Lawrence Oxley and Locality Development:

Abstract

In 1925, Lt. Lawrence Oxley became director of the Division of Work Among Negroes, a new unit of the North Carolina State Board of Charities and Public Welfare. The Division of Work Among Negroes was the first of its kind in the nation and it would become a model for other states to follow. Using locality development methods, Lt. Oxley stimulated significant public welfare initiatives among Blacks in thirty-eight counties before and during the early years of the Great Depression when North Carolina was a racially segregated state. Lawrence Oxley used the politics of Black self-help as a tool for fundamental social change in local public welfare activities. This article describes how his emphasis on Black selfhelp and indigenous leadership resulted in the placement and financing of the first Black social workers in public welfare offices in the state.