The History of Child Welfare in Louisiana, 1850-1960
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
This dissertation has been 69- 11,681 microfilmed exactly as received MORAN, Sr., Robert Earl, 1921- THE HISTORY OF CHILD WELFARE IN LOUISIANA, 1850 - 1960. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1968 History, modern Social Work University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE HISTORY OF CHILD WELFARE IN LOUISIANA, 1850 - I960 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Robert Earl Moran, Sr., B. S., M. A. ******** The Ohio State University 1968 Approved by / / Ba S w . A dviser Department of H is to ry ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express his grateful appreciation to the librarians of the Louisiana Room of Louisiana State Library and the Louisiana State University Library, the Department of Archives of the Louisiana State University Library, and the Howard Memorial Library of Tulane University. Especially does the author thank his adviser, Dr. Robert H. Bremner whose constant guidance and encouragement helped to bring this work to its completion. i i VITA July 24, 1921 Born - Columbus, Ohio 1944 B.S., The Ohio State University 1944-1946 . Teacher at Palmer Memorial Institute, Sedalia, North Carolina 1947 M.S., The Ohio State University 1948-1959 . Instructor, Allen University, Columbia, South Carolina 1959 Instructor, Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Studies in Political and Social History of the United States, 1850-1900. Professor Francis P. Weisenburger Studies in Political and Social History of the United States, 1900-present. Professors Foster Rhea Dulles and Robert H. Bremner Studies in United States Foreign Relations. Professors Foster Rhea Dulles and Marvin Zahniser i i i TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................................................................... i i VITA ............................................................................................................................. i i i LIST OF TABLES . ........................................................................................ v i INTRODUCTION.................................................................................. 1 PART I . CHILD CARE AND RJBLIC RELIEF IN LOUISIANA 1850-1960 CHAPTER I. Child Welfare and Public Relief in the Nineteenth Century in the Ante-bellum Period.......................................... 5 Poor relief and Institutional Care of Children in the Ante-bellum Period Child Welfare and Relief 1860-1900 II. Child Welfare Before and During the Long Regime . 32 The Founding and E a rly Work o f th e Board o f Charities and Corrections The Slingerland Report The Board, Long, and the Early Depression Years in. Louisiana and the Depression........................................................ 49 IV, Public Assistance in the Department of Public W elfare, 1935-1955 ............................................................................... 64 State-wide Organized Relief Reform, Public Welfare, and National Defense Public Welfare and the Affluent Society iv V CHAPTER PAGE V. Public Welfare and Children's Aid Programs . 82 Mo th e r s 1 Pens ions Aid to Dependent Children under Social Security The Suitable Home Controversy of i960 PART I I . SUBSTITUTE CARE AND TROTECTION OF CHILDREN IN LOUISIANA VI. Child Welfare Services...................................................................... 111 Adoptions and Foster Home Care Health Services to Children VII. Care for the Handicapped Child................................................... 140 The Era of Reform 1830-1860 Care for the Mentally Handicapped Care for the Deaf and the Blind Care for the Crippled Child VIU. Louisiana and the Child Offender.............................................. 165 Edward Livingston's School of Reform Institutions for the Juvenile Delinquent The Juvenile Delinquent and His Court The Louisiana Youth Commission The Rights of the Delinquent, Neglected, or Abused Child Administration of Public Institutions IX. Child Labor ............................................................................................. 202 The New South and the Progressives in Louisiana Legislating for Child Labor 1886-1920 Child Labor in the Twenties National and State Legislation for Child labor during the Depression and After X. Child Welfare in Louisiana Past, Present, and Future . 245 APPENDIXES ............................................................................................................... 258 BIBLIOGRAPHY 269 LIST OF TABLES T able Page 1. Private Orphanages in Louisiana, 1916 38 2. ADC Caseloads in Louisiana in January of Each Year . 94 3. Vital Statistics for Negroes in Louisiana ............ 131 4. Vital Statistics for whites in Louisiana................. 132 5. Vital Statistics for Louisiana........................................ 133 6. Vital Statistics for the United States...................... 134 7. Child Labor in Louisiana in 1930, Ages 10 to 15 . 221 8. Number and Proportion of Children Employed in Louisiana, Ages 10-15................................................................. 222 9. Percentage Urban Population in Louisiana........................... 239 1 0 . Percentage of Children1 0 - 1 4 Years of Age Not Enrolled in School by Race and Sex, 1940 239 v i INTRODUCTION Hie maturity and humanity of any society may be measured in part by the completeness with which it provides for needy children and safeguards their rights. Louisiana's progress toward maturation has been slow but continual. This study attempts to recount Louisiana's story, a story of the laws and institutions which the people provided to aid the socially, physically, and mentally handicapped child. It w ill show what the State has done along with philanthropic groups, other public agencies, and the Federal Government to preserve family living and to provide a hopeful future for those children who have no home or who temporarily must live away from home. 3h the nineteenth century, generally speaking, the almshouse or poor house served those dependent in any way upon the community. It was an orphanage, an insane asylum, a feebleminded, deaf, and blind institution as well as the place where the aged were consigned to live. This institution had its basis in the old Elizabethan poor laws which insisted on local responsibility in the field of public welfare and restriction of aid to those having legal residence in the county or town. After the 1830's reformers called for the removal from mixed almshouses of the orphaned, the deaf, the blind, and the insane. This step was in recognition of the particular needs of the destitute and especially the needs of dependent children. While most of the laws regarding poor relief in the East and New England were based on the English common law, this was not the case in Louisiana; for Louisiana inherited French civil law and customs. In France before the Revolution poor relief and charity was the responsi b ility of the Roman Catholic Church and widows and orphans were considered to be her wards. The French Revolution and Napoleon changed a ll of this; for poor relief was taken away from the Church and given to the highly centralized State and administered through local governmental units. There is no evidence except Charity Hospital at New Orleans that the Napoleonic Code had any influence upon the organization of poor relief in Louisiana.^ Care for the indigent was le ft to the family, Church, and private philanthropy and such institu- 2 tions as almshouses or apprenticeship were never common in the State. Dr. Wisner refers to the slowness with which the State acted in providing public services for its dependents. She states that reliance on family relationships as provided by the civil law was, perhaps, the reason for this slowness.^ Every minor, according to the law, who had no parents or whose parents were separated, was supposed to be assigned a tutor; thus in theory there were no children who did not have guardians. 1Elizabeth Wisner, Public Welfare Administration in Louisiana (Chicago, 1930), 25. 2 Ibid. 13. See also Homer Folks, The Care of the Destitute. Neglected, and Delinquent Children (New York, 1902), 81. 3 Wisner, Public Welfare Administration in Louisiana. 13. Aside from being alow in providing services to its needy, Louisiana, like other Southern states, was even slower in providing these services to a ll of its citizens. A sound child welfare program, however, must include a ll children and youth. Not until the early part of the twentieth century did the State begin to assume more the responsibility of caring for the dependent. The extent to which Louisiana provided for its dependent children and thereby its own future well-being will be shown by the kind, quality, and comprehensiveness of its welfare program. PART I CHILD CARE AND PUBLIC RELIEF IN LOUISIANA 1850 - I960 CHAPTER I CHILD WELFARE AND PUBLIC RELIEF IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Poor R elief and the Care of Children in the Ante Bellum Period Throughout the nineteenth century poverty and dependency were regarded as personal evils accredited to gambling, drunkeness, and individual indolence. Men were not generally regarded as being victims of an economic and social system over which they had little or no control. The family, the church, and private philanthropy would take care of the misfortunate and only the sick, at least in New Orleans, would be taken care of through public funds. The Louisiana Code of 1825 stated that children