Lisa Levenstein reframes highly charged debates over the origins of
chronic African American poverty and the social policies and political
struggles that led to the postwar urban crisis. A Movement Without
Marches follows poor black women as they traveled from some of
Philadelphia's most impoverished neighborhoods into its welfare offices,
courtrooms, public housing, schools, and hospitals, laying claim to an
unprecedented array of government benefits and services. With these
resources came new constraints, as public officials frequently responded
to women's efforts by limiting benefits and attempting to control their
personal lives. Scathing public narratives about women's "dependency"
and their children's "illegitimacy" placed African American women and
public institutions at the center of the growing opposition to black
migration and civil rights in northern U.S. cities. Countering
stereotypes that have long plagued public debate, Levenstein offers a
new paradigm for understanding postwar U.S. history.