A Legacy of Social Justice
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Most of us don t tend to think of social workers as activists. Yet since the late 19th century, when the American social work profession was first established, social workers have been fighting for economic, political and social justice on behalf of the vulnerable and oppressed. Among the battles they fought and won were the Social Security Act, Medicaid and Medicare, the Fair Labor Law, laws to protect children from industrial exploitation and the prevention of child abuse and neglect.
Social workers are the epitome of the phrase I am my brother s [or sister s] keeper no matter your national, racial, ethnic, economic, gender or ideological differences, and they continue today to engage in social and political action, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed people.