SW 200 · Reform and Resistance · Course review
Reform and Resistance: An Archive
Four centuries of American social welfare, in the records it left behind
Every artifact and clip from the course, in the order the history happened. Work through it from the top and the semester’s argument should assemble itself: each time help expands, a new line of exclusion arrives with it, written into a clause, a form or a decision someone was authorized to make.
Start at era I and read down. Click any artifact to enlarge it, and any clip to play it here. The checkbox on each plate remembers what you have reviewed, in this browser only. The full index near the bottom lists everything.
Each era also carries two short strands. Listen is music that argued about the same conditions; Look further is art and photography worth finding. Neither is embedded here — search the title. Both are placed by the era they speak to, with each work’s own date given, which is sometimes later.
Relief as a parish duty
England makes poor relief a legal obligation and ties it to the place you belong to. Both halves travel to America: the duty to relieve, and the test of whether you belong here.
The clause that starts everything
Section 1 makes churchwardens and overseers in every parish responsible for the poor. Relief becomes a legal duty — and a local one, which means the first question is always whether you belong to this parish.
Act for Relief of the Poor, 43 Elizabeth I, ch. 2 (1601), as printed in Robert Foley, Laws relating to the poor, 4th ed. (1758), p. 1. Later printed reproduction of the statute. Source: Internet Archive.
The poorhouse as a threat
A sentimental ballad about a mother sent to the poorhouse by her own children. The almshouse worked as deterrence as much as provision: the point was that you would do almost anything to avoid it.
Will Carleton, "Over the Hill to the Poor-house," Farm Ballads (Harper & Brothers, 1882), p. 51. Source: Internet Archive / Library of Congress.
Records before rights
Before the state counted anyone as a claimant it counted them as property. The paperwork of slavery is administrative, not dramatic, and that is the point.
Administration made trafficking possible
Name, sex, age, height, owner. The manifest is a customs form. Reading it as a form is the lesson: this is what it looks like when a bureaucracy makes a trade in people routine.
Coastwise slave manifest, brig Union, January 13, 1849. US Customs record, National Archives, via Wikimedia Commons.
A family, not a case name
Dred and Harriet Scott sued separately and their claims were joined. Showing both portraits keeps the case a family's claim to freedom rather than a man's name attached to a doctrine.
Dred Scott and Harriet Scott, engravings from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1857. Source: Library of Congress.
slavevoyages.org
- Follow the Drinking Gourdtraditionalcoded escape route, sung as instruction
- Go Down Mosestraditionaldeliverance as political demand
- Harriet Powers, Bible Quilts1886 and 1898narrative sewn by a woman born into slavery — the same medium as Plate 15
Who counts as a citizen
Emancipation raises a question the law had not answered: what does freedom entitle a person to? For twelve years a federal agency tries to answer it with schools and hospitals.
Black political deliberation, on the record
A crowded convention hall in Washington. The engraving is evidence that Black Americans were organizing and deliberating publicly before and during Reconstruction, not waiting to be acted upon.
The National Colored Convention in session at Washington, D.C., sketched by Theodore R. Davis, Harper's Weekly, February 6, 1869. Source: Library of Congress.
What the Bureau counted
A teacher's monthly report: pupils enrolled, attendance, who could read, who could write. The Freedmen's Bureau built schools where states would not — and it measured, which is also a form of governing.
Teacher's Monthly School Report, Americus Freedmen's School, Georgia, October 1867. Freedmen's Bureau records, Smithsonian NMAAHC. One school's report, used as a sample of Bureau recordkeeping.
Care communities built for themselves
Volunteer nurse aides at Freedmen's Hospital. When public provision excluded Black patients, Black institutions provided — and that provision is part of the welfare story, not a footnote to it.
Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D.C., 1943: volunteer nurse aides packing surgical kits. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information photograph, Library of Congress.
- Frederick Douglass, portrait sittings1840s–1890sthe most photographed American of the century, by design
Reform and discipline
Help professionalizes. Reformers build settlements, schools and casework — and the same instruments sort, assimilate and remove.
Belonging, with conditions
An Americanization Day poster: many peoples, one nation. The offer is inclusion. The condition is becoming someone else.
“Many Peoples, but One Nation,” Americanization Day poster, National Americanization Committee.
What a source shows and what it reveals
A child between spinning frames. Hine was paid to document child labor; the photograph is evidence and it is also an argument, which is why we ask what it shows and separately what it reveals.
Lewis W. Hine, Little spinner in Mollahan Cotton Mills, Newberry, S.C., Dec. 3, 1908. Library of Congress (cph.3c07335).
Help that also organizes you
Henry Street advertising study groups for workers. Settlements offered real material help and real community — and ran on a judgment about what a good life looked like.
Register now: informal study group, WPA Workers Education Project, Henry Street Settlement. Poster, Library of Congress (cph 3b48851).
- The Preacher and the SlaveJoe Hill, 1911charity as a distraction from wages — “pie in the sky”
- Native ledger art1860s–1880sPlains artists recording allotment and boarding school from inside
- Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives1890the reform photograph that made tenements a public problem
- Hull House art programs1890s–1900simmigrant craft taught as culture rather than deficiency
The federal state arrives
Hardship goes national and so does responsibility. Federal money reaches further than ever, and runs through local hands that decide who it reaches.
millercenter.org
densho.org
pbs.org
- I Ain’t Got No HomeWoody Guthrie, 1940dispossession told in the first person
- God Bless the ChildBillie Holiday, 1941surviving without a system behind you
- Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)Woody Guthrie, 1948workers unnamed in the news report
- Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother1936a federal agency commissioning the image of need
- Aaron Douglas, Aspects of Negro Life1934a New Deal mural cycle on Black history
- Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry Murals1932–1933labor as the subject of public art
Rights claimed
People who were excluded from the expansion organize to claim it: in courtrooms, in the street, and in a song that made a room go silent.
Jobs and freedom, in that order
The march's own printed plans. It is worth reading the demands as the organizers wrote them: this was an economic platform as much as a civil rights one.
Final plans for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963. National Archives, Center for Legislative Archives.
A record label as a political act
Commodore pressed Strange Fruit when Columbia would not. The artifact is the refusal as much as the song.
Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra, Commodore Records 526-A, 1939. Label scan via Wikimedia Commons.
- Strange FruitBillie Holiday, 1939the artifact in Plate 13, heard
- Mississippi GoddamNina Simone, 1964refusing the demand to wait
- A Change Is Gonna ComeSam Cooke, 1964the promise, claimed rather than requested
- Faith Ringgold, American People Series1963–1967racial violence painted for a gallery audience
- Emory Douglas, Black Panther Party graphics1967–1980a newspaper as a service program’s visual arm
- Norman Rockwell, The Problem We All Live With1964Ruby Bridges, painted for a mass-circulation magazine
Care outside the state
When institutions will not provide care, communities build it themselves — and then memorialize what the delay cost.
A schedule is a service model
Support groups and social evenings on the same calendar. Where the state provided nothing, community centers put care, connection and referral in one place — and still do.
Trans Lounge monthly calendar, October 2026, Los Angeles LGBT Center. A contemporary example of gatherings and support services listed together.
Care made inside a punishment
A quilt panel made by incarcerated women in Marianna, Florida: a heart behind bars, a dove, names on hearts. Mourning organized inside the institution that produced the deaths.
Women Prisoners of Marianna, Florida, AIDS Memorial Quilt panel (block 3240). National AIDS Memorial. Entire panel shown.
Naming the inaction
Silence = Death. The poster's argument is that the harm was administrative: nobody had to act for people to die.
Silence = Death poster, Silence = Death Project / ACT UP. University of Alabama in Huntsville collection.
Pressure aimed at an agency
An ACT UP flyer for the FDA action. Movements choose targets; this one chose a regulator, because that is where the delay lived.
ACT UP flyer “FDA Unsafe at Any Dosage,” a stand-in for “Seize Control of the FDA.” ACT UP Oral History Project.
folkways.si.edu
- You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)Sylvester, 1978visibility and joy as a political act
- What’s Going OnMarvin Gaye, 1971policing, war and poverty as one subject
- SubcityTracy Chapman, 1989written from outside the safety net
- Living in WartimeMichael Callen, 1988the AIDS crisis named as a war
- Gran Fury and ACT UP graphics1987–1995the collective behind Plates 16 and 17
- David Wojnarowicz1980s–1992grief and government inaction made the same subject
- Keith Haring1980spublic health messaging in a pop idiom
Retrenchment
Two frames harden: dependency and crime. Both produce rules, and the rules outlast the frames.
The bill that did not pass
S. 1867, introduced and never enacted, beside the one that was. Two bills, the same conduct, different lives.
S. 1867, 104th Congress, Bipartisan Welfare Reform Act of 1996, as introduced June 12, 1996, page 1. Source: GovInfo. Introduced, not enacted.
- Fight the PowerPublic Enemy, 1989who gets to be a national hero
- Keep Ya Head UpTupac, 1993gender and poverty together
- They SchoolsDead Prez, 2000education as a sorting institution
- Kara Walker1994 onwardsilhouettes that put slavery inside contemporary argument
- Dread Scott1989 onwardperformance work on policing and incarceration
Administering scarcity
The question shifts from whether to help to how hard help is to get. The mechanism is now the form, the ordinance and the eligibility check.
A claim about who counts
We are the 99%. A slogan that reframed inequality as a majority condition rather than a minority failure.
"We are the 99%" poster, Occupy Wall Street, September 17, 2011. Photograph by Seth Cochran, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).
The notice that makes a person illegal
A posted campsite notice: property will be removed, call this number for shelter. Read the two halves together and the question becomes whether the banned conduct was avoidable.
City of Portland “Notice: Illegal Campsite,” posted at a camp.
Whether the alternative exists
The shelter map for the same city, red where no bed is available. The notice assumes somewhere else to go; the map is how you check.
City of Portland shelter availability map, snapshot October 29, 2026. Availability changes daily.
What a form assumes
A TANF application. Before it asks about need it asks whether anyone in the household fits a category — and tells you to stop if none do.
New York OTDA, TANF Services Application/Certification, LDSS-4726 (Rev. 2/16), page 1. Link
cdcr.ca.gov
kff.org
- AlrightKendrick Lamar, 2015endurance under state violence
- FormationBeyoncé, 2016Katrina and what the response revealed
- Hell You TalmboutJanelle Monáe, 2015the names, read as a roll call
- Theaster Gates2009 onwardurban renewal practised as art
- Titus Kaphar2010spaintings that cut into the historical record
What welfare should become
The course ends where your infographic begins: with proposals that are being tested right now.
Where the burden lands
Exposure scores for the hundred highest-scoring facilities in Louisiana, clustered along one stretch of river. Environmental burden is distributed by decisions, and the decisions have addresses.
Louisiana plant exposure map (RSEI, not cancer rates). Human Rights Watch, January 25, 2024.
- ShockAna Tijoux, 2011austerity resisted outside the United States
- Ai Weiweicontemporarystate violence and displacement as a global subject
Complete index
Every media item in the course
All 44 items, in chronological order, with the session each belongs to. Filter by kind or module.
| Session | Kind | Item | Module |
|---|---|---|---|
| TuTh 2 | Clip | The Elizabethan Poor Law YouTube (channel to confirm) · about 9 min; we play about 4 | Module 1 |
| TuTh 2 | Artifact | The clause that starts everything Act for Relief of the Poor, 43 Elizabeth I, ch. 2 (1601), as printed in Robert Foley, Laws | Module 1 |
| TuTh 3 | Artifact | The poorhouse as a threat Will Carleton, "Over the Hill to the Poor-house," Farm Ballads (Harper & Brothers, 1882), | Module 1 |
| TuTh 4 | Clip | Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Timelapse SlaveVoyages | Module 1 |
| TuTh 4 | Artifact | Administration made trafficking possible Coastwise slave manifest, brig Union, January 13, 1849. US Customs record, National Archiv | Module 1 |
| TuTh 4 | Clip | The Dred Scott Decision, Crash Course Black American History #16 11:36 full; we play two excerpts | Module 1 |
| TuTh 4 | Artifact | A family, not a case name Dred Scott and Harriet Scott, engravings from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1857. | Module 1 |
| TuTh 5 | Clip | Darwin and Natural Selection, Crash Course History of Science #22 13:10 | Module 1 |
| TuTh 6 | Artifact | Black political deliberation, on the record The National Colored Convention in session at Washington, D.C., sketched by Theodore R. Da | Module 2 |
| TuTh 7 | Artifact | What the Bureau counted Teacher's Monthly School Report, Americus Freedmen's School, Georgia, October 1867. Freedm | Module 2 |
| TuTh 7 | Artifact | Care communities built for themselves Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D.C., 1943: volunteer nurse aides packing surgical kits. | Module 2 |
| TuTh 8 | Artifact | Belonging, with conditions “Many Peoples, but One Nation,” Americanization Day poster, National Americanization Commi | Module 2 |
| TuTh 9 | Artifact | What a source shows and what it reveals Lewis W. Hine, Little spinner in Mollahan Cotton Mills, Newberry, S.C., Dec. 3, 1908. Libr | Module 2 |
| TuTh 10 | Artifact | Help that also organizes you Register now: informal study group, WPA Workers Education Project, Henry Street Settlement | Module 3 |
| TuTh 10 | Clip | The Orphan Trains Prairie Public · about 6:30; we play an excerpt | Module 3 |
| TuTh 11 | Clip | First fireside chat President Franklin D. Roosevelt · an excerpt of about 3 minutes | Module 3 |
| TuTh 12 | Clip | What Few People Know About the Program That “Saved” America Meg Jacobs · 5:03 | Module 3 |
| TuTh 13 | Artifact | Jobs and freedom, in that order Final plans for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963. National Ar | Module 3 |
| TuTh 13 | Clip | March on Washington US National Archives · we play a 2 to 3 minute excerpt | Module 3 |
| TuTh 14 | Artifact | A schedule is a service model Trans Lounge monthly calendar, October 2026, Los Angeles LGBT Center. A contemporary examp | Module 4 |
| TuTh 14 | Clip | The Normal Heart (selected clip) about 5 minutes | Module 4 |
| TuTh 15 | Artifact | A record label as a political act Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday and Her Orchestra, Commodore Records 526-A, 1939. Label scan | Module 4 |
| TuTh 16 | Artifact | A claim about who counts "We are the 99%" poster, Occupy Wall Street, September 17, 2011. Photograph by Seth Cochra | Module 4 |
| TuTh 17 | Artifact | Care made inside a punishment Women Prisoners of Marianna, Florida, AIDS Memorial Quilt panel (block 3240). National AID | Module 4 |
| TuTh 17 | Artifact | Naming the inaction Silence = Death poster, Silence = Death Project / ACT UP. University of Alabama in Huntsvi | Module 4 |
| TuTh 17 | Artifact | Pressure aimed at an agency ACT UP flyer “FDA Unsafe at Any Dosage,” a stand-in for “Seize Control of the FDA.” ACT UP | Module 4 |
| TuTh 18 | Clip | The War on Drugs (Crash Course Black American History #42) about 3 min of about 12:40 | Module 5 |
| TuTh 18 | Clip | Address to the Nation on Drug Abuse Campaign, Sept. 14, 1986 about 3 min of about 19:30 | Module 5 |
| TuTh 19 | Artifact | The notice that makes a person illegal City of Portland “Notice: Illegal Campsite,” posted at a camp. | Module 5 |
| TuTh 19 | Artifact | Whether the alternative exists City of Portland shelter availability map, snapshot October 29, 2026. Availability changes | Module 5 |
| TuTh 20 | Artifact | What a form assumes New York OTDA, TANF Services Application/Certification, LDSS-4726 (Rev. 2/16), page 1. Li | Module 5 |
| TuTh 22 | Clip | Mass Incarceration / Criminal Justice explainer about 3 min of about 10 | Module 5 |
| TuTh 22 | Clip | Reentry Services (CDCR, California) scan together for 2 min | Module 5 |
| TuTh 26 | Clip | Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map KFF | Module 6 |
| TuTh 27a | Clip | Universal Basic Income (UBI) Professor Dave Explains · about 6:20 | Module 6 |
| TuTh 27b | Clip | A Brief History of Environmental Justice about 3:35 | Module 6 |
| TuTh 27b | Artifact | Where the burden lands Louisiana plant exposure map (RSEI, not cancer rates). Human Rights Watch, January 25, 202 | Module 6 |
| MWF 12 | Clip | The Dawes Act 9:35 | Module 2 |
| MWF 14 | Clip | Neighboring with the Poor Jane Addams, NBC News Learn · about 3:35 | Module 3 |
| MWF 18 | Clip | Japanese American incarceration Densho learning films · 3 to 4 minutes; select one film | Module 3 |
| MWF 18 | Clip | Black military service and the GI Bill PBS, Amanpour and Company · a 3-minute excerpt | Module 3 |
| MWF 23 | Clip | We Shall Overcome Smithsonian Folkways · not recorded; play an excerpt | Module 4 |
| MWF 27 | Artifact | The bill that did not pass S. 1867, 104th Congress, Bipartisan Welfare Reform Act of 1996, as introduced June 12, 199 | Module 5 |
| MWF 36 | Clip | How Private Prisons Protect Their Profits 14:08; we play an excerpt | Module 5 |
Era X · What comes next
The questions the archive leaves open
None of these has a settled answer. Each one is a live policy argument, and each is a place your Community Policy Reform Infographic could land.
Guaranteed income removes the caseworker, the form and the eligibility check. The evidence so far is thin and mostly short-term. If the sorting happens at the point of entry, does unconditional cash dissolve it or relocate it?
Every era in this archive answered differently: the parish, the charity visitor, the caseworker, the algorithm. Each shift moved discretion rather than removing it. Where should it sit now, and with what check on it?
The GI Bill was open to all eligible veterans and delivered unequally through local institutions. Which current programs have the same structure, and what would it take to close the gap between eligibility and access?
Work requirements, drug testing, sanctions and the conditions attached to release all treat assistance as something to be earned by conduct. Is that doing anything a simpler rule could not?
The Louisiana map and the shelter map are the same kind of evidence: aggregate programs with addresses attached. How should a proposal account for the places where it fails?
Allotment, boarding schools, redlining, mass incarceration. Each produced measurable, inherited disadvantage. Does repair belong in social welfare policy, and in what form?
Taking this into your project
Your infographic needs one policy gap, one audience and one call to action. Pick a question above, then come back through the archive and find the two or three artifacts that show the mechanism you want to change. A proposal that names the clause, the form or the decision point is harder to dismiss than one that names a problem.