Brooks, Virginia

Virginia Brooks was elected to the Board of Education of West Hammond, Indiana in 1912. Brooks was active in numerous social reform initiatives, including immigration, temperance, anti-corruption, anti-vice, and city infrastructure reforms. Her dedication to these initiatives, including learning Polish so as to better communicate with her constituents, led the local media to nickname her "West Hammond Joan of Arc." Her work against vice in the Polish immigrant communities was particularly prolific, and she later wrote a book entitled My Battles with Vice, which was published in 1915.