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School of Social Work
School of Social Work

The Abbott Sisters Living Legacy Project.

"Justice for all children is the high ideal in a democracy." - GRACE ABBOTT, c. 1930

Yesterday inspiring tomorrow.












































THE ABBOTT SISTERS PROJECT honors and perpetuates the living legacy of Nebraska born-and-raised social justice pioneers, Grace and Edith Abbott, and educates Americans concerning the history--and contemporary needs--of the children’s and immigration rights movements in the U.S.

The Project has worked closely with the Office of the Governor of the State of Nebraska to create the annual “Abbott Sisters Day,” and with the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation to create the annual “Grace Abbott Children’s Awards.” It has also partnered in work to name the Grace Abbott School of Social Work at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), to establish the Abbott-Independent Scholarship Fund at UNO, to restore the Grace Abbott Children’s Park of Grand Island, Nebraska, to create and install bronze busts of the sisters in the Edith Abbott Memorial Library of Grand Island, and to establish the Abbott Sisters Research Center, also at the Edith Abbott Library.

The Project has produced popular Abbott presentations and programs for the New York Public Library, the Chicago Humanities Festival, New York University School of Social Work, the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, Columbia University School of Social Work, the University of Nebraska, New School University, the National Association of Social Workers, the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, the Hastings Museum, and many other institutions and organizations across the U.S.

The Abbott Sisters Project has been the subject of numerous major television, radio, internet, newspaper and magazine articles, including featured pieces on NETV (Nebraska PBS) and in the official publication of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information see our Media page.

Book publications include The Grace Abbott Reader (University of Nebraska Press, 2008) and Grace Abbott: An Introduction (University of Nebraska-Omaha, 2010). Media works include The Children's Champion (Chicago Public Radio, WBEZ, 2002), My Sister and Comrade (Nebraska Public Radio, 1995) and Grace Abbott: An Introduction (video version, 1998).  The Project's newest endeavor is The Quilted Conscience, a film of its ongoing "culture-blend" story-quilt workshops with immigrant children across America.

Movie Poster

The Quilted Conscience

In the very heart of Middle America, in a town that looks like the setting for a Frank Capra film, The Quilted Conscience shows the story of a group of sixteen Sudanese-American girls–refugees from the genocide in their homeland–who are thrust into a disorienting new world; of a quilters’ guild of local white women, most of whom have had little previous contact with ethnic or racial minorities; and of a famed African-American quilt-maker (Peggie Hartwell) who travels a thousand miles to bring the two groups together by means of a “culture-blend” fabric-art project: the creation of a wall-size mural, composed of dozens of Dreams & Memories story-panels created by the Sudanese children with the help of the local women.

This film celebrates the inspiring message of hometown hero, social justice pioneer Grace Abbott, who was born and raised in the Sudanese students’ new community of Grand Island, Nebraska. Grace Abbott was an extraordinary leader in the struggles for America’s children and immigrants who, as Director of the Immigrants’ Protective League (1908-1921) and Chief of the U.S. Children’s Bureau (1921-1934), is credited with saving thousands of children’s and immigrants’ lives and improving the lives of millions more.  Her famous quote, “Justice for all children is the high ideal in a democracy” is the credo for our film, which is already serving as the catalyst for similar immigrant-student story-quilt workshop programs across the United States.

Future Goals

Our project continues to grow in myriad ways, with plans for new books (a children’s biography of Grace Abbott and an illustrated memoir of the Abbott sisters’ prairie childhood); an extensive tour of the Sudanese student-artists’ Dreams & Memories story-quilt; broadcast and dvd-release of The Quilted Conscience film; expansion of the Immigrant-Student Quilt Workshop program to schools across the U.S.;  and long-term on-going efforts (e.g., expansion and enhancement of existing scholarship programs), as well as the creation of an annual Abbott Sisters Social Justice Symposium. 

Coming soon:

Newcomers Quilt
  • BOOKS: A Sister’s Memories by Edith Abbott (3-volume memoir)
  • FILMS: The Quilted Conscience (special screenings in Grand Island, Lincoln and New York)
  • THEATER: My Sister and Comrade (a documentary play)
  • WORKSHOPS: The Quilted Conscience Immigrant-Student Quilt Program (at Lincoln Public Schools, Lincoln, Nebraska)