Mothers: Johnnie Tillmon

Episode Summary

Johnnie Tillmon was a welfare rights activist who fought for the rights of impoverished mothers in the 1960s and 1970s. She grew up poor in Arkansas and later became the sole provider for her six children in California. After falling ill and going on welfare, Tillmon experienced discrimination in the welfare system. She began organizing other welfare recipients to advocate for their rights and formed the group Aid to Needy Children Mothers Anonymous (ANC). The ANC joined the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO), even though most welfare recipients were white and most NWRO activists were black. Tillmon noticed a divide between the women advocating for welfare rights and the middle-class white feminists focused on issues like birth control. In 1972, she wrote the article “Welfare is a Women’s Issue,” arguing that poverty is a feminist issue. Tillmon condemned the welfare system for blaming individuals, especially women, for their circumstances. She fought against regulations like the “Man in the House Rule” that discriminated against women. The NWRO succeeded in winning millions for denied welfare recipients and eradicating the “Man in the House Rule” during its nine years of activism. Tillmon continued advocating for welfare rights until her death in 1995 at age 69.

Episode Show Notes

Johnnie Tillmon (1926-1995) was a warrior for welfare rights in the United States, who fought tirelessly to better the lives of impoverished mothers like herself.

Episode Transcript

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We also shared the I Am Mercedes campaign, which focused on young women across the country named Mercedes, who are making a difference in science, technology, social change and in the creative arts. Thank you to the people at Mercedes-Benz for their sponsorship and for support of Womanica and women everywhere. To listen back to any of these bonus episodes, head to the show notes. SPEAKER_07: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Anamalika Tubbs, the author of How the Mothers of MLK, Malcolm X and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation. My work focuses on motherhood through the lens of feminism, intersectionality and inclusivity. And I'll be your guest host for this month of Womanica. This month, we're talking about women who ushered forth new generations and new futures through their care, work and imagination. Today, we're talking about a warrior for welfare rights in the United States. She brought in the feminist movement to redefine poverty as a woman's issue and fought tirelessly for the rights of impoverished mothers like herself. Let's meet Johnny Tillman. Johnny Tillman was born in Scott, Arkansas in 1926. Her mother died when she was five. Her father was a sharecropper and Johnny started working in the fields when she was seven years old. Not because her family needed the money, but because she was feisty and her father wanted to keep an eye on her. In the late 1950s, Johnny left a bad marriage and became the sole provider of her six children. She moved to California where she got her start in community organizing. She was a union shop steward at a laundromat and worked with her housing projects planning organization to improve living conditions. In the early 60s, she fell ill from tonsillitis and was unable to work. She was advised to seek assistance from an early iteration of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or AFDC. AFDC was a federal program that was established in 1935. Johnny had heard some horror stories about welfare and was reluctant to sign up, but eventually she did. When the AFDC initially passed during the New Deal, black Americans were denied access to the benefits. This changed during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, but discrimination continued. Black women in particular faced harassment and limited access to benefits. Johnny was now experiencing this discrimination firsthand. It wasn't until an incident involving a sprinkler and a church parking lot that Johnny decided she'd had enough. At that time, residents of the housing project where Johnny lived faced fees if their lawns weren't watered and green. So her neighbor, Miss Jackson, kept her sprinklers running all weekend, every weekend. One Sunday, her sprinkler sprayed onto the cars in the overflow lot of the church next door. When a woman left church and saw the water hitting the hood of her car, she was furious. Johnny watched as the church goer started to shout about the type of people who lived in the housing project, quote, all of them on welfare, sitting down lazy and so on, and didn't have any money. After that deeply insulting incident, Johnny sent notes to every woman in the housing project who was on welfare. She asked them to come to the office to discuss their leases and benefits. 300 women showed up. Johnny did this at other housing projects in the area too. They named their coalition of women Aid to Needy Children Mothers Anonymous, or ANC. Led by Johnny, the group organized to help welfare recipients navigate bureaucracy and get the benefits they needed. In 1967, the ANC joined forces with the National Welfare Rights Organization, or NWRO, and expanded their reach. Even though the majority of the AFDC recipients were white, the majority of the National Welfare Rights Organization activists were black. Johnny noticed a divide between the poor black women advocating for welfare rights and the middle-class white women of the Women's Liberation Movement, who were more focused on issues like birth control and abortion. In 1972, Johnny explained why poverty is a feminist issue in her now famous article entitled "'Welfare is a Women's Issue.'" She condemned the welfare system for unfairly placing blame on individuals, particularly women, for their circumstances. Johnny wrote, "'Welfare is like a super sexist marriage. You trade in a man for the man, but you can't divorce him if he treats you bad. He can divorce you, of course, cut you off anytime he wants. But in that case, he keeps the kids, not you. The man runs everything.'" Women on welfare were subject to demeaning regulations, such as the Man in the House Rule, which suggested that if any man was present in the home, he was financially responsible for the family, not the government. As a result, women experienced random home inspections where even finding men's clothing in the house could be grounds for denial of benefits. Additionally, a woman could be required to have her tubes tied to avoid being cut off welfare. The government could tell a woman how to spend her welfare checks, and even then, she might still not have enough money to pay rent or buy groceries for her children. Johnny and the NWRO's proposed solution for the broken welfare system? A guaranteed adequate income that paid people according to need and family size with no minimum eligibility. By not categorizing people by gender or marital status, a guaranteed adequate income would eliminate sexism from welfare. The NWRO was only active for nine years, but in that short time, it won millions of dollars for women previously denied welfare. It created a food voucher program, secured housing, clothing, and furniture for families in need. Along with civil rights lawyers, it also succeeded in eradicating the man-in-the-house rule. Johnny continued advocating for welfare rights at the local and state levels until her death in 1995. She was 69 years old. SPEAKER_06: All month, we're talking about mothers. SPEAKER_07: For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for having me as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow. SPEAKER_01: AT&T and Verizon lure you in with their best phone offers, only to lock you into a three-year phone contract, not at T-Mobile. Now, with T-Mobile's best Go 5G plans, upgrade when you want. Every year or every two, you decide. Visit T-Mobile.com to take charge of your upgrades. SPEAKER_00: Get two-year financing on Go 5G Plus and Next. One-year upgrade on Go 5G Next requires financing a new qualifying device and upgrading in good condition after six plus months with 50% paid off. 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