Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis fought for the rights of children and for the rights of the many immigrants who lived in the East side of New York City. Having had personally experienced the life of many of the people living in the squalid and inadequate space, he was indignant with the living conditions and was willing to square off with the most powerful people in the city until the problems were resolved.

Born in Denmark in 1849, Jacob came to the US in 1870 at the age of twenty-one. The economic situation in the country was worsening, and Riis fell on hard times almost immediately. He couldn't find a job, a home, and was often left hungry night after night. At extreme points he was on the verge of suicide. Riis even walked from New York City to Philadelphia because he thought he could get a job in Philadelphia. After three years of struggling and just scraping by, he got a job with a news association in New York City.

Riis was well aware of the situation of why the housing system was so broken. Landlords would charge extremely high rents, and tenants would have to lease their property to people passing through, so the already overcrowded tenements became even more overstuffed. Riis became ever more increasingly indignant, and he started to take action to open the eyes of his fellow citizens.

Riis wrote How the Other Half Lives, a book that exposed the horrible living conditions through the experience he gained as a police photographer and journalist for New York. The book was a huge success. Theodore Roosevelt called Riis "the most useful citizen of New York". As police commissioner, Roosevelt worked towards many of the improvements that Riis recommended him to.

Riis was not afraid to confront those he felt were responsible for the poor quality housing and disgusting living conditions. He understood that the upper classes held control over the tenants with an iron grasp, yet he understood that they could not agrue with the photographs he was producing.

See a collection of the photographs Riis produced here.