Providing welfare benefits to poor people has been a controversial issue throughout U.S. history. Since the colonial period, government welfare policy has reflected the belief that people are responsible for their poverty leading to the principle that governmental benefits are a privilege and not a right(Wests 310).

The term “social welfare” came into affect shortly after 1900 to replace the older phrase “Charity and Correction”. In the nineteenth century, people thought of this charity as an organized benefit for the “dependent, defective, and delinquent classes”(Leiby 1978, 10). “Dependent” meant those people who had an insufficient income and no family members who felt the need to support them. They had no other choice but to turn to charity. “Defective” meant the physically and mentally handicapped or disabled who needed some supervision in order to live. And “Delinquent” meant the people who were so out of control that they needed some aid to help them.

Before the 1900’s welfare was basically charity give

stay of ten years or more(Weaver 1999, 24). These are outstanding numbers and should definitely be moved down. Why do recipients stay on welfare so long and not just get a job? Maybe it is because welfare benefits are so high that it makes no sense for them to go to work. Many people are so dependent on welfare and it is had for them to get a job that even compares to what they are getting from benefits. Many welfare recipients lack the education they need to get good paying jobs. AFDC recipients, and especially those who remain on welfare the longest, have less than a high school education and did very poor on standardized achievement tests(Weaver 1999, 26).

On Mother’s Day in 1968, more than 5,000 black women marched through Washington, D.C., to mark the opening of the Poor People’s Campaign, a mass protest against the problems that the poor people in

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