THERE IS A GRAVE MISCONCEPTION OF THE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF RACE AND SOCIAL WELFARE HISTORY- KEY LEGISLATION Following are some key events of racism in the history of social welfare. Unless otherwise cited, this history is drawn from Neubeck and Cazanave's (2001) Welfare Racism: Playing the Race Card Against America’s Poor. Mother’s Pensions in the early 1900s. In the early 1900s, state legislatures began to pass bills that supported single mothers called "Mother‟s Pensions.‟ While African Americans were more deeply impoverished, the aid was given almost solely to white women with Anglo ancestry. Because benefits were administered locally, rules frequently were created explicitly to exclude women of color. One common requirement was that a mother maintained a "suitable home‟ for her children. The term „suitable‟, which was not clearly defined, was frequently used to exclude African-American women due to negative stereotypes of African American...