Livingston, Rose E. (1876?-1975)

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Mentioned in (5)
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Rose E. Livingston to Jane Addams, 1912

Harriet Burton Laidlaw to William J. Gaynor, May 19, 1912

Harriet Burton Laidlaw to Rhinelander Waldo, May 19, [1912]

Unknown to Jane Addams, written on Woman Suffrage Party admission ticket, ca. June 1912

Chinatown Crowd Fled, June 26, 1912

Harriet Burton Laidlaw to Jane Addams, July 8, 1912

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Birth Date

1876?

Death Date

1975-12-26

Birthplace

New York, NY

Biographical Text

Rose Livingston was an American suffrage activist and social reformer. She was abducted as a young girl and forced to work as a prostitute in New York's Chinatown. Livingston developed a drug problem, but managed to escape. She then devoted her life to helping prostitutes and victims of human trafficking, teaching them about Christianity, gaining the nickname the "Angel of Chinatown." In 1910, she helped pass the Mann Act, which made interstate sex trafficking a federal crime. Livingston was attacked in 1912, while trying to rescue a prostitute, suffering permanent damage to her jaw. In 1914, her life was threatened after a gang offered a $500 reward for her death Livingston supported woman suffrage, believing that if women could vote they might not be driven to prostitution. She was well-known for her work for suffrage amd aginst human trafficking; in 1929 she received a gold medal from the National Institute of Social Science, and in 1937 she received a silver cup from Edith Claire Bryce of the Peace House. Livingston lived in poverty most of her life, but in 1934 the public raised a retirement fund for her. By this point, she had worked for three decades and rescued over 5,000 young women and children. She retired in 1936.

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Edited By

DeLora, Renee

Sciancalepore, Victoria

Lichon, Sara Catherine

Rights

Rightsholder being researched

Gender

Female

First appears

1912

Bibliography and Links

"Finds Mission Work at Home," The New York Sun, March 21, 1934, p. 11.

A Proper Farewell for Rose, New York Daily News, January 19, 1976, p. 43.

Chinatown Angel Found Destitute, Berkeley Daily Gazette, 1934, p. 7.

Fears Gang Will Kill Her: Miss Livingston Says $500 Has Been Offered for Her Death, The New York Times, January 8, 1914.

Mary Ting Yi Lui, "Saving Young Girls from Chinatown: White Slavery and Woman Suffrage, 1910–1920," Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol. 18, no. 3, 2009, pp. 393-417.

SNAC

Suffragists Give Talk in the Park, The Mansfield Shield, vol. 27, no. 8, 1914, p. 3.

Wikipedia

Citation

“Livingston, Rose E. (1876?-1975),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed August 2, 2025, https://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/3740.