Frances Kellor: The Progressive Reformer Behind Americanization Day

From 1915 to 1918, Frances Kellor, a prominent figure in social reform, led the initiative known as Americanization Day to promote the integration of immigrants during Independence Day celebrations. Born in Ohio in 1873 and raised in Michigan, she graduated from Cornell University in 1897 and continued her studies at the University of Chicago, where she met Jane Addams. After uncovering labor exploitation, she moved to New York City in 1903 to fight for immigrant rights. In 1910, she became the first woman to head a state agency in New York when appointed by Governor Charles Evans Hughes to lead the New York Bureau of Industries and Immigration. She co-founded the National Americanization Committee in 1915. After World War I, she adapted her work in response to rising xenophobia, co-founding the American Arbitration Association in 1926. A supporter of women's suffrage, she saw the 19th Amendment pass in 1920. Kellor died in 1952 and was buried in Brooklyn next to her partner, Mary Dreier. Her biographer, John Kenneth Press, notes how her identity as a lesbian influenced her activism.