Claire Engelhaupt Junior Division Process Paper The Newsboy Strike of 1899 was a turning point in American history

because it altered societys view of working children, affected the rights and benefits working children received, and invoked legislation designed for children, such as the Keating Owen Child Labor Act. I chose the 1899 Newsboy Strike as my National History Day topic for this years theme a Turning Point in History. This topic caught my attention because of its role in forming child labor laws. I found the topic of child labor very interesting because it was easy to relate to, considering I am the same age as many of the children involved in the newsboy strike. Once I decided that this was a topic that I was going to enjoy researching I started looking through databases for general information. This included the main conflict, how it was resolved, time period, and people involved with the strike. After I researched the basics, I looked for images. One photographer, Lewis Hines, photographed child workers across the nation for the National Child Labor Committee in the early 1900s to spread awareness of the conditions Americas children were living in. I enjoyed looking through all the pictures because I felt like I could better understand the newsboys situation. I chose a website as the way I was going to present my research and because I felt comfortable using computers and I also wanted people to be interactive with the topic. I could have a lot of fun presenting my data on a website because of the amount of creativity permitted. I started my website by organizing the different tabs on the top of the site. I decided to have one dedicated to my thesis, background information, each thesis support, and conclusion. I felt the tabs were an effective way to showcase my research and the information fit well into these categories. After adding the text, I inserted pictures into each tab to break up the text so it was not too overwhelming to look at. The website worked well for me because I had an easy time producing the final project. My project relates to the Turning Point in History because the Newsboy Strike of 1899 led to laws protecting children from poor working conditions. Due to this event and many others, the public grew widely aware of the struggles child workers endured daily. Eventually, child labor was outlawed. If the Newsboy Strike did not occur when it did, it could have taken many more years for society to grow aware of the injustices caused by child labor. When the newsboys of New York City put their foot down and refused to sell The New York World and The New York Journal, the people who went to buy papers saw that these newsboys complaints were justified, and stood by their side. As a result of this strike that occurred in the summer of 1899, child labor laws exist today to protect the countrys children.