WARMUP What does the word progressive mean? What changes are we going to see during the Progressive Era? What were the problems of the Gilded Age? How can they be fixed?
Gilded Age-origin Gilded Age -Period when corruption existed in society but was overshadowed by the wealth of the period ( gilded is when something is golden/beautiful on the surface but is really cheap/worthless underneath Abuses in business and government caused problems for immigrants, laborers, and farmers Term comes from a book written about the time period by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in 1873 The Gilded Age
The Progressive Era 1890-1920
Disparity of wealth Workers rights What were the issues of the Gilded Age? Working conditions Wages, hours, child labor, danger, etc. Poverty in cities Tenements, poor sanitation Racial discrimination Immigrants & African Americans Corruption in Social Justice Immigrants, Women, African Americans, Children
Progressive Era Occurred in reaction to the extreme corruption, workplace conditions, and injustice of the Gilded Age Popular Presidents of the Progressive Era include Teddy Roosevelt & Woodrow Wilson
Progressivism Movement based on the idea that new ideas and honest, efficient government could bring about social justice
Progressive Beliefs Move away from laissez faire with government regulating industry Make US government responsive to the people (voting) Limit power of the political bosses. Improve worker s rights, conditions for poor and immigrants Clean up the cities End segregation and Jim Crow
Areas to Reform Conservation Social Justice Economic Equality Political Democracy
Social Justice Improve working conditions in industry, regulate unfair business practices, eliminate child labor, help immigrants and the poor
Political Democracy Give the government back to the people, get more people voting and end corruption with political machines.
Economic Justice Fairness and opportunity in the work world, regulate unfair trusts and bring about changes in labor. Demonstrate to the common people that U.S. Government is in charge and not the industrialists.
CONSERVATION Preserve natural resources and the environment
Populists vs Progressives Populists---rural Progressives---cities Populists were poor and uneducated Progressives were middle-class and educated. Populists were considered too radical Progressives stayed politically mainstream. Populists initially failed Progressives had more success
What is a muckraker? Writer/journalist who exposes the problems of society in order to bring about reform
Muckrakers Lincoln Steffens (magazine editor) The Shame of the Cities Political corruption in Philadelphia Link between big business and crooked politicians Jacob Riis (photographer, NY Evening Sun) How the Other Half Lives Poor living conditions in tenements
Muckrakers Ida Tarbell The History of Standard Oil Robber baron business practices of Rockefeller Described the firms cutthroat methods of eliminating competition. John Spargo The Bitter Cry of the Children Child Labor Also, Lewis Hine
Lewis Hine and Child Labor Lewis Hine was a school teacher turned muckraker during the Progressive era. In 1908, Hine became a photographer who was interested in exposing the ills of society. From 1908-1912, he targeted the abuses of child labor in American Industry. He produced a photo essay on child labor in 1909
Muckrakers Frank Norris The Octopus Unfair business practices of the Southern Pacific Railroad
Muckrakers Upton Sinclair The Jungle Working conditions for immigrants; unsanitary conditions in meat-packing plants Frances E.W. Harper Iola Leroy Struggles of African Americans
Who are the Progressives? In addition to Muckrakers, they were also Religious Groups 1. Preaching of the "social gospel." 2. Create acts of god, churches should work to improve conditions for workers and the poor. 3. Religious organizations like the YMCA, YWCA, concentrated efforts on helping newcomers adjust to life in the big cities. Investigates slum conditions, provided food and clothing and set up settlement houses.
Who are the Progressives? Radical Groups 1. Socialist Party a. Organized in 1901 by labor leaders including Eugene V. Debs. b. Wanted govt. takeover of some big businesses, laws regulating business as well as a minimum wage and laws setting the length of the work week to 40 hours.
African Americans in Progressive Era
Segregation What increased segregation? Jim Crow Laws (1876-1965) Legalized segregation Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Separate but equal
How did African Americans face discrimination in voting? 15th Amendment Poll Tax Literacy Tests Grandfather Clauses How? Southern states evade 15th Amend. Required money to vote Must pass a test to vote If your ancestors could vote prior to 1866, then so could you How did these discriminate African Americans?
Opposing Discrimination Booker T. Washington Hard work Pull yourself up by your bootstraps Tuskegee Institute, vocational education W.E.B. DuBois Disagreed with Washington Wanted blacks to demand full equality
NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Founded in 1909 Springfield, Illinois Founded by W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, Florence Kelly, and other progressive reformers
NAACP The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and resting place of President Abraham Lincoln. Appalled at the violence that was committed against blacks, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both the descendants of abolitionists, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln's birth.
NAACP The NAACP's principal objective is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice. The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through the democratic processes. This group helps pave the way for continued work towards civil rights for African Americans.
Tuskegee Institute
Who opposed discrimination, and how? Ida B. Wells Worked to stop lynching National Association of Colored Women Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a single individual, so gagged and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defense.
Reform Legislation 1906: Pure Food and Drug Act 1913: 16 th Amendment (Taxes) 1913: 17 th Amendment (Senators) 1913: Harrison Act regulated narcotics 1918: 18 th Amendment (Prohibition) 1920: 19 th Amendment (Women s voting)
Wrap up What were the goals of Progressives during this era? Name three key problems facing the nation during this time period. What is a muckraker and what do they have to do with the Progressive Era? Name two significant muckrakers and the issues they exposed.