How Did Jacob Riis Impact Society

Most knew him as a leader. At the center of a revolution he made his mark. The start of a change began slowly. Those around the world learned of the controversy. His accomplishment led to the presidency of a certain college.

He transformed the economy of the U.S through his business skills. It was because of his wise choices and investments that helped him rise to the top. It also made him a captain of industry because he owned every step of the process of producing steel, from creating it, to transporting it, to selling it. He didn’t keep his wealth all to himself. After selling his business, he spent the end of his life helping others and donating his money to good causes. Making positive contributions to the country is another reason why he was a captain of

His efforts yielded improvement in education, transportation, and foreign trade. Furthermore, he was a driving force behind the slaves’ pursuit for emancipation from their owners during the French Revolution.

By teaching the ignorant mass opinions that there is different types of people in the world or not categorizing. He believed if prejudice were to be eliminated everyone would be forced to have the same beliefs or the same as the person in authority.

He carved a change in society that many lived by, by taking his trail and continuing the legacy of the calf. For hundreds of years humans and animals took the calf's path, turning it into a "renowned metropolis." Leaving your mark in society and history, all leads back to the step that we fear; being ourselves. Be a leader, not a follower and you will be successful in whatever you do.

of the people in his city and he becomes loved. He did a great deed for his people, and he felt very gratifying about it. Although this played a role in his personality

life in the US since before he had gained entry into Fisk University, his first attended college.

Through the late 1800s and the early 1900s, the division between financial classes was great. Big businesses and monopolies ruled the market, making great financial powers such as J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and more. On the other hand, middle to lower class citizens struggled to pay their bills, lived in houses of fifteen people, worked in mine shafts from the age of twelve, and had miserable lives in the city. The lives of the lower class was captured by Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis was an American journalist most famously known for his photographs of the slums of New York City. He compiled his photograph into a book called, How the Other Side Lives. This set of photographs inspired the social welfare reform effectively through American cities because it brought the issue to the people.

many of the wealthy families although aware of the reality most ignored it. The new incoming immigrants were not as aware of the actuality of western life. Despite their lack of knowledge, in their native countries their lives apparently were much worse when compared to America. There were many reasons that native Europeans left, the lack of democracy was one. As stated earlier a majority of Europe was a monarchy at the time; the commoners had no free will basically. An insignificant amount of people who left for religious freedom. This book shocked society into facing these problems. The fact that Riis did not paint some pretty story for the reader to read and be happy; he stated the facts. He did this to clarify the need for reform throughout the city. Although Riis showed prejudice against certain members of the slums. Riis’s novel sparked interest in the readers the nation called for reforms. His book was written near the start of the Progressive Era. New reforms for the betterment of society were being made. One that helped tenements was the Tenement House Act of 1867 which clearly defined what a tenement must and must not have. Riis’s friendship with Roosevelt helped him to bring upon changes like the park that is now named after him; he said that crime would drop if only the kids who lived in the slums were able to have fresh air away from temptation. With Roosevelt’s

was elected mayor of one of the largest cities in America, New York. In 1968,

Historical maps indicated that in the 18th-century, there was a “Negroes Burial Ground” (Figure 1) in what was to be the future home of a 34-story office building located at Broadway, Duane, Elk and Reade streets in New York City (Figure 2) (Roche and Blakey, 1997, p.84). When the archaeological investigation team came to the site in 1991, they unearthed (what was later renamed in 1993), the African Burial Ground of the 17th and18th-century (Roche and Blakey, 1997, p. 84). Archaeologists uncovered more than 419 reported African burials in the 6.6-acre burial ground, this initial discovery created a transformation of how New York history is perceived and how black New Yorkers connect to their heritage in New York (Rothstein, 2010). The excavation

His arrival induce him to realize that America isn’t the paradise everyone thought of. Jacob Riis was just another poor immigrant with the struggle of finding a job. He was jobless for about three years. He then enter in the police department which lead him to see more of the poor areas of the cities. Later on, he return to Denmark just to get married with Elisabeth Gortz and return once again to America with his new wife. In his arrive back, he found a job at New York Tribune, a major newspaper, and begin his works on improving the lower class life in which he experience there. Throughout his journey, he befriended Theodore Roosevelt. Riis became a Danish-born AMerican muckraker journalist photographer, and social reformer. As time went on, he remarried to Mary Philips and had his first children with her. As older he got, he moved to a farm and died at age 65 of heart disease. Throughout his life, he was able to see both side of the life in which was hidden at through one’s eyes. He made a change for the great good and the way of

Because of him, the world was informed about basic human rights and dignities and how this was being

He frequently "busted" monopolies and trusts. He even started the first ever progressive party and came to Riis after reading "How the Other Half Lives" article "..to help". Jane Addams sought to help poor residents in urban areas and improve social conditions for immigrants. Jacob Riis exposed the lives of the poor who lived in inhumane conditions in New York with his photography and writing, including his book, "How the other Half

There’s me, standing on the sidewalk of some nondescript city street in the Bronx. It’s summertime, right smack in the middle of July, and the towering brick buildings surrounding me allow no breeze. The clamor of New York is encompassing; I feel the city’s rhythm in my bones, it’s heartbeat thump, thump, thumping under my feet. Right now, I feel like crying. I am talking to an old man, Ahmed. Ahmed is an Indian immigrant who stopped at the soup-kitchen-on-wheels (actually: The Relief Bus) I am volunteering at. We stand under a tree planted close to where the Bus is parked. Around us, dozens of homeless people, many of whom don’t speak a word of English (as the Bronx is mainly poor immigrants), eat their soup and bread. My fellow volunteers