Institutionalizing the “Child Welfare” state: A study of the development of Alabama's child welfare system, 1887–1931

In today's society, the right of the state to intervene in the lives of families is assumed to be a necessary function of government. However, early-twentieth child welfare advocates, who espoused the belief that children had an inherent right to safety and security in their own homes, succeeded in establishing public child welfare institutions securing this right only after a long and determined struggle. This paper describes and analyzes the development of these institutions, and the factors that led to their creation, in Alabama, one of the first states to establish a comprehensive public child welfare system.