In the coming months, the United States Department of Health and Human Services plans to implement a newly proposed rule that would ensure proper allocation of federal welfare funds at the state level. As an ongoing civil lawsuit in Mississippi alleges, too often these funds get funneled into the pockets of wealthy donors through grants rather than going to the poor as intended.

The powerful myth that welfare recipients are “couch potatoes” or “welfare queens”—a stereotype that portrays recipients of government aid as poor, unmarried Black mothers who live lavishly on undeserved financial assistance—has long hindered adequate state funding for the poor. Ronald Reagan popularized this skewed portrayal in the 1970s and it has become so pervasive that Oliver Anthony included the idea in his 2023 country hit “Rich Men North of Richmond,” sparking debate. Republican politicians continue to stoke this myth to argue in favor of limiting the welfare state.

And their actions reveal the truth about the "welfare queens" trope: this rhetoric has always been about using welfare recipients as political pawns. That becomes clear if one looks at the history of the idea. Some scholars have argued that it dates back to the infamous 1965 Moynihan Report, which controversially described Black mothers’ economic struggles. But in reality, the idea of welfare queens was firmly in place long before Harvard professor and policy advisor Daniel Patrick Moynihan weighed in. Instead, the concept stemmed from the 1962 Reverse Freedom Rides, a segregationist effort to send welfare recipients to the north. This campaign spotlighted the true motive behind the “welfare queen” myth—one that remains firmly entrenched.

In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) launched the freedom rides, in which Black and white civil rights activists sought to integrate interstate buses. As freedom ride buses originating in the North arrived in the Jim Crow South, the activists confronted extreme violence from white supremacists. The........

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