Date of Award
7-2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
History
Department
History
Major Professor
Krochmal, Max
Second Advisor
Mitchell, Mary N.
Third Advisor
Garrett-Scott, Shennette
Abstract
The historic marginalization of Black womens’ work coupled with systematic injustice upheld by destructive state welfare policies did not deter women from organizing for their rights as working-mothers in New Orleans. Histories on welfare rights have not given enough attention to the fight of welfare mothers in the region since the 1980s. The leadership and consciousness-raising strategies of Black women involved in civil and welfare rights have been and continue to be a core part of activist organizing. Low wages and unstable employment forced Black working mothers to become welfare recipients. Grassroots organizing, like that of Ms. Viola Francois Washington’s New Orleans Welfare Rights Organization (NOWRO), exemplifies the mobilization of the poor to defy the myths of the Black welfare mother. Through oral histories, newspaper articles, and archival material on the community involvement and politics of the NOWRO in the 1980s and 1990s, this thesis highlights the significance of activist efforts and strategies of Black Women in the Crescent City in their fight for dignity.
Recommended Citation
Ellis, Erleen, "“Rest if You Must, but Don’t Quit”: Black Women’s work and welfare in the New Orleans Welfare Rights Organization, 1970s-1990s" (2025). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 3303.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/3303
Included in
Labor History Commons, Oral History Commons, Public History Commons, Social History Commons
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.