Children’s Rights was a huge issue for
America during the late 19th Century until the Great Depression. Children were forced to work in industrial units such as factories and sweatshops because there was not any federal law enforcing adolescents to got to school. Children worked in terrible conditions resulting in injuries like lost fingers or burnt scalps. The worst thing of all is that children had no political representation and they could not vote to prevent themselves from working. Adults including Mother Jones, Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, and President Taft stood by children of all ages and helped them get through this horrific injustice.
Children had many injustices and were treated unfairly because of their age. They were unable to vote and they were paid less than adults. Poor kids, unlike wealthy children, had to work on the streets whereas wealthy children were able to attend school. Working papers were required in order for children to work. Parents needed to give permission to their kids. However, factory owners forged these papers and children went to work anyway. Children needed a voice.
Children, due to their awful working environments, protested. Children went on strike numerous times such as during the Newspaper Boys Strike of 1899. In 1903, Mother Jones saw kids protesting on the streets and she organized a march known as the Children’s Crusade from Philadelphia to
New York. The purpose of the march was to tell reporters and the President about their working conditions in sweatshops. Unfortunately, President Theodore Roosevelt refused to see them.
Jacob Riis is one of many influential leaders for working children. His way of protesting was different. He took pictures of children and wrote about tenement life in
New York City. He wanted the government to witness the conditions in immigrant neighborhoods. As a result, the New York State Factory Act in 1886 was passed which made two inspectors check factories; however, factory owners taught working children how to hide from inspectors. These methods that both Mother Jones and Jacob Riis used to protest Children’s Rights brought attention to the government. Eventually, the government will recognize these forms of protest.
As a result of the Great Depression, many children lost their jobs. In 1938, the
U.S. government finally realized how children should not be working for certain jobs. The Fair Labor Standards Act stated that no child under fourteen can have a full time job except for farming. Minors must go to school until they are sixteen and minors can work at dangerous jobs, such as mining, at eighteen. The Fair Labor Standards Act was enforced and is the child labor law that finally made children of all ages able to attend school.
This movement is extremely important since it affects us. Because of this movement, we know why we are able to attend school. This movement makes us realize how children in the past helped us be in the position that we are in today. It also makes us able to discuss this topic and make a difference for an injustice occurring today. From the Newspaper Boys Strike to the case Hammer vs. Dagenhart to the Fair Labor Standards act, there were many points of views of this movement. The injustices of the past that occurred to children enabled me to live a better life and they also make me realize how fortunate I am to have the rights that I have today.
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