Jacob Riis Reporter and Reformer

When Jacob Riis arrived in New York in 1870, with only $40 in his pocket, he found a city divided by extremes of rich and poor, two groups who had little, if any, contact with each other. Riis, like so many other immigrants, became homeless and penniless. After a series of odd jobs, including working in a coal mine and a brickyard, Riis found a job at a newspaper, which proved to be a turning point in his life. As a reporter, Riis gained unusual access into the lives of the poor. And instead of feeling contempt for the poor, as the middle class often did, Riis felt compassion for the lives of the people whose struggles he had experienced firsthand.