turn of the 20th century

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws in the South that enforced racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans after Reconstruction, lasting until the mid-20th century.

Poll Tax

A fee people had to pay to vote; it was used to keep poor people, especially African Americans, from voting.

Literacy Test

A test requiring people to prove they could read and write before voting; unfairly applied to disenfranchise African Americans and immigrants.

Grandfather Clause

A law allowing people to vote only if their grandfather had the right to vote before the Civil War; this excluded most African Americans whose ancestors had been enslaved.

Booker T. Washington

An African American leader who founded the Tuskegee Institute; he believed in vocational education and encouraged Black people to work hard and gradually earn equality rather than directly challenge segregation.

W. E. B. Du Bois

An African American scholar and civil rights activist; co-founder of the NAACP; he believed in demanding immediate equality and higher education for Black leaders (“the Talented Tenth”).

Ida B. Wells

An African American journalist and activist who led a strong anti-lynching campaign and fought for civil rights and women’s suffrage.

Las Gorras Blancas

A group of Mexican American activists in the late 1800s who resisted Anglo-American settlers by cutting fences and destroying property to protect their land rights in the Southwest.

Entrepreneur

A person who starts and runs a business, taking on risks to make a profit.

Protective Tariff

A tax on imported goods designed to encourage people to buy domestic (local) products.

Laissez - faire

An economic policy meaning “let it be,” where the government does not interfere much in business.

Patent

A government license that gives an inventor exclusive rights to make, use, or sell an invention for a certain time.

Thomas Edison

An American inventor best known for the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and improving the electric light bulb.

Bessemer Process

A method of making steel faster and cheaper by blasting air through molten iron to remove impurities.

Suspension bridge

A type of bridge held up by cables suspended from tall towers (example: Brooklyn Bridge).

Time zone

A region of the globe that uses the same standard time, created to make railroad schedules more consistent.

Mass Production

The use of machines and assembly lines to produce large quantities of identical goods quickly and cheaply.

Corporation

A business that is owned by many investors (shareholders) who buy shares of stock, allowing it to raise large amounts of money while limiting individual risk.

Monopoly

A situation where one company controls an entire industry or market, eliminating competition.

Cartel

A group of businesses that make the same product and agree to limit production or set prices to reduce competition.

John D. Rockefeller

A powerful businessman who founded Standard Oil and became one of the richest men in history by using monopolistic practices.

Horizontal integration

When one company buys out or merges with other companies in the same industry to reduce competition (e.g., Rockefeller’s Standard Oil).

Trust

A group of companies managed by a single board of trustees, often formed to control prices and limit competition.

Andrew Carnegie

A steel industry leader who used new technology and business strategies to dominate the steel market, later becoming famous for philanthropy.

Vertical integration

When a company controls every step of production, from raw materials to distribution (e.g., Carnegie’s steel company).

ICC ( Interstate Commerce Commission)

A federal agency created in 1887 to regulate railroads and later other industries, making sure they treated customers fairly.

Sherman’s Antitrust Act

A 1890 law that outlawed monopolies and practices that limited free competition in the marketplace.

Sweatshop

A workplace (often a factory) with poor conditions, long hours, and low pay.

Company town

A community where almost all stores and housing are owned by one company, often trapping workers in debt to their employer.

Collective bargaining

Negotiations between workers (through a union) and employers to agree on wages, hours, and working conditions.

Socialism

An economic system where the government (or the people as a whole) own and control major industries, aiming for more equal wealth distribution.

knights of labor

One of the first major labor unions in the U.S., open to nearly all workers, focused on broad social reforms as well as workplace improvements.

Terence V. Powderly

Leader of the Knights of Labor who promoted negotiations rather than strikes.

Samuel Gompers

Founder and longtime leader of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), focusing on practical goals like higher wages and shorter hours.

Haymarket Riot (1886)

A labor protest in Chicago that turned violent after a bomb went off; it hurt the public’s view of labor unions.

Homestead Strike (1892)

A violent strike at Carnegie’s steel plant in Pennsylvania, showing the tough conflicts between labor and business.

Eugene V. Debs

A labor leader who founded the American Railway Union and later became a socialist political leader.

Pullman Strike

A nationwide railroad strike against the Pullman Company that disrupted trains and was ended by federal troops.

“New” immigrants

Immigrants who came to the U.S. after 1880, mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Russia, etc.), often poorer and less familiar with English.

Steerage

The cheapest part of a ship where most immigrants traveled; conditions were crowded and uncomfortable.

Ellis Island

The main immigration processing station on the East Coast (New York), where millions of European immigrants entered the U.S.

Angel island

An immigration station in San Francisco Bay, mainly processing Asian immigrants, often with longer detention and harsher questioning than Ellis Island.

Americanization

Programs and efforts to help immigrants learn English, U.S. history, and adopt American culture and values.

“melting pot”

The idea that different cultures blend together in America to form one shared national identity.

Nativism

The belief that native-born Americans are superior to immigrants; led to prejudice and calls for immigration restrictions.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

A U.S. law that banned Chinese immigration for decades, the first major law restricting immigration by nationality.

Urbanization

The process of people moving from rural areas to cities, leading to the growth and expansion of cities.

Rural - to - urban

A person who moves from the countryside (rural areas) to a city (urban area), often seeking jobs and better opportunities.

Skyscraper

A very tall, multi-story building made possible in the late 1800s by steel-frame construction and safety elevators.

Elisha Otis

The inventor of the safety elevator (1850s), which prevented elevators from falling if the cable broke, making skyscrapers practical.

Mass Transit

Public transportation systems, such as streetcars, subways, and buses, that move large numbers of people around cities.

Suburb

A residential area on the outskirts of a city, often connected to the city by mass transit or highways.

Frederick Law Olmsted

A landscape architect best known for designing urban parks, including New York City’s Central Park, to give city dwellers green spaces.

Tenement

Low-cost, multi-family housing in cities, often overcrowded and poorly maintained, where many immigrants and workers lived during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Mark Twain

Famous American writer and humorist, best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He also coined the term “Gilded Age” to describe the late 1800s.

Gilded Age

A period in U.S. history (late 1800s) marked by rapid economic growth, industrialization, and wealth, but also corruption, poverty, and inequality beneath the surface.

Conspicuous Consumerism

The practice of buying and showing off goods to display wealth and social status.

Mass culture

Cultural activities and ideas shared by a large number of people, often spread through newspapers, magazines, and entertainment.

Joseph Pulitzer

Newspaper publisher who pioneered mass-market newspapers and used sensational reporting to attract readers.

William Randolph Hearst

Newspaper publisher who built a huge publishing empire and competed with Pulitzer, also using sensationalism (“yellow journalism”).

Horatio Alger

Author famous for writing “rags-to-riches” stories that encouraged the belief that hard work and determination could lead to success.

Vaudeville

A popular form of live entertainment in the late 1800s and early 1900s, featuring a mix of comedy, music, dance, and variety acts.

Spoils system

The practice of giving government jobs to political supporters and friends instead of based on merit or qualifications.

Civil Service

A system of government jobs where employees are hired and promoted based on exams, skills, and merit rather than political connections.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

A law passed in 1883 that created a Civil Service Commission and required people to pass exams to get certain government jobs, reducing corruption from the spoils system.

Gold standard

A monetary system where the value of a country’s money is directly tied to a specific amount of gold.

Oliver H. Kelley

Founder of the Grange (1867), an organization that supported farmers with education, community, and political advocacy.

Grange

Also known as the Patrons of Husbandry, it was a farmers’ organization that worked to improve farming conditions, regulate railroad rates, and give farmers a stronger voice.

Populist party

A political party formed in the 1890s that represented farmers and workers. It pushed for reforms like government control of railroads, a graduated income tax, direct election of senators, and the free coinage of silver.

William Jennings Bryan

A Democratic and Populist leader known for his "Cross of Gold" speech supporting silver over the gold standard. He ran for president several times but never won.

William McKinley

Republican president (elected in 1896) who supported the gold standard and defeated Bryan, marking the decline of the Populist Party.

Christopher Sholes

Invented the typewriter and helped change business communication