Jane Addams gets my cheer today for the seventeenth post about a woman who inspires me during this month of writing women back into history. When I was young, I read a story of grace and generosity in a biography of Jane Addams that I never forgot. As I recall, she had just begun to operate Hull House, her Chicago mission, and one night a thief broke into her room to steal from her. Although she had been startled awake, she maintained her composure. Rather than calling the police, she offered him a job, which he accepted. I haven’t been able to verify the story, but the fact that Jane Addams was the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1931) and is revered as a peace activist and social reformer confirms my youthful impression.
It always surprises me how often I mention her name and get a blank stare.
How can this be possible? She won the Nobel Peace Prize.
She was a thinker, a writer, and a philosopher par excellence. To read her own words from her book Twenty Years at Hull House, click on this link.
Thank you, thank you, Jane Addams.
