I want to write a little bit about the history ofsocial work in this country. As my mother is a social worker I feel quite strognly about this profession and the work that they do. Social work has its origins in the late 1800s and early 20th Century with the onslaught of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe into Northern and East Coast urban areas.

The health, public welfare, educational, and environmental issues that arose from this boom in population--and the massive presence of immigrant populations within the United States created the need for basic skills, basic necessities, and basic training. Thus arose social work, carved out of the tradition of women helping women and children, and helping families--out of which arose a profession, made up largely of women, especially with the appearance of such women as Jane Addams with Hull House in Chicago, Margaret Sanger in New York with her advocacy of family planning and the use of contraceptives, and the tons of women and men who entered education (including many of my ancestors) as teachers, who as such were oftentime called upon to carry out these duties as well. Out of this tradition of concern for social welfare eventually came the state sponsored version which, in all of its good and bad aspects, has come to serve the people on a universally functional level.

I think it is also quite interesting to think about the legacy of these social movements moving into the official structure--after the initial efforts of a few dedicated activists. This is not only true for the establishment of social work as a profession, but also true for the implementation of social policies and programs that we think of as commonplace now. I am thinking of prison reform in the early 20th Century, the establishment of Free Breakfast and Free Lunch programs under Johnson after the Black Panther Party initiated the programs, and in a related manner-- the fact that social security did not become virtually a right until after poor people and workers pressured Roosevelt in the Thirties to make it so. THere is a legacy of activism and struggle. There is a legacy of compassion and concern. There is a legacy of enduring humanity that definitely needs to be nutured and maintained.