Inhumane Family Separations, Emerging Advocacy: Child welfare emerged as a critical justice issue for Black and brown families in New York City and many large cities nationwide during the late 1980s and 1990s, when sensational coverage of “crack babies” “welfare queens” and “super-predators,” combined with images of horrific abuse, such as Eliza Izquierdo’s death in 1995, demonized Black women and created intense public pressure to separate Black families.

• In NYC, 50,000 children were in foster care in 1991 and 35,000 children were removed from home between 1996-98, including 1 in 10 children in Central Harlem.
• Parents had no support and minimal legal representation. Many children suffered in foster care for their entire childhood.
• In NYC, advocacy began with Represent, a magazine by and for youth in foster care, founded in 1993, and the Child Welfare Organizing Project, founded in 1994, as well as other organizations, many supported by the Child Welfare Fund.