The Care of Dependent African-American Children in Chicago: The Struggle Between Black Self-Help and Professionalism

• Published in: Journal of social history 1994-06, Vol.27 (4), p.763-776
• Main Author: O Donnell, Sandra M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African American children; African Americans; Black communities; Black history; Charities; Charity; Child care; Child welfare; Child welfare services; Children; Foster children; Indexing in process; Professionalism; Progressive Era; Self help; Social aspects; Social case work; Social services; Social welfare; Social work; Social work with; Welfare
• ISSN: 0022-4529; 1527-1897
• DOI: 10.1353/jsh/27.4.763

This paper describes and analyzes the shift in responsibility-from black self-help charities to professional social welfare agencies-for the care of African-American dependent children in Chicago during the Progressive and post-World War I eras. Black self-help programs were characterized by group living, an emphasis on "industrial" programs that would prepare children for the labor force, and a willingness to supplement rather than substitute for parental care. Professional programs, on the other hand, emphasized substitute foster family care and, later, diagnosis and treatment of interpersonal problems. Social welfare professionals justified their efforts to quell black self-help by maintaining that the African-American programs were out of step with modern policy visions, and that they suffered from poor administration and fiscal management. The paper argues that the professionalization of social welfare services for black children helped them gain access to adequately supported and nondiscriminatory public services. But because African-American controlled services were simultaneously discouraged, black children lost access to private sector, community based services. The exclusion of the African-American community from responsibility for the care of dependent children remains a major unresolved problem in child welfare to this day.