Unlikely Radicals: 1960s welfare mothers

Site #4 Description…

The location on the google map above (4533 N. Sheridan Road) used to be one of the offices of the JOIN Community Union in Uptown.

The SDS comes to uptown

Public memory of the 1960s in America is dominated by the image of scores of young, “hip,” largely white college students, protesting the Vietnam war and radically redefining music, art, and popular culture. The Students for a Democratic Society was set up in 1960 by just such a group of radical white students. They felt that it was crucial to connect protests against the Vietnam War to broader discussions that tied the American state's exploitation of other countries to the exploitation of its own poor people at home. Forming part of what came to be called the "New Left," they were invested in organizing America's working class to set up a revolution. In coalition with the Black Power movements at the time, such as the Student's Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panthers, the SDS also believed that overcoming racism was crucial to bringing together poor Black and white people.

Rennie Davis and others set up an office in Chicago, called JOIN (Jobs or Income Now) Community Union. Whereas they initially sought to ally with workers’ unions in Chicago’s North Side and address the issue of unemployment, they found it difficult to build rapport with the white working-class male workers. These workers were deeply skeptical of the young, white, middle-class SDS organizers and their politics. JOIN, then led by Rennie Davis, found foothold in an unexpected place: when they began speaking to working class women in Uptown about how they could raise their voices against the injustices of the welfare system, they found a different audience.

JOIN and Its "Welfare Mothers"

Whereas the male union worker was traditionally envisioned as the main driver of working-class revolution, the real drivers behind the short-lived, but profoundly impactful life of JOIN were a set of working class mothers who relied on welfare. The welfare system could be particularly traumatizing for the women who relied on it for survival. Welfare recipients, particularly African American single mothers, had to put up with draconian bureaucratic surveillance and often callous and racist caseworkers in order to remain eligible for support.

In 1964, JOIN moved its base to Uptown. By 1966, it had built up a strong group of both white Appalachian and African American women who worked with the student leadership to expand JOIN’s efforts. Mary Hockenberry was among the earliest Appalachian welfare mothers who helped convince more of Uptown’s women that the JOIN group was different from all the other welfare agencies and their patronizing politics. Soon after, Peggy Terry, a Kentucky-born woman with a few years of experience working with anti-racist movements, became part of JOIN. She soon became the spokesperson for JOIN, gaining national prominence, eventually serving as Eldridge Cleaver's running mate for the 1968 presidential race on the ticket of the Peace and Freedom Party. In 1966, Dovie Thurman and her aunt, Dovie Coleman (who came to be known as “Little” and “Big” Dovie, respectively) became part of JOIN, helping JOIN develop interracial solidarity between white Southerners and Blacks in Uptown—a difficult and sometimes fraught process that entailed changes within JOIN first.

These women helped the student organizers learn an important lesson: organizing must be on the terms of, and led by, those who are being organized. Instead of talking idealistically about workers’ revolution, JOIN’s SDS leadership learned to take up the various issues that mattered to Uptown’s poor people, resulting in several successful actions in the next year.

Poor People's Power

JOIN, along with the Hank Williams Village movement, became part of a new wave of poor people's power in Uptown. JOIN picketed welfare offices to demand changes, and successfully advocated in individual cases where welfare-seekers were treated unfairly.

The slum-like conditions in Uptown were often blamed on the residents themselves through stereotypes of poor and racialized people, but the real reason for the dilapidated state of the neighborhood were slumlords who aimed to cut costs by refusing to maintain buildings, even engaging in arson to collect insurance. JOIN helped tenants to form unions and withhold rent until landlords agreed to carry out maintenance, keep rents affordable, and bargain for better lease contracts. JOIN spoke out against lead poisoning caused by cheap paint, often disabling and even fatal for young children.

JOIN also demanded poor people’s representation in urban renewal bodies, which refused to include them as decision-makers, instead only agreeing to "consult" them on issues relating to the community.

Through The Firing Line, JOIN's newsletter, then edited by Peggy Terry, and activities like study classes and community theater, JOIN encouraged Uptowners to develop their own narratives about their experiences, and develop strategies for change.

The Uptown Goodfellows, a gang of young white Southern men, also became an important part of JOIN. They raised their voices against the everyday police brutality faced by those in the community. Challenging the racial animosity that shaped gang and neighborhood relations in poor communities, they also spoke out against the racism prevalent within Southern migrant communities.

By 1968, however, JOIN could not survive the government crackdown on its efforts, much like other radical organizations at the time, and external pressure worsened internal schisms between the student leadership and local organizers. The latter believed that the movement must now be driven by them, and not by middle-class outsiders. Around 1968, SDS left Uptown, JOIN folded. JOIN’s short life is widely considered a case study for the failure of New Left movements in America.

However, as you take this tour of Uptown, you will encounter a different story. JOIN was simply an entry point into politics for many Uptowners, who gained the confidence and know-how to organize and demand their rights in a democratic context. After JOIN closed, in large part due to police repression, its members continued their political engagement as part of a range of organizations. Their work laid the basis for poor people's power in Uptown.

The welfare mothers continued pressurizing the welfare system through Welfare Recipients Demand Action (WRDA), which linked up with other welfare rights organizations in Chicago.  In 1968, Peggy Terry ran for vice presidency as running mate for the Black Panther Party’s Eldridge Cleaver, countering those like George Wallace, the openly white supremacist independent presidential candidate.

When the Poor People's Campaign began in 1968 under Dr. King Jr.'s leadership, Dovie Thurman became the Chicago representative.

Some of the SDS students who stayed back set up Rising Up Angry, a newsletter and a pressure group that fought for poor people’s rights. The Goodfellows went on to form the Young Patriots Organization, which gained national prominence when it became part of the interracial political group, the Original Rainbow Coalition.

In general, amid the mushrooming of welfare agencies in Uptown, there also emerged several citizens’ groups that involved poor people advocating for their own interests. In the following decades, even as the “war on poverty” program came to an end, and poor people faced a steady erosion of the channels through which they could access basic resources and democratic decision-making, the poor people of Uptown have consistently fought for their rights.

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