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North Carolina State Board of Charities and Public Welfare
Biennial Report of the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare, December 1, 1920 to June 30, 1922
[Raleigh]: s.n., [1922].

Summary

The purpose of the North Carolina State Board of Charities and Public Welfare's Biennial Report for December 1, 1920 to June 30, 1922 was to raise awareness of neglected or overshadowed public issues. Chairman William Allen Blair presents the report on behalf of his staff and the Commissioner. Commissioner Kate Burr Johnson, who took over as the agency's commissioner in July of 1921, was America's first female state commissioner of public welfare and the first woman in North Carolina to head a major state department. The report is prefaced by a table of contents and includes a short summary of the public welfare in North Carolina. It also reports on specific counties, child welfare, orphanages, and speaks to the importance of educating social workers. This is the board's first report to incorporate information from "a systematic keeping of records" on child welfare and Juvenile Court concerns (p. 6); this type of recordkeeping began May 1, 1921.

The publication also includes reports from agencies that include the Bureau of Institutional Supervision, which discusses the status of jails, chain gangs, juvenile delinquent schools, maternity homes for young girls, and county homes for the elderly and disabled. For each agency, there are tabular summaries of patient populations and finances.

The board concludes the report with a case study of a Wake County family (using fictitious names) that illustrates health problems and subsequent financial burdens for the state. The Board's recommendation throughout the report is that officials pay more attention to welfare issues and the provision of adequate staff, facilities, and other resources to welfare-related agencies.

Works consulted: Davis, Mollie C., "Kate Ancrum Burr Johnson," Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Vol. 3, William S. Powell, ed., Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988, 295-96.

See also:

First Annual Report of the Board of Public Charities of North Carolina. February, 1870.

Biennial Report of the North Carolina State Board of Charities and Public Welfare, July 1, 1938 to June 30, 1940.

Annual Report of the Board of Public Charities of North Carolina, 1910.

Monique Prince

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