Process Paper:
Extra! Extra! Newsies Take a Stand!
The Newsboys Strike of 1899
Individual Website
Junior Division
Kira Morisako
I began my project by researching topics that interest me. Well I’m really interested in Broadway. One day, I was listening to some Broadway music when I came upon Newsies. I decided to research Newsies and see if it could possibly be a topic. I found out that Newsies was based on an actual event that happened in New York called the Newsboys’ Strike of 1899. Knowing this made me realize that this event could be my topic. This related to the theme because it changed what people thought about the Newsboys. It also was a turning point for kids.
I found seven articles and one book that best described the Newsboys Strike of 1899. I used Google to search all of these articles. When I searched “The Newsboys Strike of 1899”, it resulted in having many journal and newspaper articles. There were articles on just information about Newsboys. Other articles were about the strike. However, the book is a fictional story about a girl who witnessed the strike and helped out a boy who was part of the strike. The sources were organized in the sources I found reliable and which ones I got a lot of information from.
When I realized that I’ve always done an exhibit for History Fair. In addition, I’ve learned a lot about websites and how you make them. Therefore, I chose to do a website this year for my project. I also figured that I could put additional things on the board that I couldn’t put on an exhibit. For example, I could put videos to express more details in telling people more about the strike and put additional pictures on the website. I find that doing a website would also help me generate more knowledge about websites and how they are made.
The Newsboys Strike of 1899 was an example of treating people equally. It showed that no matter how old you are, what you look like, or how popular you are you can make a huge difference in the world. The Newsboys Strike of 1899 took place in New York in the year 1899. During this time, newspapers were very important to the people in the city. The Newsboys of New York were mostly orphans or homeless kids. They depended on the money they made from selling newspapers through town. One day, two men names Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst got together and decided to raise the prices of the newspapers. This aggravated the Newsboys so they decided to take a stand and make sure that the prices go back to what they were before. To do this they went on strike and refused to sell any newspapers to anyone in New York. Doing this inspired so many projects to be made. From movies to a musical on Broadway were all inspired by this event. This relates to the theme because it changed what people thought about the Newsboys. In addition, it was a turning point for kids in history.