Jane Adams - A Woman of Action

Biography
A Woman of Action
by Jane Buxton
PAIRED
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STRATEGIES & SKILLS
Comprehension Vocabulary
Strategy: Summarize anticipation, defy, entitled,
Skill: Author’s Point of View neutral, outspoken, reserved,
sought, unequal
Vocabulary Strategy
Prefixes and Suffixes Content Standards
Social Studies
Civics and Government
Word Count: 1,787**
Photography Credit: Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS

**The total word count is based on words in the running text and headings only. Numerals and words in captions,
labels, diagrams, charts, and sidebars are not included.
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Essential Question
What can people do to bring about a
positive change?
A Woman of Action
by J
Jan
Jane
ane
an e Buxton
Bu
Chapter
er 1
Early Y
Years.
eaars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Chapter 2
Addams Takes Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division [LC-DIG-ggbain-18848]
Chapter 3
Changing the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Respond to Reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
PAIRED
Gus García Takes on Texas . . . . . . . . . 16
READ
Glossary/Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Focus on Social Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
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Vendor: Learning Media Level: 50 PDF
Chapter 1
Have you ever wondered what to do with your life?

Jane Addams thought about it for many years.
Jane was born in 1860. She grew up as the youngest

child in a wealthy family in the small town of Cedarville,
Illinois. Her mother died when Jane was only two and
a half years old. Jane was brought up by her father,
older sisters, and later, her stepmother. Jane’s father, John
Addams, owned several businesses and was a state senator
from 1854 to 1870. He was also a philanthropist, a
person who does charitable things for others.
W. B. White, Freeport, Ill.; Jane Addams Papers Project
Even as a young girl,

Jane wanted to make a
difference in the world.

Jane adored her father. She wanted
to be just like him. Under his
influence, she grew up to be
tolerant and kindhearted,
and she inherited his love
of books and learning.
Her kindheartedness
meant that Jane
soon began to notice
that people often had
unequal lives. She could
not understand why some
people lived in big homes in Jane’s father, John
Addams, was a
one neighborhood, while other successful landowner,
people lived in little houses in miller, and banker.
another. Jane decided that one
day, she would live in a big
house surrounded by smaller houses.
Jane wanted to become a doctor. She thought this

would be a positive way to help the poor, but Jane’s father
wanted her to get married and have a family. This was
what most young women did at the time. Jane wasn’t
interested in marriage, but she didn’t want to defy her
father’s wishes either.
Jane Addams Papers Project

Addams had a good education. She studied at Rockford
Female Seminary from 1877 to 1881, where she developed
useful reading, writing, and public-speaking skills.
She was class president for four years and editor
of the school magazine.
Addams (back row) made

some good friends at
Rockford Female Seminary.
Then, when Addams was 21 years old, her father died.

Addams was devastated. She enrolled at the Women’s
Medical College in Philadelphia, but she could not
concentrate on her studies because she was depressed
by her father’s death. Also, a childhood illness had left
Addams with a curve in her spine, which made it painful
for her to study for long hours. Then she became ill.
Jane Addams Papers Project
Her illness meant that she had to give up college and

her dream of becoming a doctor.
4

From 1883 to 1885, Addams traveled overseas. She
went to London and saw terrible poverty there. She
wished she could find a way to help, but what could
she do?
In 1887, Addams returned to England and visited a

settlement house called Toynbee Hall in a poor part of
London. Toynbee Hall was an experiment by a group
of well-educated young men whose goal was to improve
the lives of poor people. It was called a settlement house
because young men settled there to live. While they
lived among the local people, they offered classes in
singing, reading, and drawing.
Addams was excited because now, at last, she had a

plan. She would establish a settlement house back home.
Extreme Poverty
Addams visited a market in London. It was the
end of the week, and the market was closing.
Cartloads of old, leftover meat, fruit, and
vegetables were being sold cheaply. The food
was already rotten, but thin, sickly pale people
dressed in rags were desperately reaching
for it. Jane never forgot what she saw. She
wrote later of seeing “hands, empty, pathetic,
nerveless and workworn … clutching forward for
food which was already unfit to eat.”

Chapter 2
Addams returned to Illinois, and with her friend Ellen

Starr, began to search for a house to rent. They found
an old, dilapidated mansion in the middle of a poor area
of Chicago. Addams’s childhood decision to live in a big
house surrounded by smaller ones was finally taking
shape. The two friends decided to model their Hull House
on Toynbee Hall.
Wealthy, educated Americans were often shocked when

they heard or read about the extreme economic gap
between rich and poor people. Addams and Starr decided
that Hull House would have two purposes. One was to
provide a way for wealthy people to learn about poor
people, as they worked to improve the lives of the poor.
Hull House was originally owned by

a wealthy businessman, Charles Hull.
The mansion had been built in 1856.
Bettmann/CORBIS

The other purpose was to offer the working people
opportunities that were usually reserved only for the
wealthy, such as education and music lessons.
Addams and Starr wanted well-educated men and

women to come to live at Hull House. While they lived
there, they would get to know the working people in
the poor, rundown houses in the neighborhood. They
would also organize lectures, clubs, and classes for the
local people.
Addams had enough money to repair Hull House and

fill it with furniture. She also sought money from other
wealthy citizens to help keep the house running.
Life in the City

Industry was booming in Chicago at the time
that Addams and Starr set up Hull House.
Thousands of immigrants from Europe had
flocked to America. They hoped for a better
way of life and came to Chicago to look for
work in factories. Many struggled to learn
English and earn enough money to survive.
Often men, women, and children worked long
hours in poor conditions for little pay, while
their bosses, the business owners, became
very wealthy.

With great anticipation, Addams and Starr opened Hull
House in 1889. Other well-educated people were eager to
help, and they came to live at Hull House, too.
The house became a popular meeting place for local

people. Hull House offered classes on many subjects,
including the English language. After a while, it housed a
theater, a library, an art gallery, a kitchen, a gymnasium,
and a music school. It also provided many services such
as child care, medical care, and legal aid.
Thousands of people visited Hull House. They were

impressed by what they saw happening there.
Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS
Addams started
clubs for children.

Valuing Traditions
Addams set up a labor museum at Hull House as
a way to value older immigrants. They were able
to use old spinning frames and weaving looms to
demonstrate their knowledge of traditional arts and
crafts. Addams said of the museum that “far beyond
its direct educational value, we prize it because it
so often puts the immigrants into the position of
teachers … it affords them a pleasant change from
the tutelage in which all Americans, including their
own children, are so apt to hold them.”
Addams became known as a kind, compassionate

person. She was also an outspoken advocate for the poor.
She gave talks to many different groups and organizations,
spreading the word about helping the poor. Addams
became famous throughout the United States, and as a
result of her work, many other settlement houses were
created in other cities.
However, Hull House needed

money to keep going. Addams
began writing books. She
was a good writer, and her
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division [LC-USZ61-144]
autobiography, Twenty Years

at Hull House, became very
famous. Addams’s books made
a lot of money, which she
Addams wrote a
poured back into her work.
total of 13 books.

Chapter 3
In Addams’s lifetime, men, women, and children from

the poor areas of Chicago all went to work. Most worked
long hours for very little pay, and they were expected to
work in terrible conditions. However, they would starve if
they didn’t work.
Addams heard of three children who were injured at

the factory where they worked. One of them died. The
machine they used was dangerous. Addams talked to the
factory owner and asked him to put a protective cage
over the dangerous machine. She was shocked when the
owner refused.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-nclc-01383]
Children often worked in

textile mills like this one.
10

Children Are Cheap
Most factory bosses did not want the child labor laws
to be changed. They argued that child labor taught
children the value of hard work. They said that many
widows depended on the money their working children
brought to their households. The bosses also said that
their businesses would not survive without cheap child
labor. Child labor was finally banned in 1938.
Addams realized that she could not help all the

poor people in America by herself. She could see that
poverty would be an ongoing problem unless the laws
were changed.
She began to talk with politicians in the state of

Illinois, trying to persuade them to improve the laws
about child labor, factory conditions, and the justice
system for young people. Addams worked to limit women’s
work hours to eight hours a day and to make school free
and compulsory for all children.
Changes didn’t happen overnight, but people began

to listen to Addams. Other citizens began to speak
out against child labor, and attitudes began to change.
Gradually, the laws were reformed.
11

Addams knew that it was necessary to change people’s
attitudes in order to bring about positive changes in
society. While she is well known for working to improve
the lives and rights of individuals, she also helped groups
of people who were treated unfairly because of their
race. She co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP). Both of these organizations
still exist today.
A Responsibility to Change Things

For the Better
Addams believed that everyone has a
responsibility to help others and to work
to bring about positive changes in society.
Throughout her life, she tried to bring about
change in many areas of life. She worked for
the rights of ethnic minorities and women,
for improved public health services, for the
needs of children, for the poor, and for peace.
She wrote: “What after all has maintained the
human race on this old globe, despite all the
calamities of nature and all the tragic failings
of mankind, if not the faith in new possibilities
and the courage to advocate them?”
“Nothing could be worse than the fear that one

has given up too soon, and left one unexpended
effort that might have saved the world.”
Jane Addams
12

Addams also tried to change the way people thought
about war. She felt that war was wrong, and she tried
to stop World War I. Addams traveled around giving
speeches against the war. Many people supported her.
She helped to found a number of organizations to
promote peace, including the Women’s Peace Party and
the International Congress of Women. She became the
first president of the Women’s International League for
Peace
Peeace aand Freedom.
nd Freedom.
The Women’s Peace Party delegates

sailed on this ship to the International
Congress of Women in the Hague in 1915.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division [LC-DIG-ggbain-18848]
Some of the things Addams said made her unpopular

with people. She received nasty letters, and some
newspapers said disapproving things about her, but
Addams was unstoppable. She kept doing what she
thought was right. She couldn’t stop World War I, but
she knew that she was entitled to speak her mind, and
she was determined to change people’s attitudes about war.
13

Jane Addams is one of Time Line:
America’s best-loved and most Jane Addams
well-respected women leaders.
She strove for positive change 1860 born, Cedarville, IL
for people until her death
1881 graduates from
in 1935. Rockford
Female Seminary
Addams was courageous and
determined. Throughout her 1887 visits Toynbee Hall
life, she had frequent periods 1889 founds Hull House

of illness, but she refused to
1909 co-founds NAACP
let sickness stand between her
and her goals. These goals 1910 publishes Twenty
Years at Hull House
were never for herself. They
were always for others. In 1931, 1915 helps found the
Women’s Peace
Addams received the Nobel
Party and organizes
Peace Prize in recognition the International
of her life’s work. Congress of Women
1919 helps found

Addams was the first
the Women’s
American woman to receive
the Nobel Peace Prize. International
League for Peace
and Freedom
1920 helps found the

American Civil
Liberties Union
1931 receives the Nobel

Peace Prize
1935 dies, Chicago, IL

Bettmann/CORBIS
14

Summarize Author’s
Details Point of
Use important details from View
Jane Addams: A Woman of
Action to summarize what you
learned about the changes
Addams worked to make
happen. Information from your
graphic organizer may help.
Text Evidence
1. What type of text is Jane Addams: A Woman of Action?
What features tell you this? GENRE
2. How does the author feel about Jane Addams?

How do you know? AUTHOR’S POINT OF VIEW
3. The word illness on page 4 includes the suffix -ness.

The suffix -ness means “the state of.” Use what you
know about this suffix to help you define the word
illness. PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES
4. Write about the author’s views on Jane Addams’s work

to have child labor banned. Look for details in the text
that support your answer. WRITE ABOUT READING
15

Compare Texts
Read about a positive change for Mexican Americans.
Gus García as
Take s o n Tex
It was 1950 in Jackson County, Texas. A man named
Pete Hernández had just been arrested. Hernández’s
mother asked the lawyer Gustavo C. García (known as
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-137627]

Gus) to defend her son.
García was a Mexican American who wished to end

racial discrimination in America. As part of this goal, he
wanted to ensure that all people received a fair trial.
The law said that anyone could

be on a jury, but in reality, Mexican
Americans, African Americans, and
women were never selected for juries.
García felt that a jury that was so
different from the defendant would find
it difficult to be neutral.
Gus García was a civil

rights lawyer in Texas.
16

García thought this case was a chance to help change
the judicial system. He asked other lawyers to help him.
At Hernández’s trial, García raised an objection. He
said that the trial was unfair because there weren’t any
Mexican Americans on the jury.
The judge said that it was just chance that there were
no Hispanic people on this jury. García and his team of
lawyers had done their research in anticipation that the
judge would say this. They told the court that no one
with a Hispanic last name had ever been on a jury in
Jackson County.
However, the judge overruled the lawyers, and

]
Hernández was sentenced to life in prison. García

appealed, but a second court turned down his appeal.
[
García had one more chance to appeal. He could ask

the United States Supreme Court to hear his complaint.
g p
A win for García and his team could mean a positive

change in the lives of the Mexican Americans.
g
Poor Hispanic people raised money to help pay the

y
costs of the case. García’s team submitted their appeal to

the Supreme Court, and in 1954, the lawyers appeared
in front of the Justices. This court had never made a
decision about the rights of Mexican Americans before.
García spoke so powerfully that the Justices were riveted.
17

The Supreme Court building
is located in Washington D.C.
The United States Supreme Court Justices announced

that Hernández would be tried again. This time, he
would be tried before a jury that included Mexican
Americans and people from other previously excluded
groups. García and his team had made history. This was
also a victory for all citizens of the United States of
America because it ensured that everyone could be part
Ed Clark//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
of the judicial process.
Endnote: At his second trial, Pete Hernández was found

guilty again.
Make Connections
Why was García so concerned about changing the
jury system in Texas? ESSENTIAL QUESTION
What personal qualities did Jane Addams and
Gus García both have? TEXT TO TEXT
18

Glossary
advocate (AD-vuh-kuht) someone who supports or promotes
the interests of someone else (page 9)
compulsory (kum-PUHL-suh-ree) required to do (page 11)
defendant (di-FEN-duhnt) the person who is being accused

in court (page 16)
economic gap (e-kuh-NAHM-ik gap) the difference between

the incomes of the rich and the poor (page 6)
judicial system (jew-DI-shuhl SIS-tuhm) the courts and the

branch of government that enforces laws (page 17)
philanthropist (fuh-LAN-thruh-pist) a person who cares about

humankind and does kind and charitable deeds (page 2)
poverty (PAH-vuhr-tee) the state of being very poor (page 11)
reformed (ri-FORMD) changed for the better (page 11)
tolerant (TAH-luh-ruhnt) accepting differences (page 3)
Index
Addams, John, 2–4 NAACP, 12, 14
American Civil Liberties Union, Rockford Female Seminary,
12, 14 4, 14
Cedarville, Illinois, 2 Starr, Ellen, 6–8
child labor, 11 Toynbee Hall, 5, 6
Hernández, Pete, 16–18 Women’s International League
Hull House, 6–9 for Peace and Freedom, 13, 14
International Congress Women’s Medical College,
of Women, Philadelphia, 4
13, 14 Women’s Peace Party, 13, 14
19

Purpose To understand how changes in the past have
made a difference to our lives today
What to Do
Step 1 With a small group, discuss what life would be like
if you lived 100 years ago and had to work in a
factory every day. Use the text and other sources
for information.
Step 2 Make a two-column chart on a piece of paper.

Label one column “100 Years Ago.” Then write an
imaginary daily schedule for your day 100 years
ago. Don’t forget that your day might begin even
before sunrise.
Step 3 Label the second column “Today” and write your

typical daily schedule. Include the things you learn
at school, the things you do after school, and your
evening routines.
Step 4 Discuss the two schedules with your group,

noticing the things that are the same and the
things that are different.
20

Literature Circles
Nonfiction
Text Structure
How does the author organize information
in Jane Addams: A Woman of Action and
Gus García Takes on Texas?
Vocabulary
What new words did you learn in these texts?
What helped you understand their meanings?
Conclusions
What conclusions can you draw about people
who want to make changes?
Author’s Purpose
Why do you think the author wrote Jane Addams:
A Woman of Action?
Make Connections
Which other reformers do Addams or García
remind you of? Why?
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Take Action Social Studies
GR T • Benchmark 50 • Lexile [t/k]
Grade 5 • Unit 4 Week 3
www.mheonline.com
ISBN-13 978-0-02-118619-8
MHID 0-02-118619-7
99701
EAN
9 780021 186198
5
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Biography

CV_CR14_LR_G5_U4W3L50_O_118619.indd 3 17/02/12 2:03 PM

Program: CR 14 Component: LR G5 U4W3 O

Word Count: 1,787**

Photography Credit: Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Send all inquiries to:

Printed in the United States.

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Program: CR 14 Component: LR G5 U4W3 O

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Have you ever wondered what to do with your life?

Jane was born in 1860. She grew up as the youngest

W. B. White, Freeport, Ill.; Jane Addams Papers Project

Even as a young girl,

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Jane wanted to become a doctor. She thought this

001_009_CR14_LR_G5_U4W3L50_O_118619.indd 3 17/02/12 2:07 PM

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Addams (back row) made

Then, when Addams was 21 years old, her father died.

Her illness meant that she had to give up college and

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In 1887, Addams returned to England and visited a

Addams was excited because now, at last, she had a

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Addams returned to Illinois, and with her friend Ellen

Wealthy, educated Americans were often shocked when

Hull House was originally owned by

001_009_CR14_LR_G5_U4W3L50_O_118619.indd 6 17/02/12 2:07 PM

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Addams and Starr wanted well-educated men and

Addams had enough money to repair Hull House and

Life in the City

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The house became a popular meeting place for local

Thousands of people visited Hull House. They were

Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS

001_009_CR14_LR_G5_U4W3L50_O_118619.indd 8 17/02/12 2:07 PM

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Addams became known as a kind, compassionate

However, Hull House needed

autobiography, Twenty Years

001_009_CR14_LR_G5_U4W3L50_O_118619.indd 9 17/02/12 2:07 PM

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In Addams’s lifetime, men, women, and children from

Addams heard of three children who were injured at

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-nclc-01383]

Children often worked in

010_015_CR14_LR_G5_U4W3L50_O_118619.indd 10 17/02/12 2:09 PM

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Addams realized that she could not help all the

She began to talk with politicians in the state of

Changes didn’t happen overnight, but people began

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A Responsibility to Change Things

“Nothing could be worse than the fear that one

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