Before the 1800’s, many children worked on their parents’ farms. As factories developed, working children mined for coal, worked in mills and sold newspaper on the street. Factory owners liked hiring children because it was cheaper than hiring adults. Not all children worked, but those who did were paid less than adults. These children had dangerous jobs. Many worked 60 hours over six days a week. When children were injured, factory owners simply replaced them. Child laborers fought for their rights. They wrote the President and shamed the government into passing laws protecting children. But these laws were hard to enforce. The civil movement lasted 1870s-1938. Hoover, Roosevelt, Mother Jones and Luis Hines were some of the participants.

  Immigrant move to New York City hoping to work in factories. Even with so many available adult workers, factory owners prefer to hire children. They give seven or eight-years-olds dangerous jobs like sifting coal in small dark mines. Only seven states limit child labor. In these states, children over 12 can work instead of going to school. It is 1912 and 12-year-old Camella Teoli is injured in a Lawrence, Massachusetts mill. A machine pulls her hair and scalp. Camella spends seven months in a hospital. Her family struggles without her wages. Then things get worse. A Massachusetts law shortens the work week but mill owners speed up the machines and lower workers’ salaries. The workers went on strike. They say, “Better to starve fighting than to starve working.” The police beat and arrest many of the striking workers but they remain non-violent. They form human chains to prevent anyone from entering the mills. President Taft asks some strikers to speak to Congress. Camella Teoli speaks about her injury. Because of bad press, the Lawrence mill offers their workers better wages and a shorter work week.

     People in other cities offer to care for striking children. In New York, 5,00 people volunteer. They se how poor and starved these children are. It is 1903 and workers in Kensington, Pennsylvania mills are tired of working 60 hours a week. The workers ask for shorter work week. They are willing to take a pay cut, but the mill owners refuse. All the workers in town go on strike. The progressive leader, Mother Jones, comes to Pennsylvania to help the 16,ooo children who are on strike. She is shocked by their stooped backs from accidents. Mother Jones organized the children’s Crusade, a march from Philadelphia to New York. She wants children to tell reporters, citizens and even President Theodore Roosevelt about their working conditions. After 22 days, they reach the President’s home but he refuses to see them. They have no choice but to return to a 60-hour work week. It is 1924 and almost 2,000,000 children, ages 10 to 16, work. Child advocates are upset that that the Supreme Court says only states can stop child labor. They know states have not done a good job investigating factory abuses. Congress forms the National Child Labor Committee plans to use this information to show how factories ignore state child labor laws. They hope they would finally force the government to pass a nationwide child labor law. Congress agrees and proposes an amendment to the Constitution. The Child Labor Amendment will take power away form the Supreme Court and governments. It will make Congress in charge of child labor. But by 1930, only five states accept the amendment.    

     In 1938 public opinion has changed, many people believe children belong in school. Factory owners did not agree. According to the Supreme Court the states regulate factories jobs. The fair Labor standards act was passed in 1938: no child can work at any full time job except on a farm. But this time the Supreme Court agrees to ban child labor.