The Voting Rights Act of 1965
President Johnson issued a call for a strong voting rights law, and hearings began soon thereafter on the bill that would become the Voting Rights Act.
Continue Reading »March on Washington, D.C.: Rev. King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech
On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people from across the nation came together in Washington, D.C. to peacefully demonstrate their support for the passage of a meaningful civil rights bill, an end to racial segregation in schools and the creation of jobs for the unemployed. It was the largest demonstration ever held in the nation’s capital, and one of the first to have extensive television coverage. The march is remembered too as the occasion for Reverend Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.
Continue Reading »March on Washington, DC: Lincoln Memorial Program
Original documents for the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom
Continue Reading »March on Washington, DC: Final Organization Plans
Original documents prepared for the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom
Continue Reading »National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933
Economists, scholars, politicians, and the public at large were deeply divided as to the underlying causes of the Great Depression and the best means to bring it to an end. In the months following Roosevelt’s inauguration, his advisers, along with members of Congress and representatives from business and labor, drafted the legislation that was introduced in Congress on May 15, 1933, as the National Industrial Recovery Act. The division of opinions about the Depression was reflected in those who drafted NIRA, and the act drew both praise and criticism from across the political spectrum. Nevertheless, the urgency of the economic situation (with unemployment exceeding 30 percent in many parts of the country) pressured Congress to act.
Continue Reading »Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933
Text from the The Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933
Continue Reading »Emergency Relief and Construction Act of 1932
President Herbert Hoover said: “I expect to sign the relief bill on Tuesday. I do wish to express the appreciation which I have and I know that the country has to those leaders of both political parties who have cooperated to put the bill into effective shape and to eliminate the destructive proposals which were from time to time injected into it.
Continue Reading »Triangle Waist Company Fire (Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire)
The fire at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City, which claimed the lives of 146 young immigrant workers, is one of the worst disasters since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This incident has had great significance to this day because it highlights the inhumane working conditions to which industrial workers can be subjected. To many, its horrors epitomize the extremes of industrialism. The tragedy still dwells in the collective memory of the nation and of the international labor movement. The victims of the tragedy are still celebrated as martyrs at the hands of industrial greed.
Continue Reading »Social Welfare Developments, 1951-2000
1955 National Association of Social Workers founded by a merger of seven social work membership groups. 1962 Michael Harrington’s The Other America is published, awakening the American public to the nation’s increasing level of poverty. 1963 March on Washington DC for Jobs and Freedom 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. Title II and Title…
Continue Reading »Social Welfare Developments, 1901-1950
Editor’s Note: All items are in chronological order in the year under which they are listed. 1902 The first State workmen’s compensation law is enacted in Maryland; it was declared unconstitutional in 1904. Homer Folks, founder and head of the New York State Charities Aid Association publishes Care of Destitute, Neglected and Delinquent Children. Conversion…
Continue Reading »