Jacob Riis

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Image:Jacob Riis 2.jpg Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849 - March 26, 1914), a Danish-American muckraker journalist and slum and school reformer, was born in Ribe, Denmark.

A native of Denmark, when 21, Riis came to America by steamer in 1870 Riis held various jobs before he landed a position as a police reporter in 1873 with the New York Evening Sun newspaper. As a pioneer investigative journalist, he went undercover working at a meat packing factory. He was one of the first Americans to use flashlight powder, allowing his documentation of New York slums to penetrate the dark of night. His book How the Other Half Lives (ISBN 0140436790), pioneering photojournalism, and friendship with Theodore Roosevelt (then New York Police Board of Commissioners head) led to positive changes for New York tenement dwellers. He also wrote several other books, including Children of the Poor and an autobiography, The Making of an American.

More than a century later, Jacob Riis's work is marked by the racial prejudice he displayed towards certain ethnic groups, that he studied. A quote from How The Other Half Lives provides an example; "...I state in advance as my opinion, based on the steady observation of years, that all attempts to make an effective Christian of John Chinaman will remain abortive in this generation; of the next I have, if anything, less hope." Excerpts like this, may have stained his reputation as a progressive journalist, for the contemporary reader.

Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, is named for him.

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