Today, I am thankful for those social workers epitomizing the meaning behind community service.
Welcome all to Labor Day Weekend. My sincere hope is that each of you might find some time over the holiday weekend to celebrate with family and friends, perhaps over a (socially-distanced) sumptuous barbeque or a few thirst-quenching cocktails. Tomorrow is the official celebration of Labor Day. For more than 125 years, the first Monday of September has served as a tribute to all the workers who brought an ethos of fortitude, prosperity, and security to this great American experiment. Initially recognized through municipal and state ordinances commencing in 1885, the holiday would gain national prominence once the United States Congress officially recognized the observance of the American workers in 1894. At the height of the Industrial Revolution, unions and other trade organizations began to recognize that the burgeoning economy of the United States was founded as a result of the diligence and tenacity of the sedulous laborers of the many factories and offices that blanketed our thriving nation. Interestingly, early in the 20th Century, the Sunday preceding the official holiday was also recognized as Labor Sunday, a day specifically dedicated to the educational and spiritual attributes of the American labor movement.
With this in mind, I am choosing to use today (Sept 6), this year’s Labor Sunday, to kick off a week in celebration of certain American laborers who changed the world. Over the course of the next 7 days, I intend to heap praise on several Americans pioneers who helped lay the sturdy foundation of this extraordinary nation. Let’s start the week off right by lauding an American who introduced the humanitarian concept of community service to the American public at around the time that the labor movement of the Industrial Revolution was taking hold.
Exactly 160 years ago on this day (Sept 6) in 1860, the eighth of nine children was born to a prosperous state senator and Civil War officer in Cedarville, Illinois. Sadly, Jane Addams never had a chance to meet her father’s close confidante, Abraham Lincoln. Her childhood was instead filled with much sadness and despair. While her father was fighting in the Civil War, her own mother died during the childbirth of her younger sibling, at a time when Jane was only two. Even worse, Jane herself was born with a congenital spinal defect that significantly curtailed her physical activity and plagued her health throughout life. Nevertheless, despite her many hardships, she would go on to graduate the valedictorian of the Rockford Female Seminary, later to be known as Rockford College, in 1881. From there, she went on to study medicine, but her poor health led to multiple hospitalizations that precluded her completion of a medical degree. As she pondered her career aspirations, she visited and studied in Europe, where she was amazed and intrigued to come across a settlement home, known as Toynbee Hall, caring for indigent and needy in the East End of London.
Inspired by the notion of a social community home where the wealthy cared for the poor, she returned to Chicago to a life full of civil service and social responsibility. She leased a home, known as the Hull House, on Halsted Street and began ministering to the impoverished. She campaigned for wealthy young women to offer their time through volunteer efforts and to provide financial support to her establishment. In due time, the Hull House was providing needed services to more than two thousand members of the Chicago community – a child daycare, a nursing home, a rehabilitation facility, a gymnasium, a girls‘ club, an art studio with drama and music classes, a circulating library, and even a museum for none other than laborers. In time, Jane served on Chicago’s Board of Education and as a founding member of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. She spearheaded national conferences on humanitarianism and philanthropy. She also strongly supported the women’s suffrage movement.
When World War I came to be, Jane advocated strongly against the war, drawing the ire of a war-hawk media and even leading to her expulsion from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Yet, Jane did not care. Instead, she defied her critics and worked with stalwarts like Herbert Hoover to garner relief supplies, including food and clothing, for the women and children of enemy nations. In other words, Jane put humanitarian efforts above those of political affiliations. Together with Helen Keller, she would help establish the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). To this day, Jane Addams is considered the paragon of the Social Worker movement in the United States.
Sadly, in December 1931, Jane suffered complications from a heart attack, which when coupled with her preexisting skeletal comorbidities, left her frail and bed bound. She died in a Baltimore hospital on the same day she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo for her amazing life’s work.
Today, I’m grateful for paragons such as Jane Addams who taught us that community service is a noble cause that we should aspire to. May we always find a time to assist those in our community in need.
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