Margaret Sanger
Social Reformer
Name at birth: Margaret Louise Higgins
Margaret Sanger, a nurse in the poor neighborhoods of New York City, founded the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in 1916. At the time it was illegal to publish and distribute information on contraception and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. An advocate for birth control and women's rights, she founded the American Birth Control League in 1921. Later the organization became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Extra credit: According to the Margaret Sanger Papers Project, Sanger was born in 1879 rather than the often-listed date of 1883: "She provided inaccurate dates to contemporary biographical dictionaries, which is why so many sources have the 1883 date."
Other American social reformers include Carry Nation, Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott.
Four Good Links
Sanger Fact Sheet
Planned Parenthood clears up some myths and defends their founder
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
New York University project that has quite a collection for students
Margaret Sanger of the Twenties
Background and debate over Sanger's role as a reformer
Time 100: Margaret Sanger
Time magazine ranks her as one of the 20th century's most influential people
Vital Stats
Birth
Birthplace
Death
6 September 1966
(age 86)
Best Known As
Co-founder of what became Planned Parenthood
