National Child Labor Committee

"In 1912, of the first goals of the NCLC was achieved: the establishment of a Childrenâs Bureau in both the U.S. Department of Commerce & the U.S. Department of Labor. From 1910-1920, while publishing & disseminating the photographs of Lewis Hine, the Committee worked for passage of state & federal legislation to ban most forms of kid labor, & to promote compulsory schooling in all states."

The National Kid Labor Committee was organized on April 25, 1904 at a mass meeting at Carnegie Hall in New York City attended by men & ladies concerned with the plight of working children. They moved quickly to form an organization, to gain the support of prominent Americans & to identify the extent & scope of the issue. In 1907 the NCLC was chartered by an Act of Congress, & immediately began to garner support & move towards action & advocacy. of the first steps took place in early 1908 with the hiring of a tailorâs son from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, a budding anthropologist & photographer, Lewis Wickes Hine. His photographs would awaken the consciousness of the nation, & change the reality of life for millions of impoverished, undereducated children."