Children as Topic No 1 - Prologue - Summer 2010

8/9/2019 Children as Topic No 1 - Prologue - Summer 2010

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Among the well-known child welfare advocates seated at the head

table with President Roosevelt at the end of the 1909 White House

Conference on Children and Youth were Jane Addams, James E.

West, Homer Folks, and Theodore Dreiser. (The banquet was held at

Washingtons Willard Hotel.)

Right: High school youths hang out in front of a store, drinking pop in

Oakland, California, May 4, 1940.

Between 1946 and 1960, 59.4 million children were born in the UnitedStates. They learned to read with Dick and Jane or with Jack and Janet.They, as well as the teenagers who were children during World War II, oten

attended schools that were overcrowded. They were told to duck and cover

in the event o a nuclear attack, and or an increasing number, amily mobility

meant growing up in the suburbs. This was the rst television generation.

Against this backdrop o the baby boom and a culture that increasingly

regarded teenagers as consumers rather than economic contributors, the 1950

and 1960 White House Conerences on Children

and Youth examined the state o American childhood

and adolescence in postwar America.

No.1Children as Topic

White House Conferences Focused on Youthand Societal Changes in Postwar America

By Marilyn Irvin Holt

Summer 2010


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when the U.S. Childrens Bureau was established in 1912 under the

Department o Labor. And, intended or not, the 1909 conerence laid

the oundation or uture conerences. The next occurred in 1919

Others ollowed on the decimal year. The last was held in 1970.

It was President Herbert Hoover who shaped the ramework or al

uture conerences. There was a undamental shit rom the previous

concentration on welare standards and dependent children to an

agenda that addressed the rights o children, including the right tomedical care and education. Although the 1930 conerence discussed

earlier conerence topics o dependent children and their needs, the

meeting put more issues on the table and considered all children.

Hoover established the practice o providing

government unds; the 1930 conerence was

nanced with a grant rom money raised, but never

used, or postWorld War I European relie.

He also set the precedent or a

pre-conerence planning com-

mittee. The committee

set the overall theme (theHoover conerence was

entitled Child Health

The concept o holding conerences targeting child-related issues

was not new. The Midcentury Conerence o 1950 and the Golden

Anniversary Conerence o 1960 continued a tradition that began in

1909 when President Theodore Roosevelt, urged on by activists and

reormers in the national child welare movement, sponsored the rst

White House Conerence on Children and Youth.

Some child-related issues such as care or dependent children appeared

on the agendas o every White House Conerence on Children andYouth, but many topics represented trends o an era and immediate

changes occurring in America. This was especially true or the postwar

years, when conerences were infuenced by the need or amily housing

and more schools, the sudden infuence o television, and the social

shits created by the civil rights movement.

Themed Care o Dependent Children, the 1909 conerence

endorsed a number o recommendations or promoting the health

and welare o young laborers, the orphaned, and the children o

impoverished parents.

It was the Progressive Era. Reormers wanted more government

regulation, rather than less. They called or ederal legislation dealing with such issues as controlling child labor, but one o the most

important demands o the conerence was ormation o a ederal

bureau devoted to issues

directly related to

children. That goal

was accomplished

Children as Topic No.1


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The Interdepartmental Committee on Children

and Youth consisted of federal agencies that funded

youth-related programs. The committee provided

conference participants with data on programs and

the numbers of youngsters served.

and Protection); worked with the U.S. Childrens

Bureau, state, and local organizations; decided

who would be invited; and dealt with the nuts and

bolts o meeting arrangements.

White House Conerences expanded in

participation and content with each meeting. This

is apparent in the 1950 and 1960 conerences,

which oer a window to the impact o the waryears and to what oten seemed overwhelming

demands o the baby boom o the 1950s.

Many topics, such as juvenile delinquency

and oster care, had been discussed since the

rst White House Conerence in 1909, but the

context in which they, and newer subjects, were

viewed took on added relevance and urgency by

the mid-1900s.

To some degree, conerences ocused on

righting problems that were typical o the

decade. At the 1950 conerence, or instance,little attention was given to the quality o

television programs or the mediums impact on

children. There were, ater all, ewer than 100

commercial television stations in the country.

Nor did meeting delegates ully understand,

or appreciate, postwar population shits to

the suburbs or to states that boomed with

employment opportunities in deense industries.

By 1960, however, both television and the

demands o changing population patterns were

widely discussed in orums that ranged romthe topics o social services to education.

The 1950 and 1960 conerences received

inormation rom the Interdepartmental Com-

mittee, which was made up o ederal agencies

and departments that administered programs

that in some way aected children. Established

in 1948 to reduce duplication o services and

to promote better communication within the

government, the committee had 28 members

by the mid-1950s. The statistical data and

analysis collected and disseminated by the

committee was an important resource or thoseplanning and later attending the White House

conerences. Where else would conerence

attendees learn that the National School Lunch

Program ed 9 million children during the

19501951 school year? And how many would

have known, unless amiliar with the program,

that over 155,000 war orphans (children o

servicemen killed in World War II and Korea)

were eligible or aid through the War Orphans

Educational Assistance Act?

It would be impossible here to treat eachtopic in depth, but a small sample provides

some idea o what concerned the general

pubic and policy makers o mid-20th-century

America. Included here or consideration are

civil rights/integration; juvenile delinquency;

adoption; oster care; housing; and the Cold

War shadow o communism.

Perhaps the most socially charged issue o

the postwar era was civil rights. The discussion

was not new. The nal report o the 1940

conerence, or instance, devoted a chapter tothe extent that minority children (not only

Arican American, but Filipino, Mexican,

Japanese, Chinese, and Native American) were

deprived o social services and schooling.

In 1950, the status o minority children

remained an issue, but the ocus was on those

o Arican American heritage. Studies o Aid to

Dependent Children programs oered a case

in point. In southern states, discriminatory

practices kept many Arican American children

rom receiving support through ADC programs,and when money was provided, it was ar less

than that available to children in other sections

o the country. In Mississippi, or example, the

Top: President Herbert Hoover is greeted by a yo

band during the 1930 White House Conference

Children and Youth.

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state legislature reused to increase unds or

ADC. The average grant to a child was 6 dollars

a month; by comparison, the monthly payment

in Illinois was just over 26 dollars.

These disparities were discussed at the 1950

conerence, but the overall conversation on

minorities was recongured by civil rights and

integration. The issues were hotly contestedamong states submitting reports and those

attending the national conerence. (The report

rom President Harry S. Trumans home state

o Missouri was among those that called or

an end to segregation, because it produced

psychological insecurity in children.)

Conerence participants ound it dicult, i

not impossible, to reach common ground. On

the one hand, recommendations that the 1950

conerence support integration were voted down,

as was the demand rom a bloc o youngerdelegates and the American Psychological Associ-

ation that no uture meetings or conerences

be held in Washington, D.C., until the city

integrated its restaurants and hotels. On the other

hand, the Midcentury Conerences Pledge to

Children stated: We will work to rid ourselves

o prejudice and discrimination, so that together

we may achieve a truly democratic society.

Between 1950 and 1960, public acilities

in the District o Columbia were integrated;

the Supreme Court ruled separate butequal unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of

Education; and ederal troops escorted black

students into Little Rocks Central High.

Certainly, discrimination and racial tensions

were ar rom eliminated during the ties,

but when the Golden Anniversary Conerence

convened in 1960, attitudes were perceptively

dierent. There was little opposition to resolutions

that called or an end to segregation in schools,

housing, and employment. More than hal o the

workgroups demanded an end to discrimination,and a number voted to support current sit-ins at

lunch counters. To make the point, a number o

aggressively progressive youth delegates, noted

Ben Furman in an April 2, 1960, New York

Times article, spent their ree time organizing

picket lines to show support or these sit-ins.

Another topic o concern was juvenile

delinquency. When President Dwight D.

Eisenhower spoke at the opening ceremonies o

the 1960 conerence, he specically mentioned

it as a problem deserving immediate attention

The President reerred to delinquency as a world

wide problem. (In act, most industrialize

countries grappled with youth gang activity, and

not even harsh tactics employed by authoritie

in the Soviet Union could entirely curb toughgangs that oten terrorize people on the streets.)

The time-honored response to delinquency

was incarceration. In the 19th century, a ew

private charities tried intervention as a means

o redirecting the paths o potential juvenile

delinquents, but it was not until the end o the

1800s and the early 1900s that more eort wen

into saving youngsters through preventive

measures such as organized sports and activitie

oered in urban settlement houses.

Delinquency and its prevention was a topicat the 1909 White House conerence, but

the public generally regarded delinquency a

something conned to urban areas and the

lower socio-economic classes. The issue wa

largely ignored by most Americans until i

became a problem o the middle class.

In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s

juvenile delinquency ound middle America. The

popular press and Hollywood ueled the public

ear that delinquency lurked around every

cornerand in better neighborhoods. Articles innational magazines carried such titles as Child

Criminals Are My Job, Juvenile Crime: Is You

Boy Sae?, and Delinquency: Big and Bad.

A spate o delinquent movies also appeared

Many were low-budget B movies, but that could

not be said o two o the most well-known lms

o the period. The Blackboard Jungle (1955

brought a rightening realism to the subject o

urban delinquency, and Rebel Without a Caus

(1955) made audiences uncomortable with

its white, suburban characters who lived in anice town.

That was becoming the reality, said the

Childrens Bureau in the opening statemen

or a 1954 conerence on juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency was on the rise in more

ortunate neighborhoods and homes, and the

sharpest increases over the national average

were being seen in small cities and towns.

Bottom: James S. Thomas and his family watch television

in the living room of their home in Vienna, Virginia. Taken

from the pamphlet TelevisionPromise and Problem.

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Top: Danny Kaye (far right), a popular entertainer an

dedicated spokesperson for UNICEF, asked to lead t

youth forums at the 1960 conference.

Both the 1950 and 1960 conferences were con-

cerned with adequate postwar housing and urban

development projects.

One o the Childrens Bureau mandates was

to ocus on minors who came beore juvenile

courts, to conduct eld studies, and to maintain

nationwide statistics. The bureau reported that

the number o young people brought beore

judges more than doubled between 1948 and

1956, with 1954 showing an an all-time high.

The spike that occurred during the waryears, when latchkey kids and unsupervised

teenagers contributed to high delinquency

gures, should have dropped with the return

o peace and normalcy. Instead, they rose.

Social commentators, community leaders,

law enorcement experts, and welare workers

elt that there was plenty o blame to spread

aroundparents, television, movies, rock and

roll, bad neighborhoods, gangs, inadequate

teachers, lack o community leadership.

To this, the ederal government addedanother actor that had been a subculture

or decades but now threatened mainstream

Americathe international trade in narcotics.

Eisenhower spoke o the problem in his 1955

State o the Union message and subsequently

asked Congress to provide ederal aid to states

or antijuvenile delinquency programs.

Despite this background and Eisenhowers

request, Congress ailed to approve the

money in 1955, 1956, and 1960. It was only

ater the momentum o 1960 White HouseConerence that Congress, under the Kennedy

administration, authorized ederal grants in

1961. The program provided $10 million a

year or pilot projects, training programs, and

studies by state and local agencies and nonprot

groups to combat delinquency.

The problems o delinquency and its prevention

continued with each generation, as did the

question o the best treatment or orphaned and

dependent children. One answer was adoption.

Between 1944 and 1953, the number oadoption petitions led in U.S. courts rose

rom 50,000 to 90,000, and or the remainder

o the 1950s, the number o adoptions per year

averaged between 90,000 and 95,000.

Just as there were numerous motivations or

adopting children, there were variations in the

adoptable population. Slightly less than hal

were adopted by stepparents or relatives, while

a large number o those adopted by nonrelatives

were the children o unwed mothers.

Youngsters also arrived rom overseas. Ater

World War II, orphans were adopted out o

western Europe, and both during and ater the

Korean War, orphans rom that confict were

adopted by American amilies.

The rise in both oreign and domesticadoptionsthe Bureau o Indian Aairs even

promoted a program or the adoption o Native

American children into Caucasian homes

was both heartwarming and disturbing or

social welare organizations.

There was no uniormity rom one state to

another in adoption laws, and despite years o

work by the Childrens Bureau and nonprot

organizations, there were policy gaps that did

not always protect the adoptive child or parents.

Participants at the 1950 White Houseconerence argued that standards or agencies

placing children had to be strengthened, and more

than one state report refected acrimony between

welare workers and physicians who bypassed

agencies and arranged private adoptions.

Despite problems cited by the social

welare community, adoption was one option

or eectively and humanely providing

children with homes. For those not available

or adoption but who had no homes or whose

home lie put them in danger, there was theorphanage or oster care.

I given a choice, welare workers generally

avored oster care over the orphanage. In

act, in its Pledge to Children, the 1950

White House Conerence made no reerence

to adoption or to orphanages but included

oster care in its language: We will work

to conserve and improve amily lie and, as

needed, to provide oster care according to

your inherent rights.

In 1949 the Social Security Administration, which provided survivors benets through

Social Security unds, estimated that there

were 100,000 true orphans in the United

States (children with no living parent), and

three out o every 100 orphans under the age

o 18 lived in an institution.

Foster care proponents hoped to reduce the

child populations in institutions as well as keep

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A poster for the 1960 White House Conference on

Children and Youth.

children who were entering the welare system

out o orphanages. In 1949 an estimated 1.5

million children were not living with their parents

or with a surviving parent, and the number was

certain to increase with the national birth rate.

As might be expected, there were obstacles to

nding oster homes. A problem, oten heard

echoed today, was the dire shortage o goodoster homes. The same complaints came rom

around the country. Welare workers believed

that it was dicult to nd oster amilies because

more women worked outside the home; many

amilies were preoccupied with their own

problems; and inadequate housing made it

dicult or amilies to take in a child when the

house or apartment was already overcrowded.

A shortage in housing, as well as inadequate

conditions in homes and apartments, aected

not only the availability o oster care homesbut children in general. Overcrowding and

substandard housing had the potential to

negatively aect childrens health. In turn,

youngsters did less well in school. There

were ripple eects that had long-reaching

implications or a childs quality o lie. The

postwar housing shortage and the need or

radical improvements in existing dwellings

dated back to the depression o the 1930s, when

there was little new home construction.

New construction and home modernizationwere put on hold during World War II, when

materials went to the war eort. By the time

GIs began to come home, the housing problem

could no longer be ignored. The dramatic rise

in marriage and birth rates turned the housing

crunch into a crisis.

Demands were just as likely to be ound in

arm communities as in small towns and cities

where single-amily homes and apartments were

oten at a premium. Families were orced to live

with relatives or share space with other, nonrelatedamilies. (A reported 6 million amilies were

doubling up with riends or amily in 1947.)

Over time, housing demands were alleviated

or the growing middle class. The Veterans

Administration program o guaranteed

mortgage insurance to returning GIs allowed

amilies to build or buy new homes, and

suburbs such as the amous Levittown, New

York, became the new communities an

towns o the mid-20th century.

While there was a general demand or

national housing program that would mee

the needs o amilies in every income group, in

every type o community, delegates at the 1950

Midcentury Conerence were most concerned

with those at the bottom o the social aneconomic ladder. They suggested that more than

800,000 low-rent housing units be built at ul

speed. Conerence participants also endorsed

housing legislation that provided or urban

redevelopment, slum clearance, and construction

o good quality low-cost housing.

Construction and urban renewal were already

under way as a result o the 1949 Housing Act

but progress was slow. In many communities

across the country, local projects met with

resistance. In Caliornia, or example, 20 out o30 projects were deeated by antipublic housing

campaigns. This meant that the poorest amilies

oten minorities, remained in substandard

housing and neighborhoods, taking an emotiona

and physical toll on children.

The topics o civil rights, integration, juvenile

delinquency, adoption, oster care, and housing

help illustrate the ways in which discourse and

policies were nuanced by public awareness, by

government programs (at both the state and

ederal levels), and by the immediate culturaand political environment.

World events and oreign policy were also

infuential. The 1940 conerence, or example

was held against the backdrop o a decade o

national depression and an uncertain uture

Much o the worlds people lived under military

dictatorships, and war was already a reality in

Europe and the Far East. Searching or the

positive, organizers o the 1940 meeting chose

the theme Children in a Democracy. With

all its internal problems and the pressures romabroad, the United States could still say that it

children lived in a democratic society.

Democracy was still very much on

Americans minds 10 years later at the 195

conerence. The country had ought a wa

that deeated Nazism and Fascism, but the

United States aced new military threats rom

Communist countries and what many believed

Prologue 2Children as Topic No.1


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This booklet from the 1950 conference included a

17-point Pledge to Children and a statement from

President Harry S. Truman.

was an insidious inltration o Communist

sympathizers inside the United States.

In 1949 the Soviet Union tested its own

atomic bomb. In the same year, Alger Hiss

went on trial or lying about his aliation

with a one-time Communist, and in 1950,

Senator Joseph McCarthy proclaimed that he

had a list o Communists working in the U.S.government. When the Midcentury Conerence

convened, American troops were ghting in

Korea. Should conerence participants ail to

recognize the threat that communism posed

to the United States and its children, President

Truman oered a reminder at the opening

ceremony:

. . . we must remember that the ghting in

Korea is but one part o the tremendous

struggle o our timethe struggle

between reedom and Communistslavery. This struggle engages all our

national lie, all our institutions, and

all our resources. . . . I believe the single

most important thing our young people

will need to meet this critical challenge in

the years ahead is moral strengthand

strength o character.

Much o Trumans speech was directed at the

Communist threat to a democratic society. He

did, however, make a tangential connection to

the conerence theme, For Every Child a FairChance or a Healthy Personality.

The strength o character required to meet

the challenges o a postwar world came rom

positive emotional and mental development. The

growing interest in, and reliance on, psychology

was a tool to be urther explored. Said one report

rom the 1950 National Committee: Various

proessions are discovering that the new ndings

in psychology, sociology, and physiology haveimportant implications or their work. Parents,

too, are learning about (some might say, are

being enguled by) the new ideas.

Certainly, a childs understanding o the

world and his or her outlook were infuenced

by cultural background, economic status,

and religious instruction. These variations

and dierences should be examined, said

organizers. The ultimate goal was to produce

an emotionally and intellectually sound

generation, even as youngsters were toldthat Communist inltration and the threat

o nuclear annihilation were very real.

When White House Conerences were

initiated, a working theme was attached to the

event. These provided some indication o the

conerences primary ocus. With each meeting,

however, the theme became more esoteric.

One might argue that the 1950 conerences

theme For Every Child a Fair Chance or

a Healthy Personality signaled acceptance

o psychology as a actor in studying childdevelopment, but it does little to convey the

wide range o topics that were discussed.

Among them were schooling and health care

or the children o migrant workers, increased

support or vocational training, services or the

blind and dea, programs or crippled children

(many the victims o polio), and preparing

teenagers or marriage and parenthood.

Organizers o the 1960 conerence aced

a similar dilemma in adequately dening

their goals with a slogan. The conerence was labeled the Golden Anniversary, but

the national committee decided to delete its

theme, Individual Fulllment in a Changing

World, rom ocial statements and press

releases. To organizers, no phrase adequately

captured the complex issues at hand.

The same was true o the 1970 conerence,

which worked rom a broad outline o topics

categorized by three age groups that spanned

inancy to age 19.

The 1970 conerence was the last o its

kind. In the attempt to be all-inclusive, theconerences had become unwieldy. Beginning

in 1950, the number o participants greatly

expanded. Six thousand attended that meeting;

7,000 were at the 1960 conerence. A ew

hundred o these were children and teenagers,

invited to provide entertainment or attend as

youth representatives.

With the large numbers o participants,

workshops were scattered around in various

Washington hotels, and or the opening

ceremonies, large venues were needed. The1950 conerence held its opening at the Armory

in Washington, D.C.; the 1960 conerence

began at the University o Maryland.

The breadth o subjects and issues were also

problematic. Conerence participants worked in

small groups according to their special expertise

and interests. Some groups ocused on research

projects devoted to health care, education, and

the infuence o the mass media. Others studied

laws that aected adoption, divorce, employment,

institutionalization, and juvenile justice. A number o groups looked at amily lie

and community resources, as well as the role

o recreation, discrimination, youth groups,

and religious programs that in some way

aected children and teenagers. In the end,

work groups were expected to come together

with recommendations and proposals. It

was a daunting task, and as early as the 1950

conerence, National Committee chair Oscar

R. Ewing wondered i the delegates should

undertake detailed examination o all problemsrelating to children or rather choose one or more

specic problems and concentrate on these.

That approach became the norm ater the

1970 conerence, although in 2008, during the

second session o Congress, H.R. 5461 called

or a White House Conerence on Children and

Youth. Those who lobbied or the bill argued that

this would reestablish the tradition that ended



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An aerial view of Levittown, Pennsylvania, one of the famous postwar housing developements, ca. 1959.

ater 1970. O course, White House conerences

devoted to children and teenagers had not

disappeared ater that date. In most recent

memory there have been the 1997 conerence on

Early Childhood Development and Learning,

the 2000 conerence on Teenagers, the 2002

conerence on Missing, Exploited, and Runaway

Children, and the 2005 conerence on Helping Americas Youth. Unlike the White House

Conerences on Children and Youth, these

meetings did not attempt to encompass a wide

range o topics. They instead ocused on dened

groups, needs, and issues.

This trend to narrow discussion points

actually began in the 1950s, when the White

House Conerences on Children and Youth

were still being held. During the Eisenhower

administration, there were two initiatives

aimed at specic areas. The rst was the WhiteHouse Conerence on Education (1955) and

then the Presidents Conerence on Fitness o

American Youth (1956).

Beore the 1955 publication o Why

Johnny Cant Readand beore the Soviets

launch o Sputnik (which resulted in the

National Deense Education Act o 1958),

the Eisenhower administration was putting

together a conerence on education. Some

problems went back to the war years when

shortages curtailed school construction and when teachers (both male and emale) let

teaching or military service or work in war

plants, and did not return to the classroom.

By the mid-ties, the lack o teachers and

the need or more classrooms and updated

equipment became critical as the number o

school-age children rapidly rose. Each year the

number o children entering school increased

by about 3 percent until, by the 19601961

school year, over 25 million children were in

elementary school. In a letter to Clara Swinson,an Arican American teacher in Oklahoma,

Eisenhower expressed his hope to limit ederal

participation to what might be called emergency

construction o the necessary buildings.

He understood that in theory and in

practice, the American educational system

rested on local school districts and state boards

o education, and many o these eared that

money or construction would be the rst step

toward ederal control o education. Typical o

this position was the opposition posed by an

educator in Texas who argued that any ormo aid would lead to ederal controls as well as

reduce initiative or local supports.

States rights advocates, like this gentleman

rom Texas, were joined by others who, or their

own reasons, made nancial aid to education

one o the most controversial issues in the

postwar era. Northern conservatives opposed

more government participation when it meant

an increased ederal budget; the Catholic

Church resisted because ederal aid would

not include parochial schools; and lastly, therewere those who blocked aid because parochial

schools might be included.

Nevertheless, it was becoming more obvious,

even imperative, said many, that the ederal

government oer more guidance and nancial

aid in the push to improve the nations schools.

The physical environment, including more

classrooms, demanded immediate attention.

At the same time, the teacher shortage was

a challenge, as was the growing expectation

among parents and communities that classroominstruction expand beyond what was normally

considered a common school education. They

wanted their children exposed to modern

languages, music, and art. Parents with

physically or emotionally challenged children

wanted expanded school services to meet those

needs. Everybody wanted to add something,

and nobody wanted to cut anything out,

observed one commentator in the September

1955 issue oHarpers Magazine.

Many within the ederal government, in the

military, and the scientic community tookanother view. They argued that U.S. security

and military strength rested on the nex

generation o well-trained proessionals in the

sciences. In this context, baby boomers did no

realize it, but they were in competition with the

children o the Soviet Union.

While educators, communities, and th

government wrestled with the needs o schools

another warning went up. Not only did Johnny

have problems reading; he couldnt do push-ups

In July 1955, Hans Kraus and BonniePrudden, co-authors o a number o articles

related to physical tness, gave a presentation

at a White House luncheon largely attended by

well-known amateur and proessional athletes

Kraus and Prudden specically reerred to a

study that compared American and European

students between the ages o 6 and 16 using the

Kraus-Weber Tests or Muscular Fitness. The

test evaluated youngsters abilities to do a set

number o such things as leg lits, sit-ups, and

toe touches.The results were disturbing. Only abou

8 percent o the European children ailed

even one test component; 56 percent o the

Americans ailed at least oneand usuall

more. Subsequently, Eisenhower called o

a Presidents Conerence on the Fitness o

American Youth with Vice President Richard

Nixon serving as conerence chairman.

Prologue 2Children as Topic No.1


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To learn more about:

Dwight D. Eisenhower

and his presidency, go to www.

eisenhower.archives.gov.

Harry S. Truman and his

presidency, go to www.truman library.org.

Richard Nixon and his presidency, go to www.

nixonlibrary.gov.

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pd d Whit Hus Cnfnc n Childn in a Dmcacy, Washingtn, D.C., Januay

1820, 1940(Wg, D..: d Dm, 1941); dwd a. Rd, d., Pcdings

f th Midcntuy Cnfnc n Childn and Yuth (Rg, : h p, 1959); Dvd F,

Fa Fm th rsvatin: T ansacial Adptin f

Amican Indian Childn (M, J: w

p, i., 1972); y My, Hmwad

Bund: Amican Familis in th Cld Wa ea, v.

d. (w Yk: b bk, 1999); d

My, jy Kg F, T Amican

rcatin Scity Bulltin 9(My 1957): 6.

a mgz jv

dqy d Mj Rwg, d

m My J, Satuday evning Pst226

(M 27, 1954): 19-21; Jv m: i Y

by ?a O d, Nwswk 42 (v.

9, 1953): 28-30; d Dqy: bg d bd,

Nwswk42 ( v. 30, 1953): 30.

ote on ources

Author

Marilyn Irvin Holt, my

K

h y,

pb

j d z d dd

y. h k d T ophan ains:

Placing out in Amica, Indian ophanags, d

Childn f th Wstn Plains: T Nintnth-Cntuy

expinc.

The conerence, convened in June 1956,

wanted to give orm and substance to the

idea o a physical tness program or American

youth. It encouraged increased participation

in recreational and competitive sports, and

it warned against the sedentary habits o

our age. Out o the conerence emerged the

Presidents Council on Youth Fitness (renamedthe Presidents Council on Physical Fitness

by President John F. Kennedy) and a Citizens

Advisory Committee to help improve the

physical and mental health o the nations young

people. Neither the council nor the committee

operated a program that gave money to projects,

but it was hoped that the groups promotional

work would stimulate the initiative o the home

and community, according to the councils

administrator, Shane McCarthy.

Conerences directed at a specic topic andthe White House Conerences o 1950 and

1960 were intended to do more than produce

rhetoric and reports. They created a public

orum or national discussion. They raised

pubic awareness and educated the average

American, along with elected ocials and

proessionals.

Sometimes the end result was a conerence-

approved recommendation that asked the

ederal government to become more involved

in some particular area. Despite the numbero government programs that directly aected

children, there was a general consensus that

it could do more through legislation and

unding.

Occasionally, reports and discussions

asked the government to reconsider programs

that, once implemented, produced more

problems than anyone anticipated. Follow-

up meetings to the 1960 conerence, or

instance, were critical o state and ederal

entities that rushed orward with urbanrenewal without giving much thought to

relocating displaced amilies. There was also

concern that vocational programs, unded

with ederal monies, were not preparing

teenagers or jobs in a work environment o

rapidly changing technology. While slum

removal and vocational education could

benet youngsters, unoreseen consequences

demanded their own solutions.

Other subjects, including the urgency

to remedy the housing crunch o the late

1940s, receded into the background.

However, many complex concerns, such as

reducing juvenile delinquency or providing

educational opportunities or all, remainedconstants in conerence discussions. What

was said about children and teenagers was

undamental to the conerence process and

to identiying needs and successes.

But, in that discourse we also nd

American society ocusing on the sort

o childhood experience and legacy it

was creating or its younger generation.

Children and teenagers o the postwar era

were expected to have larger opportunities,

better experiences, and more personal

ulllment than those who grew up during

the Great Depression and war years. The

White House Conerences attempted to

help make that happen. P

2010 by Marilyn Irvin Holt


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Children as Topic No 1 - Prologue - Summer 2010

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