"The crime of survival": Fraud prosecutions, community surveillance, and the original "welfare queen"

Journal of Social History

Volumn 41, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 329-354

  Kohler Hausmann, Julilly ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN   (United States)

^b Department of History ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 38849178170     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh.2008.0002     Document Type: Article

References (145)

1. Vivyan Adair, "Branded with Infamy: Inscriptions of Poverty and Class in the United States," Signs 27, no. 2 (Winter 2002): 465.
2. Wahneema Lubiano, "Black Ladies, Welfare Queens, and State Minstrels: Ideological War by Narrative Means" in Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power, ed. Toni Morrison (New York, 1992), 323-363. Lubiano argues that the welfare queen is held responsible for an array of social problems, such as crime and drug abuse.
3. One thoughtful exception is Rickie Solinger, Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States (New York, 2001), 139-182.
4. Martin Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfare (Chicago, 1999), 64.
5. See Robert Lieberman, Shifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State (Cambridge, MA, 1998);
6. Michael Brown, Race, Money, and the Welfare State (Ithaca, NY, 1991);
7. Jill Quadango, The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty (New York, 1994);
8. Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (New York, 1998);
9. and Kenneth Neubeck and Noel Cazenave, Welfare Racism (New York, 2001).
10. See Linda Gordon, Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, ¡890-1935 (New York, 1994);
11. Alice Kessler-Harris, In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America (Oxford, 2001 );
12. and Gwendolyn Mink, Welfare's End (Ithaca, NY, 1998).
13. See Herbert J. Gans, The War Against the Poor: The Underclass and Antipoverty Policy (New York, 1995);
14. Michael Katz, The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare (New York, 1989);
15. and Michael Katz, ed., The Underclass Debate: Views from History (Princeton, 1993).
16. For additional examples, see Joel Handler, The Poverty of Welfare Reform (New Haven, CT, 1995);
17. Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare (New York, 1971);
18. and Laura Briggs, "La Vida, Moynihan, and other Libels: Migration, Social Science and the Making of the Puerto Rican Welfare Queen," Centro Journal 14, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 75-101.
19. Historians of the National Welfare Rights Organization are an important exception. They focus on the activism and ideology of welfare recipients. See Felicia Kornbluh, "A Right to Welfare? Poor Women, Professionals, and Poverty Programs: 1935-1975" (PhD diss, Princeton University, 2000); Felicia Kornbluh, "To Fulfill Their 'Rightly Needs': Consumerism and the National Welfare Rights Movement," Radical History Review 69 (Fall 1997): 76-113;
20. and Premilla Nadasen, Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States (New York, 2004).
21. For some background into this debate, see Katz, ed., The "Underclass" Debate: Views from History,
22. Some scholars argued that working-class whites resented African Americans' new rights because they wete forced to shoulder the burden of remedying past injustices and felt abandoned by the Democratic Party. See Thomas Byrne Edsall and Mary Edsall, Chain Reaction (New York, 1991);
23. and Jim Sleeper, Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York (New York, 1999). Others asserted that these conceptualizations of backlash obscuted the extent to which gains by African Americans threatened the racial distribution of resources that had benefited whites for generations.
24. See Linda Williams, The Constraint of Race (University Park, PA, 2003). Thomas Sugrue and Arnold Hirsch show that backlash proponents often fail to consider the longer history of hostility toward civil rights and integration, which predated the high profile activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
25. See Arnold Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960 (Cambridge, UK, 1983);
26. and Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton, NJ, 1996).
27. Neubeck and Cazenave, Welfare Racism, 124.
28. For a discussion of other reasons anti-welfare attitudes heightened during the 1970s, see Nadasen, Welfare Warriors, 194-199.
29. Arrests and criminal indictments have historically served key roles in heightening stigmatization. See, for example, Ellen Schrecker's discussion of how criminal prosecutions of Communists during the 1940s hardened public opinion against the Patty. Ellen Schtecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyi.sm in America (Princeton, NJ, 1998), 120.
30. See, for example, Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: the Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge, MA, 1992);
31. Molly Ladd-Taylor, Mother-Work: Women, Child Welfare, and the State, 1890-1930 (Urbana, 1994);
32. and Joanne Goodwin, Gender and the Politics of Welfare Reform: Mothers' Pensions in Chicago, 1911¡929 (Chicago, 1997).
33. Sec Kat:, The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare;
34. Winifred Bell, Aid to Dependent Children (New York, 1965);
35. and Gordon, Pitied hut Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, 1890-1935.
36. Gordon, Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, 1890-1935. For the early history of fraud investigations in Illinois' mother's pension program,
37. see Joanne Goodwin, Gender and the Politics of Welfare Reform: Mothers' Pensions in Chicago, 1911-1929 (Chicago, 1997).
38. See Mary Poole, The Segregated Origins of Social Security: African Americans and the Welfare State (Chapel Hill, 2006);
39. and Linda Faye Williams, The Constraint of Race: Legacies of White Skin Privilege in America (University Park, PA, 2003).
40. Bell, Aid to Dependent Children.
41. Rickie Solinger, Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States, 139-148.
42. See also Piven and Cloward, Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare.
43. Kornbluh, "To Fulfill their 'Rightly Needs': Consumerism and the National Welfare Rights Movement" and Nadasen, Welfare Warriors.
44. Gwendolyn Mink, Welfare's End (Ithaca, NY, 1998), 49-52.
45. Mink, Welfare's End, 55.
46. Solinger, Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States, 145-152.
47. Neubeck and Cazenave, Welfare Racism, 78-92.
48. Mink, Welfare's End, 52.
49. Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Dream (New York, 2001 ), 130.1 would like to thank Jason Kozlowski for bringing this to my attention.
50. Neubeck and Cazenave, Welfare Racism, 92-109.
51. Ibid., 112-114.
52. Ibid., 108-109.
53. Premilla Nadasen, Welfare Warriors, 196-199.
54. Guy Drake, "Welfare Cadillac," CowboyLyrics.com, http://www.cowboylyrics.com/ tabs/drake-guy/welfare-cadillac-6468.html (accessed June 12, 2006).
55. "Nixon's Numbers," Time Magazine, 13 April 1970. I am indebted to Brandon Mills for telling me about this event.
56. Draft of Sen. Don Moore's speech before Welfare Association, [1974?], Legislative Advisory Committee on Public Aid, Administtative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives, p. 2.
57. Ibid. See also Annual Report: Illinois Department of Public Aid, 1974. Published by the Office of Public Information, Springfield IL, 19.
58. "Welfare Cheats Find 'Easy Street' Has a Dead End," Chicago Tribune, 26 March 1978, sec. 1, p. 25.
59. John Gardiner and Theodore Lyman, The Fraud ControlGame (Bloomington, 1984), 147.
60. Jane Fritch, "Welfare Queen Becomes Case Study," Chicago Tribune, 29 October 1978, p. 2.
61. George Bliss, "Cops Find Deceit-But No One Cares," Chicago Tribune, 20 September 1974, p. 3.
62. George Bliss, "Panel Probes Welfare Cheating Charges," Chicago Tribune, 14 November 1974, p. 14.
63. David Zucchino, Myth of the Welfare Queen (New York, 1997), 65.
64. William Griffin, "Policy Chief's Estate an 11 -year Game," Chicago Tribune, 20 February 1975, p. 1;
65. George Bliss and William Griffin, "Probe Aid Queen Tie to Kidnapping," Chicago Tribune, 21 March 1975, p. 3;
66. William Griffin, " 'Welfare Queen' Is Under New Probe," Chicago Tribune 10 April 1975, sec. A, p. 8;
67. William Griffin, "Welfare Queen's Role-Was It Voodoo Spell?," Chicago Tribune, 29 July 1975, p. 6;
68. William Griffin, "Medical 'Practice' just that for Welfare Queen," Chicago Tribune, 14 July 1975, p. 3;
69. and George Bliss, " 'Welfare Queen' charged with stealing furnishings," Chicago Tribune, 26 February 1976, sec, A, p. 6.
70. " 'Welfare Queen' Becomes Issue in Reagan Campaign," New York Times, 15 February 1976, p. 51.
71. For writings about the implications of the welfare queen in later periods, see the important discussions in Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty; Lubiano, "Black Ladies, Welfare Queens, and State Minstrels: Ideological War by Narrative Means";
72. and Ange-Marie Hancock, Politics of Disgust: The Public Identity of the "Welfare Queen" (New York, 2004).
73. Report to the Legislative Advisory Committee by James Ttainor, Director of the Department of Public Aid, 17 March 1976, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.002, Illinois State Archives, 8.
74. Annual Report: Illinois Department of Public Aid, 1974. Published by the Office of Public Information, Springfield IL, 32, See, also, graphs on pages 10 and 11.
75. Neal Caauwe, Fred Pennix, Gerald Kush, and Jack Sherwin, Progress report by investigative unit of the Legislative Advisory Committee, 14 and 19 November 1974, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives, 6.
76. Gardiner and Lyman, The Fraud Control Game, 155.
77. Neal Caauwe, Fred Pennix, Gerald Kush, and Jack Sherwin, Progress report by investigative unit of the Legislative Advisory Committee, 1.
78. In numerous letters, investigators and other committee staff demanded progress reports on leads from LAC-. The committee also called representatives from the State's Attorney's office before the committee to testify as to why they were not more effective at convicting welfare cheaters. See, for example, Testimony of Mr. Gross before the Legislative Advisory Committee on Public Aid, 22 March 1977, Legislative Advisory Committee, Committee Meeting Minutes, 616.001, Illinois State Archives, 89-123.
79. Draft of Sen. Don Moore's speech before Welfare Association, 2.
80. Gardiner and Lyman, The Fraud Control Game, 163.
81. Ibid., 161, 188.
82. Report to the Legislative Advisory Committee by James Trainor, Director of the Department of Public Aid, 17 March 1976, Legislative Advisory Committee, Meeting Minutes Summaries, 616.002, Illinois State Archives, 7.
83. Sociologist Harry Murphy called this practice "deniable degradation." Harry Murphy, "Deniable Degradation: the Finger Imaging of Welfare Recipients," Sociological Forum 15 no. 1 (2000): 39-63.
84. "Way to Curb Aid Abuse; Judge Backs Welfare Fingerprinting," Chicago Tribune, 24 April 1979, p. 3 and Robert Carleson, Commissioner of Welfare, Department of Health, Education and Welfare to Don Moore, Chairman of Legislative Advisory Committee, 29October 1974, Legislative Advisory Committee, Meeting Minutes Summaries, 616.002, Illinois State Archives.
85. Jay Branegan, "State Calls Courts 'Soft' of Aid Fraud," Chicago Tribune, 19 February 1978, p. 44.
86. Jane Fritch, "Welfare Queen Becomes Case Study," p. 2.
87. Disposition of Public Assistance Cases involving Questions of Fraud, (U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, National Center for Social Statistics, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1979). These numbers reflect those cases suspected of deliberate and, therefore, possibly criminal fraud. They do not reflect the number of people whose grants were adjusted and cancelled through other routine aspects of the anti-fraud initiatives, such as the redetermination and data matching programs discussed above. It is extremely difficult to access the number of recipients directly materially affected by the campaigns. For example, many people probably removed themselves from the rolls to avoid sctutiny or sanction after hearing about the new policies. Those cases would obviously not be reflected in the official numbers.
88. Transcripts of Illinois House Debates, 11 November 1977, 10.
89. "Leaders Meet on Poor," Chicago Defender, 26 November 1977, p. 3.
90. Press release by Senator Richard Newhouse, February 21, 1978, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
91. Ibid.
92. "Jesse Rips State Welfare Plan," Chicago Tribune, 31 May 1974, p. 8.
93. David Garino, "Chasing the Cheats; Drive Against Fraud in Obtaining Welfate Is Gaining Momentum," Wall Street Journal, 18 November 1976, p. 1.
94. Neal Caauwe, Fred Pennix, Gerald Kush, and Jack Sherwin, Progress report by investigative unit of the Legislative Advisory Committee, 2.
95. Joel Edelman, Executive Director of LAC, to Clayton Kitkpatrick, Editor of the Chicago Tribune, 17 February 1976, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
96. See for example Jay Branegan, "State Calls Courts Soft on Fraud," Chicago Tribune, 19 February 1978, p. 44.
97. Ted Chan, "Welfare: What Can a Small Staff Accomplish?," Markham Star Tribune, 1 April, 1976, p. 1.
98. See, for example, Jay Branegan, "Jury Indicts 53 for $508,000 in Welfare Fraud," Chicago Tribune, 20 July 1978, p. 2;
99. Jane Fritsch, "31 More Indicted in Welfare Fraud Probe;
100. Total Now 342," Chicago Tribune, 1 May 1979, p. 3;
101. and Jane Fritsch, "75 Indicted in Welfare Fraud, Netting More than $1 million," Chicago Tribune, 29 June 1979, p. Dl.
102. Letter to the Editor by Al Jaburck, "Fraud sentences," Chicago Tribune, 5 March 1978, sec. 2, p. 4.
103. Letter to the Editor, Chicago Tribune, 18 May 1978, sec. 3, p. 2.
104. Rep. Thomas Miller to Don Moore, 10 February 1976, Legislative Advisory Committee, Cotrespondence Files, 616.004, Illinois State Archives. The poll was taken in Decembet, 1975-January 1976 in Illinois' 10th legislative district (which included South Holland, Dolton, Harvey, Lansing, Riverdale and Thornton.)
105. Remarks by Samuel Skinner, Secretary's National Convention on Fraud, Abuse, and Error: Conference Proceedings (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfate, 1978), 21.
106. "Welfare Fraud 'Hotline' Pays Off for Taxpayer," Chicago Tribune, 1 January 1978, sec. 3, p. 6.
107. Gardiner and Lyman, The Fraud Control Game, 155.
108. Ibid., 155.
109. Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumer's Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York, 2003), 368-388.
110. Kornbluh, "To Fulfill their 'Rightly Needs': Consumerism and the National Welfare Rights Movement."
111. Ibid., 79.
112. Anonymous letter to Senator John Carroll, [1970?], Legislative Advisory Committee on Public Aid, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
113. Memo regarding Géraldine, 13 October 1971, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives. I have removed the last names of those charged with welfare fraud who did not choose to be included in these public records. I have retained the names of people who spoke in public forums, such as to the media or at legislative hearings.
114. Anonymous letter to Senator John Carroll, [1970?], Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
115. "1,000 Cheats a Month," Chicago Defender, 17 December 1977, p. 1.
116. John Knoll to Don Moore, 24 June 1974, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
117. Anonymous letter addressed to "Gentlemen," July 1974, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
118. Ibid.
119. Ibid.
120. For a discussion of how African American ownership of luxury goods, especially the Cadillac, challenged white cultural norms, see George Lipsitz, "'Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac': Antiblack Racism and White Identity," The Possessive Investment in Whiteness (Philadelphia, 1998), 158-183.
121. Daniel Egler, "Welfare Fraud 'Hotline' Pays Off for Taxpayers," Chicago Tribune, 2 January 1978, p. 136.
122. Welfare fraud report on Beverly, [Feb-March, 1975?], Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
123. People of the State of Illinois vs. Bobbie Baugh, 80-1456, (Appellate Court of Illinois 1st District, 4th Division, 28 May 1981 ). Although most of the events regarding this case occurred around 1977, it did not reach the appellate level until 1981.
124. Nasaden argues that welfare activists advocated for credit cards in order to replace these outward signs of poverty. Premilla Nadasen, Welfare Warriors, 114.
125. See Kathryn Edin, "There's a Lot of Month Left at the End of the Money: How Welfare Recipients in Chicago Make Ends Meet" (Ph.D. diss., Notthwestern University, 1989).
126. Neubeck and Cazenave, Welfare Racism, 100.
127. Lee Strobel, "Coalition of 40 Groups Backs 10 Percent Aid Payment Hikes," Chicago Tribune 11 June 1974, p. 3.
128. For one example, see Mae Gentry, "Man Indicted for Fraud Blames Welfare System," Chicago Defender, 14 October 1978.
129. Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumer's Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Post-War America, 389.
130. William Juneau, "Aid Cheat ordered to pay pack $13,024," Chicago Tribune 28 June 1974, p. 1.
131. Welfare fraud report on Anna, 10 March 1977, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
132. Welfare fraud report on Luretha, 17 April 1975, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
133. Welfare fraud report on Lancie, 10 March 1977, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
134. Edin, "There's a Lot of Month Left at the End of the Money: How Welfare Recipients in Chicago Make Ends Meet," 253. Edin suggests that the percentage might have been even higher since many respondents were probably not convinced of the survey's confidentiality.
135. Derrick Blakley, "Red Tape of Public Aid Job Pushes Her Off Payroll, Onto Welfare Rolls," Chicago Tribune 25 June 1974, sec. 4A, p. 1.
136. "Welfare Cheats Find 'Easy Street' Had Dead End," Chicago Tribune, sec. 1, p. 25.
137. Ibid.
138. Welfare fraud report on Beverly, [Feb-March, 1975?], Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives.
139. Mae Gentry, "Man Indicted for Fraud Blames Welfare System," Chicago Defender, 14 October 1978.
140. Ibid.
141. Testimony of Mary Cowherd before Sub-Committee on Emergency Assistance on LAC, 29 November 1976, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives, 66.
142. Verbatim testimony of Kathi Gunlogson, 2 February 1979, Commission to Rewrite the Public Aid Code, Meeting Minutes and Transcripts, 557.003, Illinois State Archives, 122.
143. Testimony of Frank Smith before Sub-Committee on Emergency Assistance, 29 November 1976, Legislative Advisory Committee, Administrative Files, 616.003, Illinois State Archives, 26-28.
144. Gentry, "Man Indicted for Fraud Blames Welfare System."
145. Fot example, in 1974, even after a 10% cost of living inctease, the cash grant totaled $3,804 a year for a family of four. The poverty threshold, according to the fedetal government, was $5,038. It should also be noted that the fedetal poverty thresholds arc frequently critiqued for underestimating the actual costs of living, especially in metropolitan areas. Annual Report: Illinois Department of Public Aid, 1974. Published by the Office of Public Information, Springfield IL, 27; and "Historical Poverty Tables-Poverty by Definition of Income," U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/hhes/ poverty/histpov/rdp01a.html (accessed September 15, 2006).