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homeless activism  

Definition

  • In the post–Civil War United States, the shift to an industrial wage economy along with the easy transportation of the railroads helped contribute to a visible homeless population referred to as tramps and hobos, white men who traveled across the country seeking employment. While poor and often unemployed, this “army” was not the poorest of the poor at the time—as women and former slaves could not safely travel the rails—and rarely did these increasing numbers of wandering workers engage in coordinated activism. [Source: Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice; Homeless Activism]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/homeless_activism

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