Public Welfare

County funds, church donations, and individual benevolence provided the first relief for the poor of Atlanta. As early as 1853, however, the city was beginning to recognize the need for regular municipal aid, and Mayor J.F. Mims appointed from council a committee on relief of the poor. This body had only advisory powers: after its recommendations had been made, council as a whole voted on each case. Assistance was then rendered not in the form of supplies but as cash, an outlay that was seldom more than a few hundred dollars annually. Once the money was given, little effort was made to learn how it was spent. The minutes of the fifties are full of such entries as "The Committee on Relief report in favor of John Tiller having an order for five dollars on account of helpless daughter" and "The Committee on Relief report that they have employed Mr. Baker to keep and maintain Mr. Gardner who is afflicted with a sore leg, and his two small children, for the sum of one dollar and fifty cents a day, for the present."

Soon after the outbreak of the War between the States, relief costs mounted rapidly—in 1862 the city expended almost $4,000 in caring for the poor, in the following year this amount was increased to $40,000, and in the last year of the war it was more than $80,000. In place of cash relief council set up provision stores for the poor, but with thousands of soldiers and refugees crowding into the city even this arrangement proved too costly. In the midst of this emergency a group of women came to the aid of the city by organizing the Ladies Soldiers' Relief Society. By charity balls and bazaars this organization raised large amounts for the care of sick and wounded soldiers quartered in the city.

In the period immediately after the war, the problem of existence became still more acute. Refugees returned home, their numbers swollen by hordes of freed slaves, and the young men disbanded from the army often searched in vain for work to support their impoverished families. Fire losses following Federal occupation and the collapse of Confederate finance constituted an appalling drain on the treasury. Hundreds of unemployed were given transportation in order that they might seek employment in other sections of the country. The work of aiding destitute Negroes was largely taken over by the Freedmen's Bureau, the American Missionary Society, and other Northern organizations, while many more were succored by their former masters. In its extremity the city had to appeal to the country at large. Several cities, Northern and Southern, responded generously, and many contributions from individuals were sent in from points as far away as Illinois and New York. The State of Kentucky sent 100,000 bushels of corn to be distributed among the poor throughout Georgia.

In the summer of 1866 a severe smallpox epidemic broke out. Immediate expenditures were necessary, and before the year was out two pest-houses and a makeshift hospital had been constructed. Although the danger from disease soon passed, the condition of the poor still made heavy demands on the treasury. Early in 1867 Atlanta, aided by Fulton County, erected 20 shanties 4 miles west of the city to serve as an almshouse. Minor children of inmates were placed in private homes with their expenses paid by the city. By the early seventies, after a series of court rulings, Fulton County was compelled to take over the entire burden of providing for Atlanta's poor who were committed to the almshouse. While the institution provided for the care of the aged and decrepit, many able-bodied but destitute citizens continued to be without employment as a result of the war and the reconstruction program.

Again the women of Atlanta came to the aid of their city. In rented rooms they established the Atlanta Benevolent Association, the purpose of which was to provide a temporary home "for destitute and helpless women and girls out of employment, in finding suitable work, and, as soon as practicable, to give full instruction in industrial pursuits, thereby enabling such persons to become self-supporting and useful." After giving several entertainments the association succeeded in raising $4,000, with which two buildings on Alabama Street were purchased. In 1881 the property and the entire facilities of the institution were deeded to the city, and soon afterward the name was changed to the Atlanta Hospital and Benevolent Home. By the middle eighties the city was fully maintaining this institution and contributing to several private charitable organizations.

In the same year the Florence Crittenton Home, a branch of the national welfare organization of that name, was opened in Atlanta. Many citizens bitterly opposed the establishment of this maternity home for unmarried girls, but others refuted their arguments by answering that innocent children should not be made to suffer for the sins of the mothers and the unknown fathers. The Florence Crittenton Homewas the first national welfare organization to be chartered by Congress, and the Atlanta home was the fourth in the nation.

The Home for the Friendless was established in 1888 by three Atlanta women who solicited church and private donations, rented a cottage on Mangum Street, and opened its doors to the poor of all ages. Applications for entry became so numerous, however, that within a few months admission was restricted to children only. Two years after the home was opened, a large building was erected on Highland Avenue. Here the institution operated for 38 years until it was moved to its present quarters on Courtney Drive, where it is now operated as Hillside Cottages.

Although several attempts had been made to establish a refuge for street waifs, it was not until 1888 that Atlanta Baptist women made definite plans for setting up the Georgia Baptist Orphans Home. In that year Jonathan Norcross gave a tract of land, and soon afterward the orphanage was opened. At first there were only five children enrolled, but soon there were so many applications that two successive moves to larger quarters had to be made. Before the decade was ended several large gifts made possible the purchase of the 50-acre tract in Hapeville where the home is now operated. The nine buildings provide accommodation for approximately 300 children, and the property now covers 92 acres.

The rapid industrial growth of this period often engendered hard conditions for factory workers. In 1889 an Atlanta woman happened to notice that a woman mill worker, unable to provide home care for her child, was compelled to take it with her to work and tie it to a window sill while she worked at the looms. Deeply moved by what she had seen, the Atlanta matron and six other women pledged the salary of a matron to care for the children of such working mothers. A room was secured in the building of the Barclay Mission, a Sunday school that had been started several years before by John A. Barclay and Miss Sue Holloway, and the Barclay Nursery was opened to the children of working mothers. Soon the institution outgrew its quarters and W.A. Hemphill provided a new building where the additional services of a kindergarten and a cooking school for mothers were added to the nursery. After several changes two permanent places were established, a north-side branch on Baker Street and a south-side branch on Washington Street. Since 1925 all activities besides those of the day nursery have been taken over by other social agencies. Now known as the Sheltering Arms Nursery, this institution cares for an average of 180 children a month.

Until 1889 little or no public assistance had been rendered Negro children, and scores of neglected gamins played perilously about the tracks of the old Union Depot. Carrie Steele Logan, a Negro matron at the depot, became so distressed by these conditions that she quit her job, adopted several of the waifs, and took them into her home on Wheat Street. As she continued to take more orphans, her rooms became overcrowded and her funds gave out, but the kindly woman, respected throughout the city, appealed to both races for aid. Individuals and church groups contributed funds, and to these she added the amount realized from the sale of her home in order to erect a large brick building on Fair Street. The city donates a small amount regularly toward upkeep, and since the new Roy Street building was erected in 1922 the county has assumed part of the maintenance expense. The orphanage, now known as the Carrie Steele-Pitts Home, is one of the most important local charities.

The Hebrew Orphans' Home also was founded in 1889. A large rambling brick structure was erected on Washington Street, and Jewish children from Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, and Virginia were given a home. Support was maintained by individuals and organizations in the five States served and as many as 150 children were housed in the institution at one time. In 1911 the directors of the movement broadened their program and began to give aid to half-orphaned children in their own homes. This reduced the number of children actually quartered in the building. In 1930 the program was extended again to provide a foster home for every child. The function of the institution then became that of a child-placing agency; its name was changed to the Children's Service Bureau and an administrative office was opened on Edgewood Avenue. The work of the agency does not cease when the child is sent to board in a private home; general supervision by members of the staff is continued until the child reaches maturity. Regular physical examinations are made and treatment provided, school reports are checked, and vocational training is given.

Prior to the nineties all charity institutions had been instigated and principally maintained by private individuals. Although some of these agencies had been given assistance from municipal funds, the buildings and equipment had become inadequate for the poor of the fast-growing city. Particularly was this true of hospitalization and clinical services, for economy had prompted the city to place its patients as they could be accommodated in various private hospitals. In 1887 a move toward more efficient management was made when all such municipal cases were placed in the King's Daughters Hospital, but it soon became apparent that this institution was too small to care for all cases. In order to remedy this situation a movement was begun to found a municipally owned infirmary, and the erection of Grady Hospital, named for the Atlanta editor Henry W. Grady, was financed by popular subscription with the provision that the city assume the responsibility for maintenance. In 1892 the hospital was opened with more than 100 beds. 4 physicians, and 21 nurses. At first both private and charity cases were admitted, but soon services were restricted to the latter class. The hospital now consists of 12 buildings with about 700 beds and has a resident staff of 75 physicians supplemented by a visiting staff of 300 physicians and surgeons. By an arrangement with Fulton County, rural patients in the Atlanta vicinity are also eligible for treatment.

By the turn of the century a number of welfare enterprises were firmly established. In 1900 the Confederate Soldiers Home, which had been erected by the State ten years before but had remained unoccupied for lack of maintenance funds, was opened to a group of 83 veterans. In the following year the King's Daughters and Sons established the Home for Incurables on the site of the present Athletic Club on Carnegie Way and, since many of the applicants were patients who had been dismissed as incurable from Grady, the city appropriated $33 a month toward upkeep. Through the generosity of A.G. Rhodes, George W. Stewart, and others, a new building was erected in 1904 on the present site at Woodward Avenue and South Boulevard.

The King's Daughters again came into prominence in 1905 by establishing the Home for Old Women—an institution that filled a real need since it was especially planned to care for inmates who, though indigent, were well educated and refined. The Associated Charities, now the Family Welfare Society, was founded in the same year. Before this time other charitable organizations of the city had been concerned solely with clinical work and with the individual pauper. The Associated Charities undertook dealing with problems of personality and family adjustments and lent aid in situations involving desertion and nonsupport, unmarried mothers, parent-child relationships, and other domestic matters requiring sympathetic counsel.

Two years later further recognition of the need for aid to children was manifested in the opening of the Atlanta Child's Home by Mrs. F.M. Robinson. Here deserted wives and unmarried mothers could find adequate care for their babies. In addition to caring for the children, the home also makes provision for a limited number of mothers during periods when it is necessary that they remain with their babies.

One of the most important of the city's charities is the Atlanta Tuberculosis Association, which was founded in 1909 under the leadership of Joseph P. Logan. "White people and Negroes of any age who have been exposed to tuberculosis may be examined and treated at the clinic. In 1910 the Battle Hill Sanatorium, also an institution for the treatment of this malady, was built jointly by Fulton County and Atlanta. All residents of this area who have pulmonary tuberculosis are eligible for entry.

By the time the World War period had come, the number of Atlanta social agencies was so large that it became necessary to have a co-ordinating body. This led to the creation of the Social Service Index in 1917. An independent governing body, the Index made itself available to all welfare agencies maintained by schools, churches, tax funds, and voluntary subscriptions. As a clearing house for such agencies in both Fulton and DeKalb Counties, this organization seeks to avoid duplication of work and enables each agency to operate more efficiently in its own specialized field.

The Atlanta Community Employment Service, begun in 1919 by Cator Woolford, endeavors to obtain employment for both white people and Negroes without cost to either employer or employee. Although this agency is still in operation, much of its work has been absorbed by the State Re-employment 'Office. One valuable phase of the work of the Atlanta Community Employment Service is the training offered Negro domestic servants in a school maintained by a grant from the Rosenwald Fund.

For the past two decades scarcely a year has passed without the addition of a new social agency. One of the most active of these is the Atlanta Chapter of the Junior League, which was founded in 1919 by Mrs. J.W. McKenna. The work of the league includes supplying clothing for girls of the Churches' Homes, maintaining a ward at the Egleston Memorial Hospital, supporting the thyroid clinic at Grady Hospital, providing psychiatric workers for the Family Welfare Association, serving as Girl Scout leaders, directing physical training at various day nurseries, maintaining a school of corrective speech, and providing helpers at several clinics.

The prosperous post-war era of the early twenties brought additional charitable enterprises, of both local and national affiliations. The baby clinic of the Central Presbyterian Church, founded in 1922, provides medical care for white babies without restriction on the area from which they are brought for treatment. In 1923 a number of prominent civic leaders organized the Atlanta Community Chest in an effort to centralize contributions to the various social service organizations in the city, more than 30 of which are represented in the annual drive.

National prominence has resulted from the work done by the Good Samaritan Clinic, established in 1923 to provide free treatment for white and Negro residents of Fulton County who suffer from disturbances of the endocrine glands. While the clinic is not the first of its kind in the country, it is the first to be established entirely dissociated from a medical center and to be operated on a charity basis. Research and experimentation here have contributed many innovations in the field of gland correction, and it was one of the physicians connected with the institution who discovered the value of iodine treatments for goiter before research in this field had been published. The clinic is concerned not only with the treatment of abnormal physical developments but more recently with psychotherapy for delinquent and mentally abnormal children. Though originally designed to extend free services to local residents, the Good Samaritan Clinic has attracted from all sections of the State patients who are given diagnostical service on a paying basis.

The Steiner Clinic, erected through funds bequeathed by Albert Steiner and opened in 1924, gives free medical, radiumtherapic, and surgical treatment to Atlanta and Fulton County residents suffering from cancer. This hospital was operated as a ward of Grady Hospital until 1933 when, by ordinance of city council, it was detached and put under a separate board of trustees. Now functioning as a completely separate unit, the clinic is the only cancer institution in the Southeast to be given the full commendation of the American College of Surgeons and the American Medical Society. The personnel includes a resident staff of 6 doctors, a visiting staff of 26, 11 registered nurses, and more than a dozen special technicians. Forty beds are maintained and the total number of observation cases is more than 50,000 a year.

The Atlanta Legal Aid Society, which also began functioning in 1924, extends much needed facilities to the public by providing legal advice and court counsel for those who are unable to pay for these services. Such cases are usually recommended by the various social agencies of the city, but the society sometimes extends aid also to individuals who apply directly.

Long before the national work relief program was initiated, some of the Atlanta charity groups were organizing their programs with an emphasis on self-help for the individual. One of the leading organizations of this type is the Atlanta Goodwill Industries, which was established in 1925 by representatives of almost 50 Methodist congregations of the Atlanta area. This agency maintains a store and workshop in which cast-off garments and house furnishings are made over and sold to provide support for the workers. The program also offers vocational and religious instruction. An organization that is similar in its aims of self-support is the Atlanta Community Shop, which was founded in 1928 by the Community Employment Service. This agency provides employment to the blind workers of Atlanta and its vicinity by teaching them to make brooms and mops which are sold to the public.

Child welfare has been particularly salient in the more recent work of charity organizations. The Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children was built in 1928 from funds bequeathed by Thomas E. Egleston, its purpose being to provide medical and surgical aid for children who are seriously ill from causes other than contagious diseases. Patients are admitted regardless of sex, creed, nationality, or place of residence. The Central Presbyterian Church Baby Clinic, which is operated on similar lines, is associated with the Henrietta Egleston Hospital in its work.

In 1930 the Child Welfare Association of Fulton and DeKalb Counties was organized. A child-placing agency rather than a child's home, this institution extends its services to children under 18 whose homes are broken by illness, poverty, or family maladjustments. Children brought to the association are housed here only until they can be placed in the proper corrective institution, school, or private home, as the individual case demands. The association works in close co-operation with the county juvenile courts and other agencies.

During the early thirties when the Nation-wide depression was at its height, the scope of social service became so greatly broadened that it was necessary to co-ordinate the work more closely. In 1932 the Social Welfare Society, which had been founded almost 30 years before by Joseph C. Logan, changed its name to the Social Planning Council and enlarged its field of activities. Its objective is to promote efficiency in solving the welfare problems of the city through research and recommendations made by special committees, each expert in its field. Through these activities public opinion is being directed toward a more intelligent appreciation of welfare needs in the city.

As a memorial to Victor H. Kriegshaber, who had worked for many years with the Georgia Association of Workers for the Blind, a Braille library was installed in the old Hebrew Orphans' Home on Washington Street. Though supported by private funds, the library was set up under the supervision of the trustees of the Carnegie Library. Two years later the institution was moved to its present site on Piedmont Avenue. About 500 phonographs for lending throughout the State are furnished by the Federal Government, and the Work Projects Administration supplies two Braille instructors who teach the blind to read raised lettering. Magazines in Braille and about 2,000 "talking books" or records are also available.

In 1938 representatives of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Optimists, Lions, and Civitan Clubs founded the Atlanta Boys' Club for underprivileged youths between the ages of 8 and 18. Paid instructors, volunteer helpers, and students from Georgia Tech and the Georgia Evening School provide instruction in woodwork, art, music, and reading.

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