Until the start of the 20th century, Americans typically believed in the power of the “melting pot” to create a common culture out of the various groups coming to America. However, this surge in immigration led to the creation of Americanization programs.
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Church of All Nations, New York City
“A Long History of Community Service at the Church of All Nations,” by Cristina Vignone. “…the Church of All Nations ‘was always a community-oriented building…[cutting] across ethnic boundaries.'”
Continue Reading »One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview
Suffrage is the right or privilege of voting and is frequently incorporated among the rights of citizenship. However, just as not all people in the United States are necessarily granted the privilege of citizenship, not all U.S. citizens have been uniformly endowed with the right to vote. Given the property laws and economic status of citizens at that time, these restrictions meant that most women and persons of color could not vote, and only about “half of the adult white men in the United States were eligible to vote in 1787.”With so few rights, many women drew parallels between their social and political state and that of slaves. This entry notes the dates and events that eventually resulted in the 19th Amendment.
Continue Reading »Oswald Villard, the NAACP and The Nation Journal
In 1909, when the founders of the NAACP needed help organizing their new civil rights group, they reached out to Oswald Garrison Villard, The Nation’s future editor and owner.
Continue Reading »Springfield Race Riot of 1908
On the evening of August 14, 1908, a race war broke out in the Illinois capital of Springfield. Angry over reports that a black man had sexually assaulted a white woman, a white mob wanted to take a recently arrested suspect from the city jail and kill him….In the early hours of the violence, as many as five thousand white Springfield residents were present, mostly as spectators. Still angry, the rioters minus most of the spectators next methodically destroyed a small black business district downtown, breaking windows and doors, stealing or destroying merchandise, and wrecking furniture and equipment. The mob’s third and last effort that night was to destroy a nearby poor black neighborhood called the Badlands. Most blacks had fled the city, but as the mob swept through the area, they captured and lynched a black barber, Scott Burton, who had stayed behind to protect his home.
Continue Reading »U.S. Department of Labor History
“A Brief History, “written by Judson MacLaury
Continue Reading »Hillman, Sidney – (1887-1946)
Sidney Hillman, the founder of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (now UNITE!) and its president from 1914 to 1946, invented trade unionism as we know it today.
Continue Reading »Gilman, Daniel Coit (1831 – 1908): Part Two
Daniel Coit Gilman is best known for his contributions to American university and medical education. Much less well known are his activities in contributing to the foundation for American professional social work education and his personal social welfare activities. This paper reviews his history in these areas and argues that greater attention should be given to his social welfare educational and practice accomplishments.
Continue Reading »Jane Addams and the 1894 Pullman Strike
Chapter 13 from the book: “Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy” by Louise W. Knight. “The strike was a public crisis. Its eruption raised difficult questions for Addams about the ethics of the industrial relationship. What were George Pullman’s obligations to his employees? And what were his employees’ to him? …Who had betrayed whom? Where did the moral responsibility lie?”
Continue Reading »Barrett, Janie Porter (1865 – 1948)
Janie Porter Barrett (1865 -1948): Founder of the Locust Street Social Settlement (1890) and the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls (1915)
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