People of the Progressive Era: Florence Kelley

Her Significance

to the Progressive Era

More Info

Florence Kelley did not only organize the National Child Labor Committee, but she was also vice president of the National American Women Suffrage Association. She wanted to improve women's working conditions. Kelley was also a part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She then became friends with WEB Dubois.

2 Quotes from Kelley

"If we can't begin to agree on fundamentals, such as the elimination of the most abusive forms of child labor, then we really are not ready to march forward into the future."

"Child labor and poverty are inevitable bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time."

How was she significant to the Progressive Era?

Florence Kelley wanted to ban child labor. That is significant because innocent children would get hurt working in the conditions that they were working in. Children wouldn't have to work anymore if she was able to put a ban on child labor. Parents would not have to worry about their children getting hurt. The Keating-Owens Act will actually outlaw child labor.

Her Success in her Efforts

Kelley was successful in her efforts. She fought for children's rights and made sure that no child had to work and go through any of the things they would have had to go through if they did work. Child labor did indeed end but not until 1938. It ended way after she had even formed the National Child Labor Committee.

Problems Kelley Tried to Address

What Florence Kelley tried to address was child labor

and she wanted it to end. She wanted it to end because

she hated to see others going through something that would make them miserable. She especially did not like to see children be miserable. When she was younger her father would take her to factories where she would see young boys working. The area in which they worked in were dangerous and difficult. This influenced her throughout her lifetime. As an inspector, she witnessed at factories children, as young as 3 or 4, working. Kelley had three kids of her own and she would keep them away from working. Children would get hurt while working and she did not want that for her children. She also wanted better working conditions for women. Kelley believed that their working conditions could be very much improved.

The Actions She Took

An action that Florence Kelley took to solve the problem of child labor was forming the National Child Labor Committee in 1902 which would then lead the US Children's Bureau in 1912. The US Children's Bureau investigated the health and welfare of children.

Citations

"Florence Kelley -- A Woman of Fierce Fidelity." Florence Kelley -- A Woman of Fierce Fidelity. N.p., n. d. Web 24 Oct. 2012. <http://web1.boisestate.edu/socwork/dhuff/history/extras/kelly.htm>.

"Florence Kelley (1859a1932)." Open Collections Program: Women Working Florence Kelley (1859a1932). N.p., n. d. Web 24 Oct. 2012.

<http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/kelley.html>.

"Florence Kelley." N.p., n. d. Web. 24 Oct. 2012

<http://florencekelley.northwestern.edu/florence/>.

"Florence Kelley Child Labor Quotes." Florence Kelley Child Labor Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2012

<http://www.searchquotes.com/search/Florence_Kelley_Child_Labor/>/

More on Florence Kelley

Florence Kelley

Born: September 12, 1859

Death: February 17, 1932

Florence Kelley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She studied at the University of Zurich. Kelley also went to Northwestern University to study law

by Becky Tran

2nd Block