States of dependency: welfare, rights, and American governance, 1935-1972

In: Studies in legal history

Abstract

"As President John F. Kennedy declared the nation at a promising and perilous "New Frontier"-"a turning-point in history" -Newburgh, New York, seemed to belong in the proverbial dust heap with the rest of the detritus of the past. Once the headquarters for George Washington and the Continental Army, and later a hub for industry and transportation, Newburgh was falling into ruin. Its population was declining, its housing stock decaying, and its economy failing. City Manager Joseph McDowell Mitchell claimed to know exactly whom to blame: the city's hundreds of "chiselers and loafers," "freeload[ing]" migrants, "social parasites," and "illegitimate children." They burned through "taxpayer" dollars, he alleged, bringing in return only crime, blight, and immoral behavior. If Newburgh could simply reassert traditional, local controls over the poor, he insisted, the city would recover its former glory"--