Credible Workers and Deserving Mothers: Crafting the “Mother Tongue” in Welfare Rights Activism, 1967–1972

This essay explores the use of the mother tongue on the part of poor, primarily black women who were welfare recipient-activists in the late 1960s. In contrast to the “feminine style” described by Campbell as “inductive, even circuitous” and “somewhat tentative” in tone (Campbell, 1986 Campbell , K. K. ( 1986 ). Style and content in the rhetoric of early Afro-American feminists . Quarterly Journal of Speech , 72 , 434 – 445 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], p. 440), the mother tongue is direct, unequivocal, and at times irreverent or indecorous for the given speaking situation. Recipient-activists used the mother tongue to refute prevailing stereotypes such as the “welfare chiseler” and the “welfare queen.” The study complicates notions of the feminine style by calling attention to the influence of race and class on rhetorical intervention in public policy debates.