But What About the Children?

Children at the Howard Orphanage and Industrial School

     Despite an early 20^th century movement away from children providing labor for their parents to parents being viewed as the most important aspect of a child’s development and well-being, this change in status did not extend to African American children and their families. Unfortunately, due to discrimination and racial oppression, child welfare services were extremely neglectful of the African American community.

Issues in Child Welfare

Exclusion from Public Service

     In the early years of American social welfare, African Americans were often excluded from receiving public services, and child welfare services were no exception. Few child welfare institutions accepted African American children. Many of these children were sent to institutions for delinquent children or even adult prisons, despite the fact that they had not committed a crime. Southern African American children were still being sent to jail or reform school late into the 20th century, if you can believe it. It was not an uncommon sight to see African American children in juvenile courts being sentenced to reformatories, their only crime being that they were a child in need of help.

Mutual Aid and Social Responsibility

      So what was to be done for these children being denied access to traditional welfare services? Well, this is where mutual aid and social responsibility came into play. The main source of child welfare support in African American communities, these concepts have their roots in pre-slavery Africa, where shared parenting was common and all men were "fathers" and all women were "mothers". They would later continue into the times of slavery and became a major part of what would develop into African American culture and religion. Post-slavery, many farming families lived with three generations under one roof; the grandparents cared for the children while the parents were out working. Since they were excluded from traditional homes and asylums, African American children had to rely on relatives for their welfare. Families were often made up of many different combinations of relations and at times even extended to non-related persons, as well. Family support provided financial support, shared households, and shared child rearing. Grandparents often took custody of children after the death of their parents or if the parents left the area to find work.

Systems of Care

Churches

     African American churches often provided protection for children in the place of child welfare agencies, as well as support for orphanages and kindergartens. They helped to maintain the African American family by providing spiritual, moral, emotional and financial support. Church members were often considered part of the extended family and could be counted on the help feed, clothe, house, and nurture children in need. 

Schools

     African Americans saw school as a means to social advancement and betterment. As an added bonus, the actual school facilities themselves provided meeting space for organizations like the women's clubs that developed and sponsored welfare programs and places that lecture programs, night school, and conferences could be held.

     

Lodges and Secret Organizations

     African American males founded lodges and secret organizations such as the Masons, the Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias that would come to help fundraise for many welfare causes. While not permitted to be members, women helped by organizing complimentary auxiliaries. 

Women's Clubs

     Beginning as a Northern institution, these organizations established settlement houses, and lent their support to hospitals, homes for children, reformatories, and kindergartens. Their members believed in the traditional role of women as caretakers and included the plight of others in society in their caretaking responsibilities.

Individual Philanthropists

Eartha Mary Magdalene White-Started Boys' Improvement Club in 1904

     Predominant African American figures that managed to achieve impressive wealth during their lives often supported child welfare programs. They left whole estates to support homes and hospitals, provided money for scholarships, started their own children's homes, or donated to many causes over a span of many decades.

Types of Child Welfare Services

Orphanages

Carrie Steele

     African American children were not accepted into mainstream orphanages until the 1960s, a time when orphanages were no longer being called such and were then becoming known as residential treatment centers. There were some African American run orphanages that were housed in private homes, but these places were often closed after the individual that owned the home passed away. There were also a few formal orphanages for African American children that were sponsored by organizations such as the Masons and the Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. One predominant figure in this arena was Carrie Steele, a laborer, who noticed a large amount of homeless children around her job and was then moved to find a way to help those children and those like them. She bought some farm land and built a cottage where she would later come to house more than 50 children. The girls helped manage the home and take care of the younger children and the boys worked the farm.

Combined Facilities

     Combined facilities were homes that housed both children and the elderly. They were usually sponsored by organizations, meaning they had a more stable financial base. These facilities were one of the primary places of care for young Black children through the 20th century.

Kindergartens

     Studies completed in the late 1800s showed that African American children were not receiving constant quality care while their parents were are work. Primarily organized by women, kindergartens were supposed to be the answer to this problem. They were funded by donations from churches, private individuals, and organizations. The only people involved that were paid were the teachers as the board members that kept the programs open volunteered their time and energy. 

Homes for Working Girls

Born a slave, Victoria Earle Matthews later founded the White Rose Home and Industrial Association for Working Girls

     These homes were started by women's organizations and private individuals. They were meant to assist young girls and women that had left their family and friends behind to migrate North in other to find work. These homes provided safe housing for the girls, as well as help finding jobs. Additional pluses of the homes includes providing the women with opportunities to socialize and additional emotional and financial support.

Homes for Wayward Children

The "Honor" Cottage at The Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls

     Homes for wayward children were often used to house juvenile delinquents, but were also sometimes used to house children that were in not in any actual trouble of just because there were no orphanages or homes to place them in. In the case of young girls, these homes provided training in academics, job skills, religion, crop harvesting, and household management. They also provided the girls with cultural and recreational activities. While living in the home, the girls were encouraged to be honest, openly communicate, cooperate, have pride, and provide service to others. The girls would be punished for escaping, insubordination, stealing, lying, fighting, etc. by being given demerits and were on an honor system that helped them work towards the coveted designation of "honor girl". After two years of positive performance, the girls were "paroled" and place with families (Black, White, or even their family of origin), that were then responsible for supporting them and continuing their education. 

Children-Focused Programs

     Two important children-focused programs were the Boy Scouts and Home and Babies. It took 21 long years for the first African American Boy Scouts chapter to be approved, but once it was, it did very well. Homes and Babies presented programs called "baby shows" that included a showing of healthy babies and child welfare lectures.

Adoption

     Adoption was very uncommon for African American children. As late as the 1940s, African Americans were often denied the ability to adopt or be adopted. One exception was the inclusion of African American children in "special needs" adoption listings. These types of adoptions were those considered to be difficult, risky, and likely to fail. In the mid-1950s, however, a movement started which promoted adoption by African Americans, but generally, African Americans were forced to rely on unofficial, informal adoptions.