Unit 6

The Progressive Era1890s-1920s

Topics• Progressivism– Social Movements (women’s rights & segregation)– Govt. v. Big Business

• Expansionism– US Imperialism (Spanish-Am War & WWI)

• Roaring 20s– Isolationism– Social Movements (Red Scare, Prohibition &

Harlem Renaissance)– Prosperity

Progressivism

• A reform movement designed to solve problems in U.S. society.– Problems caused by urbanization, industrialism,

and segregation• Three “Wings”– Social Justice-improve living/work conditions– Democracy-eliminate corrupt politics– Anti-Monopoly-break up Big Business

Muckrakers

• A journalist who uncovers abuses and corruption in a society.

• Jacob Riis- wrote, How the Other Half Live, exposing the living conditions of the poor in urban New York.

Muckraker cont…

• Upton Sinclair- published The Jungle, exposing the unsanitary conditions of slaughterhouses.

The Jungle• “There would come all the way back from

Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white-it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption… There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about upon it.”

Pure Food and Drug Act

• Passed in 1906, prohibited the manufacture, sale, or shipment of impure or falsely labeled food and drugs.

• Passed same day as Meat Inspection Act, requiring federal inspection of meat sold, and set standards of cleanliness in meatpacking plants.

• Early form of FDA.

The Suffrage Movement

• Suffrage- the right to vote!– Women’s suffrage- women want the right to vote.

• 14th & 15th Amendment were passed, but they only protected African American males.

• Early woman suffrage wanted the wording of these amendments to include women.

Susan B. Anthony

• A pioneer in women’s suffrage, seeking for women to have the right to vote.

• In 1851 began quest for women’s equal rights.

• 1872, voted illegally, resulted in arrest, but judge let her go.

19th Amendment

• On August 18, 1920, this law became an amendment, giving women the right to vote.

Muller vs. Oregon

• Curt Muller, owner of laundry business, made a female worker work longer than 10 hours in a single day.– Violated Oregon labor laws

• 1908 US Supreme Court decision that equal working hours for all employees

• This allows for states to limit working hours for women.

Social Gospel Movement

• 1870-1920, reformers of the SGM worked to better conditions in cities according to the biblical ideals of charity and justice.

• Churches began working on community functions to improve society.

• Building gyms, providing day care, helping the poor.– Leads to founding Salvation Army and YMCA.

Jane Addams

• Co-founder of Women’s Trade Union League

• Co-founder of the Hull House in Chicago.– Hull House-settlement

house for assisting the poor.

• First American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1935

The Prohibition Movement

• Settlement house workers thought alcohol caused all family violence.

• The Temperance movement wanted alcohol to be moderated or eliminated.

• This movement led to Prohibition- laws banning the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol.

• 18th Amendment- Prohibition! Jan. 17, 1920

Segregation

• The separation or isolation of a certain race, class, or group.

• White Southerners oppressed African Americans, passing “Jim Crow laws”, enforcing segregation.– Poll Tax- (Pay to vote)– Literacy Test (Be able to read to vote)– Grandfather clause- if your grandfather voted in

elections b4 CW, you can vote. If not, you can’t vote.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

• Plessy- arrested for riding in a “whites only” rail car.

• Ferguson- judge that rejected Plessy’s argument, said law was constitutional.

• 1896, Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal facilities was constitutional.

Ida B. Wells

• 1892, launched crusade against lynching.

• After publishing an article on anti-lynching, Wells was run out of Tennessee.

• Congress rejected all anti-lynching bills.

Booker T. Washington

• Proposed Af. Am. concentrate on achieving economic goals rather than legal or political ones.

• Founded vocational training institute in late 1800s.

• He wanted Af. Am. to focus on education.

W.E.B. Du Bois

• Believed in order for Af. Am. to gain equality, they needed to protect and exercise their right to vote.

• In 1909, he co-founded the NAACP.

NAACP

• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

• Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination".