ABSTRACT
Jane Addams, who became America’s fi rst woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, was considered at one point in history to be “Public Enemy #1” and also “Th e Most Dangerous Person in the United States.” Addams’ own FBI fi le, on display in the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum library, is remarkably boring. It is in her friend Carrie Chapman Catt’s fi le, however, where we fi nd the reasons why Addams was considered to be so threatening. (Let this be a note for all of us to check our friends’ FBI fi les!) As the above quote demonstrates, Addams was considered “dangerous” because she was a suff ragist who agitated for equal rights for women and an unwavering peace activist in a time of war. But the crucial reason why she was under FBI surveillance was for the simple reason that she opened the Hull-House Settlement doors, where she lived and worked, to people who did not always have popular or mainstream views. Addams created opportunities for people to assemble and discuss controversial ideas. She recognized that all the protest in the world would not be enough to bring about a more socially just world and that we also needed to have spaces to convene, argue, and grapple with hard issues. Th e Hull-House Settlement was this place for many immigrants, social reformers, writers, and others who found a home therein. Within the settlement walls, people were able to unleash their imaginations and envision a diff erent world. Th is commitment to radically democratic and inclusive public space challenged power and authority.
