Social Welfare History Project People Page 2

Healy, Bishop James Augustine (1830-1900)

James Augustine Healy: The First African American To Be Ordained a Roman Catholic Priest

Brown, William Wells (1814-1884)

William Wells Brown – Anti-Slavery Lecturer, Groundbreaking Novelist, Playwright and Historian Introduction: William Wells Brown was an African American anti-slavery lecturer, groundbreaking novelist, playwright and historian. He is widely considered to have been the first African American to publish works in several major literary genres. Known for his continuous political activism especially in his involvement with the anti-slavery…

Wilson, Woodrow, 28th President of the United States (1913 – 1921)

Woodrow Wilson, a leader of the Progressive Movement, was the 28th President of the United States (1913-1921). After a policy of neutrality at the outbreak of World War I, Wilson led America into war in order to “make the world safe for democracy.”….Like Roosevelt before him, Woodrow Wilson regarded himself as the personal representative of the people. “No one but the President,” he said, “seems to be expected … to look out for the general interests of the country.” He developed a program of progressive reform and asserted international leadership in building a new world order. In 1917 he proclaimed American entrance into World War I a crusade to make the world “safe for democracy.”

Harding, Warren G., 29th President of the U.S. (1921-1923)

Behind the facade, not all of Harding’s Administration was so impressive. Word began to reach the President that some of his friends were using their official positions for their own enrichment. Alarmed, he complained, “My…friends…they’re the ones that keep me walking the floors nights!”….Looking wan and depressed, Harding journeyed westward in the summer of 1923, taking with him his upright Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover. “If you knew of a great scandal in our administration,” he asked Hoover, “would you for the good of the country and the party expose it publicly or would you bury it?” Hoover urged publishing it, but Harding feared the political repercussions.

Coolidge, John Calvin, Jr. – 30th President of the U.S. (1923-1929)

Coolidge was “distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement,” wrote a Democratic admirer, Alfred E. Smith. “His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the Presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history … in a time of extravagance and waste….”

Hoover, Herbert: Another View of His Career

He was elected thirty-first President of the United States in a 1928 landslide, but within a few short months he had become a scapegoat in his own land. Even today, Herbert Hoover remains indelibly linked to an economic crisis that put millions of Americans out of work in the 1930s. His 1932 defeat left Hoover’s once-bright reputation in shambles. But Herbert Hoover refused to fade away. In one of history’s most remarkable comebacks, he returned to public service at the end of World War II to help avert global famine and to reorganize the executive branch of government….By the time of his death in October 1964, Hoover had regained much of the luster once attached to his name. The Quaker theologian who eulogized him at his funeral did not exaggerate when he said of Hoover, “The story is a good one and a great one. . . . It is essentially triumphant.”

Hoover, Herbert, 31st U.S. President: 1929-1933

Before serving as America’s 31st President from 1929 to 1933, Herbert Hoover had achieved international success as a mining engineer and worldwide gratitude as “The Great Humanitarian” who fed war-torn Europe during and after World War I. Son of a Quaker blacksmith, Herbert Clark Hoover brought to the Presidency an unparalleled reputation for public service as an engineer, administrator, and humanitarian.

Shuttlesworth, Rev. Fred

As Birmingham goes, so goes the nation. That belief was the driving force behind Shuttlesworth’s crusade for equality. “He was the soul and heart of the Birmingham movement,” Georgia Rep. John Lewis said. It was Birmingham, he said, that brought the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Fred Shuttlesworth had the vision, the determination never to give up, never to give in,” Lewis said. “He led an unbelievable children’s crusade. It was the children who faced dogs, fire hoses, police billy clubs that moved and shook the nation.”