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The Child's Rights Movement

By tinacrosario

  • New England Union Condemns Child Labor

    The massive amounts of children in the work force caused concern to the New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics, and Workingmen, saying that the long, strenuous hours they work "endanger their well-being and health" without being given any time for exercise or "mental culture".

  • Massachusetts sets first child labor law.

    The law states that children under 15 working in factories must go to school at least 3 months out of the year.

  • First proposition for an age limit for labor.

    The national Trades' Union makes a formal request to set an age limit for factory workers.

  • States begin to limit the age that children can work.

    The first of which being Massachusetts, limiting a child's work day to 10 hours. This law was then followed by similar laws put into practice by other states.

  • Working Men's Party proposes outlawing child labor.

    This movement would ban children below the age of 14 from working.

  • AFL supports minimum age limit on child labor.

    The American Federation of Labor asks all states to pass laws banning children from working in jobs that are for profit.

  • Movement led by Samuel Gompers puts thousands of children out of work.

    The New York labor movement sponsered the decision to prohibit the making of cigars in tenements, knowing that it employed a large amount of minors.

  • Hull House

    The Hull Housewas opened as the first organization in the U.S. to provide after school programs for kids.

  • Democratic Party dissaproves of Child Labor

    Democratic party expresses that it frowns upon child labor and that they strongly support the ban against children working below the age of 15.

  • National Child Labor Committee is formed.

    This committee was probably the most aggressive of their kind, attempting reform the standing child labor laws at the time.

  • First Federal Labor Law

    The federal government creates their first child labor law, prohibiting children from moving goods across state lines. It was outlawed in 1918 for being unconstitutional.

  • Congress passes constitutional amendment

    This amendment gave the federal government the right to regulate child labor laws, however few states gave their consent and it never took action on a large scale.

  • Federal purchasing law passes.

    The Walsh-Healey Act prohibites members of the government from purchasing goods that were products of child labor.

  • The Fair Labor Standards Act is passed.

    President Roosevelt signs the act that, for the first time, allows the federal government to regulate the minimum age of employment and hours a minor can work.

  • First Statute for reporting child abuse.

  • Child Custody Statute

    First joint custody statute in the U.S., gives rights to both parents after a divorce.

  • Child Labor Deterrence Act

    Proibits the importation of products made by child laborers.

  • Convention of the Rights of the Child

    Gives protection to children pertaining to the sale of children, the usage of minors in prostitution and any indecent internet acts.