Jane Addams

Jane Addams, an American social worker, reformer, suffragist, and pacifist, dedicated her life to advancing the rights of women, children, and immigrants. In 1889, she established Hull House, one of the first settlement houses in North America, in a working-class immigrant district of Chicago. Hull House attracted the most progressive social workers in the nation, who lived and worked there, as Addams did all her life. She founded, inspired, served on the executive board and/or as president of numerous social justice and rights organizations, including the Immigrants’ Protective League, the Juvenile Protective Association (the first juvenile court in the nation), the National Association of Settlements and Neighborhoods (1911), the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (founded 1907). She was active in the woman’s suffrage movement and the 1920 establishment of the American Civil Liberties Union. Addams became a committed worker in the peace movement before and during World War I, serving as the first president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (established 1919); she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for her efforts.