Long before social work was considered a respected working profession in the United States, the idea of helping people through forming relationships with other individuals to fight for social justice was already taken place. For example, think about how America was born. The founding fathers formed a collaboration against Britain and fought for their independence from that country to establish a country that thrived on their own belief system. This rally of activism, as we know it, is called the Revolutionary War (click for timeline). Now, per Netting's (2005) definition of macro social work which suggest that organized efforts to change and advocate for a better quality of life is macro social work. Then, I think that America gaining its independence from Britain sounds like a macro social work effort to me.
Click photo for history of Hull House Settlement in Chicago.
This act of courage by our founding fathers laid the path which allowed for feminist, missionaries, and compassionate workers to eventually help organize movements that realistically set the stepping stones that eventually helped abolish slavery, establish women's rights and purify quality of life in orphanages. These actions futher led to the establishment and growth of settlement houses and charity organizations that assessed and provided for community's oppressed populations and immediate needs. Their focus was on community and social justice and quality of life. Another organization that is not recognized enough in the history of macro social work is the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. This organization focused on distributed justice. Distributed justice, as I understand it, as explained by per Lamont, J. & Favor, C., (2007) is the equal distribution of goods within a society. Therefore, the Wharton School concentrated on advocating to ensure that the same services and opportunities were available to all people in all societies and not solely to the privileged. 
Jane Adams,who is considered a social work pioneer, established settlement houses in Chicago (NASW, n.d.).
The above mentioned organizations helped establish macro social work as we know it today. Over time the needs and policies have changed, but the one constant and common theme that I found, since the inception of macro social work, is that creating relationships and strong allies are one of the many characteristics that a successful organization must have in order to create a dynamic movement that ends in positive change.
References/Work Cited
Homan, M. S. (2008). Relating community Change to Professional
Practice: Making it Happen in the Real World. In M. S. Homan, Promising Commuity Change (pp. 74-95). Belmont:Brooks Cole
Lamont, J. & Favor, C., (2007). Distributive Justice. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/justice-distributive
NASW (n.p.) Jane Adams. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkers.org/diversity/women/womenshist2004/addams.asp
NASW (n.p.). History of social work. Retrieved from http://www.naswdc.org/pressroom/features/general/history.asp
Netting F. E., (2005). The future of macro social work. Advances in social work, 6,(1), 51-59
Timeline of the Revolutionary War (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/revwartimeline.htm
Wade, L.C. (2005. )Settlement Houses. Encyclopedia of Chicago. http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1135.html
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