Richie's Picks: JANE ADDAMS: CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY by Judith Bloom Fradin
and Dennis Brindell Fradin, Clarion, 2006, ISBN: 0-618-50436-2
" 'Cause I know the biggest crime
is just to throw up your hands
Say this has nothing to do with me
I just want to live as comfortably as I can.
You got to look outside your eyes
You got to think outside your brain
You got to walk outside you life
to where the neighborhood changes" -- Ani Difranco, "Willing to Fight"
"Visitors often saw just one side of Chicago -- the lovely lakefront, the
fabulous mansions of the wealthy merchants, the majestic skyscrapers, and the
glittering night spots.
"There were entire neighborhoods where the residents lived packed together
in filthy tenements and shacks. Many poor Chicagoans had no heat in the
wintertime, no running water, and no neighborhood schools. Because the
opportunity to bathe was rare for the poor, dirt sometimes accumulated on children
until their skin resembled scales. In addition, the milk delivered to poor
families was often spoiled.
"These unsanitary conditions claimed a large toll, particularly among the
very young. In the city as a whole, half the children born in 1889 wouldn't
live to celebrate their fifth birthdays. The death toll was even higher in
poor neighborhoods, where families might have ten children in the hope that
three or four would reach adulthood. Adults also suffered from outbreaks of
disease, which included smallpox, cholera, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, typhoid
fever, and dysentery. In 1885, for example, epidemics killed approximately
one hundred thousand Chicagoans, or about one in every eight of the city's
population."
Into this world of squalor and disease stepped the young woman who was
determined to change things.
I like to think that I am doing my little bit to make the world a better
place. I am always advocating loudly for peace and acceptance and equality,
doing a lot of education-related volunteer work, drying my clothes in the sun,
taking mass transit when practical, recycling and composting and planting
trees. But then I read a book like JANE ADDAMS: CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY and am
again reminded of what it looks like to REALLY be serious about changing the
world:
"By the early 1900s, Hull House had grown to thirteen buildings and was home
to about forty staff residents, a quarter of them men. Among the residents
were physicians, attorneys, journalists, businessmen, teachers, scientists,
musicians, and artists. The Hull House settlement had become a vital part of
the neighborhood. Of the 70,000 people who lived within six blocks of Hull
House around the turn of the century, roughly 9,000 participated in the
settlement's programs in any given week."
And to think that Jane Addams' work to create Hull House was but the
platform from which she then worked -- in the forefront and with every expectation
of achieving success -- for world peace, women's suffrage, racial equality,
and an end to poverty and child labor.
"Jane Addams practiced what she preached. During her forty-six years as
director of Hull House, she refused to accept even a penny in salary for
herself. She also donated most of her personal funds to the settlement. She had
a
roof over her head, food, and some of her inheritance left, so why have a
large bank account when the money could help the poor."
Some of the snapshots of her sharing behavior are truly delightful, being
that she would barely have a gift open before immediately turning around and
giving it away to somebody whose need, she felt, was greater than was her own.
Of course, Jane Addams did not accomplish her work single-handedly. Jane
was an unstoppable organizer who -- over and over again -- lined up incredibly
talented people and sought out significant financial and hands-on support
from those well-off benefactors from Chicago and beyond who could readily afford
to help support the amazing breadth of good works that she initiated.
Where did Jane Addams came from? How did she change the world? Why did she
spend a decade being scorned for her views? How did she take on a crooked
Chicago politician to literally clean up the city? And, most importantly, why
would I would love for our children and our students to all know about this
great woman? These are all questions to which Judith and Dennis Fradin
provide answers in JANE ADDAMS: CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY. A few years ago, I
chatted with Dennis when he was up to his elbows in Jane's letters and other
primary source material. The result of the Fradins' dedication to seeking out the
truth about Jane Addams is a book that will help inspire a willingness in new
generation to fight for change.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks
Caldecott '09
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