KY native, Sophonisba Breckinridge, focus for Newberry Seminar on Women and Gender, Chi... - 1 views
www.newberry.org/...womgencurrent.html
civil rights Sophonisba Breckinridge women 1930s feminism history Kentucky prostitution racism
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November 12, 2010 Reform and Immigration in Chicago: Hull-House Alumnae in Action The Professor and the Prostitute: Sophonisba Breckinridge and the Morals Court in Depression-Era Chicago Anya Jabour, University of Montana In 1930, Sophonisba Breckinridge, Professor of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, launched a campaign to investigate and reform legal procedures in the Morals Court, a specialized municipal court established to deal with accused prostitutes. Hailed as a model progressive reform at the time of its inception in 1913, by 1930 the Morals Court was plagued by routine violations of due process as well as charges of police corruption and institutionalized racism. Breckinridge1s campaign to secure civil rights for accused prostitutes offers a new perspective on the politics of prostitution and on feminist activism in the interwar period. Hilda Satt Polacheck (1882-1967): Worker, Writer, ‘Hull House Girl'Bridget K. O'Rourke, Elmhurst College Commentator: Rima Lunin Schultz, Independent Scholar
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If you are planning to be in Chicago on November 12th, register for this terrific seminar on Sophonisba Breckinridge. Anya Jabour, an excellent historian, will be presenting a paper for discussion about a campaign by this innovative professor to reform the way the police and the court treated women of color.