ABSTRACT
Over the last century, the United States has been rife with groups and individuals organizing to create change by confronting systems of oppression. At no time was this more prevalent than during the 1960s and 1970s. The political culture during this time provided a supportive backdrop for a movement toward democratic participation from engaged citizens. The outrage of the people in disenfranchised communities and the political culture of this time provided a window of opportunity for the development of a wide-based civil rights movement to combat the oppression faced by many diverse groups in the United States. One of these organized communities consisted of welfare rights activists. Yet, as the window of opportunity for social change started to close, some welfare rights activists began to embrace a human rights framework as their struggle for rights was “too legit to quit.” The human rights lens, grounded in the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, is an internationally legitimate framework from which collective demands for basic human need can be drawn. This chapter charts this history and briefly highlights the transformation of one local organization as it reframed the struggle from welfare rights to human rights as a strategy to continue building personal and political power.
