| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty. By Annelise Orleck. (Boston: Beacon, 2005. 368 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-8070-5032-6.)

Annelise Orleck's superb study of activist welfare mothers in Las Vegas offers an important new perspective on twentieth-century poverty policy. Structured as a collective biography of poor African American women antipoverty activists, Orleck's book begins with their roots in the 1940s South and chronicles their subsequent political awakening. In the 1950s, the women left their sharecropping southern communities to take jobs as maids and cooks in Las Vegas hotels. Many joined labor unions, which gave them their first experiences with interracial solidarity and political activism. In the 1960s, when they lost their jobs due to layoffs, poor health, or lack of child care, they applied for public assistance and formed a welfare rights organization. In 1971, their activism gained national attention after they opposed a draconian set of welfare cuts by organizing a march to the luxurious casino hotel, Caesars Palace, which was attended by poor mothers and children from across the country, peace activists, civil rights leaders, clergy, and Hollywood celebrities.

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