17 april 1968 & dc welfare alliance plans sit-in

#OTD 17 April 1968 The DC Welfare Alliance announced plans to hold a sit-in to protest against Congressional changes in welfare policies. DCWA was an organization by and for individuals who received welfare. Etta Horn, director, and her colleagues sought 500 mothers to participate in the protest to demand that Congress reverse its 1967 decision to limit welfare and to institute a work requirement. At a panel discussion on the public welfare system, Horn called the Congress members "rotten" because "I couldn't stand here and state that they're good when a bill came out in such a way that would take people, white or black, into slavery."  

Horn said that she and her colleagues would also speak out against the city's unfair welfare system at the protest. 

Your comments are welcome below. Were you a member of the DC Welfare Alliance (which was also called the Citywide Welfare Alliance, Washington Welfare Alliance and DC Family Rights Organization)? Did you participate in the protest? Did you know Etta Horn? Did you receive welfare? Do you recognize any one in this photo? You may comment privately here.

Photo source: Courtesy DC Public Library. Photographer unknown. 
Carol Honsa, "Welfare Mothers Plan District Sit-In," Washington Post 18 April 1968.
Anne M. Valk, Radical Sisters: Second-Wave Feminism and Black Liberation in Washington, DC, 2008.