Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Law and the State, 1920–2000: Institutional Growth and Structural Change
- 2 Legal Theory And Legal Education, 1920–2000
- 3 The American Legal Profession, 1870–2000
- 4 The Courts, Federalism, and The Federal Constitution, 1920–2000
- 5 The Litigation Revolution
- 6 Criminal Justice in the United States
- 7 Law and Medicine
- 8 The Great Depression and the New Deal
- 9 Labor’s Welfare State: Defining Workers, Constructing Citizens
- 10 Poverty law and income Support: From the Progressive Era to the War on Welfare
- 11 The Rights Revolution in the Twentieth Century
- 12 Race and Rights
- 13 Heterosexuality as a Legal Regime
- 14 Law and the Environment
- 15 Agriculture and the State, 1789–2000
- 16 Law and Economic Change During the Short Twentieth Century
- 17 The Corporate Economy: Ideologies of Regulation and Antitrust, 1920–2000
- 18 Law and Commercial Popular Culture in the Twentieth-Century United States
- 19 Making Law, Making War, Making America
- 20 Law, Lawyers, and Empire
- Bibliographic Essays
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
- References
10 - Poverty law and income Support: From the Progressive Era to the War on Welfare
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
- Frontmatter
- 1 Law and the State, 1920–2000: Institutional Growth and Structural Change
- 2 Legal Theory And Legal Education, 1920–2000
- 3 The American Legal Profession, 1870–2000
- 4 The Courts, Federalism, and The Federal Constitution, 1920–2000
- 5 The Litigation Revolution
- 6 Criminal Justice in the United States
- 7 Law and Medicine
- 8 The Great Depression and the New Deal
- 9 Labor’s Welfare State: Defining Workers, Constructing Citizens
- 10 Poverty law and income Support: From the Progressive Era to the War on Welfare
- 11 The Rights Revolution in the Twentieth Century
- 12 Race and Rights
- 13 Heterosexuality as a Legal Regime
- 14 Law and the Environment
- 15 Agriculture and the State, 1789–2000
- 16 Law and Economic Change During the Short Twentieth Century
- 17 The Corporate Economy: Ideologies of Regulation and Antitrust, 1920–2000
- 18 Law and Commercial Popular Culture in the Twentieth-Century United States
- 19 Making Law, Making War, Making America
- 20 Law, Lawyers, and Empire
- Bibliographic Essays
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
- References
Summary
The roots of poverty law stretch back to the late nineteenth century, when privately funded organizations arose to provide legal assistance to poor immigrants. Legal aid offered services to people who could not afford to pay for them, often helping them secure money that was owed when deserting husbands failed to pay child support or when unscrupulous employers failed to meet the terms of the wage contract. But although legal aid did often secure funds owed to indigent clients, the purpose and focus of assistance were to open access to the justice system, not to assure poor people an income.
Poverty law can be distinguished from ordinary legal aid in that the heart of poverty law is advocacy for poor people’s access to resources. A political practice as much as it is a legal analysis, poverty law emerged as a coherent body of law and legal advocacy during the 1960s, when the civil rights movement, the War on Poverty, the introduction of public legal services for poor people, and grassroots welfare activism combined in an ambitious legal and political movement to secure rights for economically disfranchised people. Poverty lawyers challenged the differential legal treatment of low-income individuals, especially those who needed government assistance. They also developed affirmative claims for income support as part of an overall strategy to increase resources for poor people and win rights for welfare recipients.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Law in America , pp. 359 - 376Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008