The agency picked as its namesake, Grace Abbott, a pioneer in social policy accomplishments in the United States. Grace Abbott, an often quoted author and colleague of Jane Adams at Hull House in Chicago, was an outspoken advocate for children. Among her accomplishmnets was shaping the original Child Labor Law and then appointments by President Wilson to represent social policy interest nationally and as a United States representative to the League of Nations (later to become the United Nations). President Harding selected Grace Abbott as Director of the newly formed Children's Bureau in 1919 and she served in that role until returning to an academic role at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration in 1934. Subsequently, she participated as a member of the group that wrote the landmark Social Security Act that became law in 1935. Grace Abbott died in 1939 while the group of Mitchell activists was busy forming a children's agency. She was an inspiration to many and her colleagues at Hull House commended the Mitchell leadership for the memorial to this passionate leader. |
