“Nobody’s Children”: The Racial History of Parental Rights Law in Foster Care

Abstract

While scholars show that child protection is tied to the regulation of motherhood, we know little about how mothers of color were treated in early child welfare history. To address this gap, this article traces how racial logics of maternal unfitness emerged in foster care services and shaped parental rights. Using case files and archival documents from New York child welfare agencies, this study establishes the racial myth of the “uninterested mother,” describing a perceived crisis of child abandonment in foster care. This myth emerged as a growing psychologization of motherhood converged with the realities of urban poverty that drove mothers of color to foster their children. At a time when struggling parents willingly chose foster placement, I show that welfare authorities began to limit foster care use and enforce women’s obligation to care for their children. In the late 1950s, reformers passed the “permanent neglect” statute to discourage the abandonment of children in foster care, and in doing so, reframed this service as temporary, punitive, and involuntary. The “uninterested mother” is an important racial myth about gender dependency in child welfare that offers new insight into the system’s shift from a welfare service to an authoritative one.

Plain Language Summary

“Nobody’s Children”: The Racial History of Parental Rights Law in Foster Care

While scholars show that child protection is concerned with controlling how mothers parent, we know little about how mothers of color were treated in early child welfare history. To address this gap, this article traces how racial stereotypes of maternal unfitness emerged in foster care services and shaped parental rights. Using case files and historical documents from New York child welfare, this study establishes the racial myth of the “uninterested mother,” describing a perceived crisis of child abandonment in foster care. This myth emerged as a growing science of motherhood converged with the realities of urban poverty that drove mothers of color to foster their children. At a time when struggling parents willingly chose to foster their children, I show that welfare authorities began to limit foster care use and enforce women’s obligation to care for their children. In the late-1950s, reformers passed the “permanent neglect” statute to discourage the abandonment of children in foster care, and in doing so, reframed this service as temporary, punitive, and involuntary. The “uninterested mother” is an important racial myth that offers new insight into the system’s shift from a welfare service to an authoritative service.