:15
Speaker 10: Though, you know, closer together, please.
50:20
Speaker 33: And smile at all right, Well, listen, all right, your
50:28
Speaker 33: picture being a favor, you want to smile?
50:30
Speaker 10: Listen, I'm serious.
50:33
Speaker 2: I mean, this is no playing man, this is serious.
50:35
Speaker 33: We're serious too. I just said I think it makes sense.
50:38
Speaker 11: Thank you, all right?
50:39
Speaker 33: Anyone else will like your picture and ticket?
50:46
Speaker 3: All right?
50:48
Speaker 33: Police can made it to grow of my appreciation for
50:51
Speaker 33: their demonstration on the manner in which they conducted.
50:54
Speaker 8: Thanks again, come back again, o'right.
50:58
Speaker 36: I'm going to take a bath and go.
50:59
Speaker 5: The bad complaints were filed and hearings conducted throughout the
51:04
Speaker 5: summer of nineteen sixty seven to bring welfare payments up
51:07
Speaker 5: to the highest possible level.
51:24
Speaker 4: At the end of the summer.
51:26
Speaker 5: Welfare mothers from across the country that in Washington for
51:29
Speaker 5: the first National Convention of the Organized Poor in the sixties.
51:49
Speaker 5: A bill had passed the House of Representatives which would
51:52
Speaker 5: freeze the welfare roles at a nineteen sixty seven level,
51:56
Speaker 5: would increase employment training in other services, would compel women
52:01
Speaker 5: with children to leave their homes to work under threat
52:04
Speaker 5: that their assistance would be cut off. They came to lobby,
52:08
Speaker 5: but less than half a dozen officials consented to see them, and.
52:12
Speaker 28: They walked me with us and talk to us about
52:16
Speaker 28: our drover.
52:17
Speaker 10: They locked the doors. They locked the doors when we
52:21
Speaker 10: came up.
52:21
Speaker 28: Here on the stets, but it's our building.
52:25
Speaker 5: George Wiley was one of the speakers.
52:29
Speaker 4: Dick Gregory was another speaker.
52:32
Speaker 28: We like to say thank you very much because what
52:36
Speaker 28: you're doing here today, unborn babies will be grateful for.
52:42
Speaker 28: We want to put the Senate and Congress on noted
52:46
Speaker 28: that we are here today. We're not mad. We get tired,
52:53
Speaker 28: but I hope they don't make the same mistake they
52:56
Speaker 28: made with the freedom movement. We came with the freedom movement.
53:02
Speaker 28: We weren't mad. We would get tired. The day of
53:05
Speaker 28: freedom movement could not come back because we're not tired.
53:08
Speaker 28: We're mad now right.
53:15
Speaker 3: You ain't back what you stole from me.
53:17
Speaker 10: You don't have to go harm more. I mean, let
53:21
Speaker 10: us say. People say to me, is it just words?
53:24
Speaker 10: Oh man, it ain't words.
53:25
Speaker 35: And me I mean what I said. I got seven children,
53:29
Speaker 35: I got two sons, o agon seeing the Vietnam War.
53:32
Speaker 35: But my son said I won't go. I said, praise
53:36
Speaker 35: be your name, ch'all you ain't going. No, damn, please,
53:38
Speaker 35: no sad the words. You know, when rescuers is doing
53:42
Speaker 35: I'll tell you what they're doing.
53:43
Speaker 10: We know we need a new welfare system. We don't
53:46
Speaker 10: control that system.
53:47
Speaker 35: We don't need other people telling me what I need,
53:50
Speaker 35: what I should do, where I should go.
53:52
Speaker 10: Hey, I should act.
53:53
Speaker 4: I gonna act like me.
53:56
Speaker 5: The doors of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare
53:59
Speaker 5: were they could not gain entrance.
54:08
Speaker 8: That was her hands.
54:14
Speaker 10: How was the hands of tear gas.
54:17
Speaker 8: A man?
54:21
Speaker 5: They did get into a few congressional offices, but at
54:24
Speaker 5: least in one instance, the perception was somewhat less than friendly.
54:28
Speaker 28: We got the hand.
54:29
Speaker 10: We're gonna tell him he's not gonna tail.
54:30
Speaker 19: And today they really are one of the wrong impression
54:33
Speaker 19: about this whole thing.
54:34
Speaker 10: The state is a black power thing, but.
54:36
Speaker 27: It's not a.
54:41
Speaker 28: You mean you blank it.
54:43
Speaker 5: A black power advocate tried to capitalize on the dilemma
54:47
Speaker 5: of welfare recipient.
54:49
Speaker 17: What we all know this is just as many white people.
54:52
Speaker 3: You know, it doesn't make it a difference.
54:56
Speaker 10: I think I worried about it is my welfare checked.
54:59
Speaker 10: I do want and I don't want him to say.
55:10
Speaker 4: Poverty destroys hope. It breeds crime and revolution.
55:14
Speaker 5: It is perpetuated under a welfare system conceived in and
55:18
Speaker 5: for the Depression that does not work today. This is
55:22
Speaker 5: the only Western country that degrades the poor in the way.
55:25
Speaker 4: It gives welfare aid.
55:27
Speaker 5: In most others, the state provides a family allowance that
55:30
Speaker 5: amounts to an income floor below which no one can fall.
55:35
Speaker 5: An adequate guaranteed minimum income would.
55:38
Speaker 4: Help to destroy the welfare cycle.
55:40
Speaker 5: It could be given in such a way that families
55:42
Speaker 5: would not be broken up, red winners would not be
55:45
Speaker 5: penalized for working. And that's the battle cry of the
55:49
Speaker 5: welfare revolt. Although it's in simpler words, more money now.
55:54
Speaker 5: But what the welfare mothers desperately want is a chance
55:57
Speaker 5: in life for themselves and been more for their children.
56:02
Speaker 3: I oh, come back, it is the