The University of North Carolina Press

272 pp., 61/8 x 91/4, 8 illus., notes, bibl., index

Cloth

ISBN  978-0-8078-3024-6

Published: May 2006

Paper

ISBN  978-0-8078-5688-8

Published: May 2006

The Segregated Origins of Social Security

African Americans and the Welfare State

By Mary Poole

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The relationship between welfare and racial inequality has long been understood as a fight between liberal and conservative forces. In The Segregated Origins of Social Security, Mary Poole challenges that basic assumption. Meticulously reconstructing the behind-the-scenes politicking that gave birth to the 1935 Social Security Act, Poole demonstrates that segregation was built into the very foundation of the welfare state because white policy makers--both liberal and conservative--shared an interest in preserving white race privilege.

Although northern white liberals were theoretically sympathetic to the plight of African Americans, Poole says, their primary aim was to save the American economy by salvaging the pride of America's "essential" white male industrial workers. The liberal framers of the Social Security Act elevated the status of Unemployment Insurance and Social Security--and the white workers they were designed to serve--by differentiating them from welfare programs, which served black workers.

Revising the standard story of the racialized politics of Roosevelt's New Deal, Poole's arguments also reshape our understanding of the role of public policy in race relations in the twentieth century, laying bare the assumptions that must be challenged if we hope to put an end to racial inequality in the twenty-first.

About the Author

Mary Poole teaches history at Prescott College in Arizona. She previously served as an analyst with the Washington State Senate, where she drafted the budget for state and federal welfare programs.

Reviews

"Poole's book is a page-turner as she exposes the nature of the rise of social security legislation during the Great Depression. . . . Simply a must-read. . . . While it is often difficult to find excitement in a subject as turbid as the history of Social Security, Poole has managed to do this in an extraordinary manner."
--Journal of International Affairs

"Mary Poole [contributes] significantly to the debate regarding the role of race in the history of welfare state development."
--Deborah E. Ward, Journal of American History

"In this important and revealing study, Mary Poole calls into question the usual characterization of the origins of Social Security in the New Deal as the simple triumph of liberals over conservatives. She shows how a shared commitment to protecting white privilege shaped a program that preserved structures of racism even as it ameliorated the worst effects of capitalism in the lives of white workers. Carefully researched and clearly written, the book casts new light on the complex origins of welfare policy in the United States."
--Joan W. Scott, Institute for Advanced Study

"This is an important and original work. Historians have never before viewed the policy decisions surrounding the Social Security Act at such close range, and Poole's work of historical reconstruction is a valuable achievement. She plumbs vital sources--particularly the records of the Committee on Economic Security, the Children's Bureau, and the NAACP--and sheds new light on racial meaning and content in the act's beginnings."
--Robert C. Lieberman, Columbia University