By KiddieDaily Editors · Jun 30, 2026 · 3 min read · Ages 8–10 · 1 source

During World War I, This Woman Asked Americans to Welcome Immigrants—and Urged New Arrivals to Assimilate

Bias ratings based on AllSides + Ad Fontes Media. Agreement % = sources covering this story. Always read multiple sources and think critically.

For a brief period in the early 20th century, the Fourth of July wasn’t simply Independence Day.

Between 1915 and 1918, communities across the United States combined commemorations of the nation’s founding with Americanization Day, a holiday held to encourage immigrants to fully assimilate into American society. Centered on the motto “many peoples—but one nation,” the celebration arrived on the heels of a decade-long immigration boom that brought an average of one million newcomers to the U.S. annually, ending only with the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

More than a century later, few people know the name of the driving force behind Americanization Day: Frances Kellor, a progressive social reformer and activist. Although Americanization—the idea that immigrants should detach themselves from their heritage to adopt American customs—is often associated with anti-immigrant sentiment today, Kellor had a different goal in mind. As biographer John Kenneth Press writes in Founding Mother: Frances Kellor and the Creation of Modern America, the activist viewed Americanization as a way of “breaking down the walls that separated people” and asking individuals who had lived in the U.S.

for decades “to understand and accept immigrants.” Press argues that Kellor—a lesbian at a time when few people were openly gay, whose masculine personality often led her to be mistaken for a man—was bold and relentless in fighting for the rights of minority groups. She kept her personal life private, and Press could find no record of her discussing her sexuality publicly. But the author maintains that Kellor’s identity as a lesbian influenced her lifelong advocacy on behalf of outsiders.

“I don’t know why she is completely ignored,” Press tells Smithsonian magazine. An instrumental proponent of women’s suffrage and immigrant rights, she deserves to be celebrated, the biographer adds. Born into a working-class family in Ohio in 1873, Frances Alice Kellar (she would later change the spelling of her last name) grew up in Coldwater, Michigan.

Abandoned by her father, she was raised largely by her mother, who took on domestic work to make a living. Kellor, too, had to work from a young age; she left high school after two years to work full time, securing a job as a reporter at the local newspaper. With the financial support of a pair of wealthy sisters who recognized her potential, Kellor graduated from Cornell University with a law degree in 1897.

Soon after, she moved to Chicago to study criminal sociology at the University of Chicago. While living in the city, Kellor met progressive reformer Jane Addams, co-founder of Hull-House, one of the first and most influential social settlement houses in North America. The duo went on to collaborate on a series of progressive campaigns.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these spaces essentially served as urban community centers, connecting immigrants and working mothers with reformers who offered educational resources, child care and other forms of support.

Think About This

What questions does this story raise for you? Talk with your family: Why does this news matter? Who is affected? What might happen next? Is there anything you can do?

🔍 Want to verify this story? Check it on Google Fact Check Explorer →

More stories: Kid News · Archive · Fact Check