Social Advocacy: NAACP and Florence Kelly

Social Advocacy: NAACP and Florence Kelly

by Diane Taylor

Gustafson, Melanie S. “Kelley, Florence.” World Book Student. World Book, 2017.Web.24 Feb.2017

• “Kelley, Florence (1859-1932), was an American social reformer who supported better working conditions, particularly for women, and child welfare.
• In the early 1890’s Kelley studied living conditions in Chicago, which led to the passage of an Illinois law that limited women’s working hours, prohibited child labor, and regulated sweatshop work.
• She was the state’s chief factory inspector from1893 to 1897. From 1899 to 1932, Kelley was the general secretary of the National Consumers League, which urged people support businesses that provided fair working condition.
• Florence Molthrop Kelley was born Sept. 12, 1859, in Philadelphia.
• She graduated from Cornell University in 1882, and earned a law degree from Northwestern University. She died on February 17, 1932.

“National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).” World Book Student. World Book, 2017.Web.24Feb.2017

• “NAACP is a civil rights organization in the United States that works to end discrimination against blacks and other minority groups.
• The NAACP achieves many of its goals through legal and legislative action.
• Thurgood Marshall, the first African American lawyer from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, presented a case known as Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka.
• In 1954, the NAACP played an important role in the United States Supreme Court ruling that segregation in schools is unconstitutional.
• It led to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which protects the right to vote. This act established the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the Commission on Civil Rights.
• Also the NAACP worked for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in public places, with President Lyndon B. Johnson. This law established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. NAACP also helped bring into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protects voter registration.

"Florence Kelley (1859–1932)." Open Collections Program: Women Working, Florence Kelley (1859–1932). N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2017.

• Working for the NCL, Kelley organized local leagues and lobbied for better working conditions and minimum-wage and shorter-working-hours legislation.
• She helped Josephine Goldmark, director of research at NCL, to prepare the successful "Brandeis brief" defense of 10-hour workday legislation for women in the 1908 US Supreme Court decision Muller v. Oregon.
• Kelley later helped extend such state legislation to male workers.
• In 1909 Kelley also helped organize the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"Oldest and Boldest." NAACP. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2017

• The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield.
• .Appalled at the violence that was committed against blacks, there was a group of white liberals that included two descendants of abolitionists, issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice.
• Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call.
• Echoing the focus of Du Bois’ Niagara Movement began in 1905, the NAACP’s stated goal was to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promised an end to slavery, the equal protection of the law and universal adult male suffrage, respectively.
• The NAACP’s principal objective is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice.
• The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through the democratic processes.

"Florence Kelley (1859–1932)." Open Collections Program: Women Working, Florence Kelley (1859–1932). N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2017.

“National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).” World Book Student. World Book, 2017.Web.24Feb.2017

• “NAACP is a civil rights organization in the United States that works to end discrimination against blacks and other minority groups.
• The NAACP achieves many of its goals through legal and legislative action

• In 1909 Kelley also helped organize the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
• She was a founder of the National Child Labor Committee, and her efforts contributed greatly to the creation in 1912 of the US Children's Bureau, the only government agency run by women,
• and the 1921 passage of the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act that allocated federal funds to health-care programs administered by the Bureau.
• In 1919 Kelley was a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,
• and for several years she served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

I am an Advocate for Florence Kelley because she not only represents feminism, but also stands up for the rights of children.

I am an advocate for the NAACP because for almost 100 years the NAACP has stood up for the rights of all Americans, for the cause of equality. Because of this, our country is more diverse and open to change. However, much progress has been made in terms of religion, racism and sexism, yet there is still much work to be done to abolish the bias because whether we like it or not, it’s not going to go away on its own. So make a friend with someone you don’t normally associate with, don’t underestimate any ethnicity or gender because of the stereotypes you may (or may not have heard), and most importantly STOP THE HATE and be proud of the progression because we’re all equal people.

Work Cited

“National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).” World Book Student. World Book, 2017.Web.24Feb.2017

Gustafson, Melanie S. “Kelley, Florence.” World Book Student. World Book, 2017.Web.24 Feb.2017

Oldest and Boldest." NAACP. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2017

"Florence Kelley (1859–1932)." Open Collections Program: Women Working, Florence Kelley (1859–1932). N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2017.

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