Chapter 4: The Battle of Newburgh

The Uncertain Hour

Marketplace

Government, News

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1961, city officials in Newburgh, New York, declared war on their poorest residents by proclaiming, without evidence, that the city was overrun by welfare cheats. It was a moment in history when the belief that certain people need to be forced to work gained influence in our country’s system to help poor people.

Officials led by City Manager Joseph Mitchell launched a campaign of harsh crackdowns on welfare recipients that included surprise police interrogations, rigid eligibility restrictions and forcing able-bodied men to work to receive a welfare check. But were these new rules designed to reduce welfare fraud or to target members of the city’s Black community?

After a national controversy erupted over Newburgh’s welfare rules, the city found itself at the center of a fight over welfare policy that’s still playing out today.

Producer Peter Balonon-Rosen takes us back to Newburgh to tell the story of its war on welfare and how race became central in a battle over welfare policy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Chrissy. We want to know a little bit more about our listeners.
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0:09.9	Go to Marketplace.org slash survey to complete the survey.
0:14.2	You do all of us at the uncertain hour a huge favor by filling it out.
0:18.0	Thanks so much.
0:19.2	Hey, it's Chrissy. You're listening to the uncertain hour.
0:22.8	We're going to pick back up right where last episode left off
0:26.0	with producer Peter Ballonon-Rosen and the story of an explosive
0:30.0	battle over welfare in Newberg, New York,
0:33.2	a battle that would eventually influence welfare across America.
0:38.0	Here's Peter.
0:39.7	On May 1st, 1961, Newberg City officials tried a new tactic in
0:44.3	weeding out welfare cheats. In the early morning in front of
0:47.9	police headquarters, this line started to form.
0:51.0	First a few people, then some more. Eventually a long line of New
0:55.6	burgers, light and black, mostly women,
0:58.8	many with infants in their arms, all with one thing in common.
1:02.8	They were all there to get welfare checks.
1:05.3	Many have described it as a pitiful scene because the people who are on
1:08.1	welfare obviously, many of them had, you know, reasons why they had
1:12.1	their disabilities or they were elderly or or mothers with
	...

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