Frank Porter Graham and the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Graham Image courtesy of the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress)
Ninety years ago, this month, the United States Congress passed the Social Security Act, a milestone piece of legislation designed to “provide for the general welfare” by establishing federal old-age benefits and enabling states to better support the elderly, blind, and disabled children, maternal and child welfare, and public health. Since its passage, Social Security has touched nearly every American life, offering a safety net that has kept millions of Americans out of poverty and enabled them to flourish well into old age.
Yet we forget just how monumental this legislative achievement was and the figures who helped make it possible. Here in North Carolina, few remember the vital advocacy of one of our own: Frank Porter Graham…