US History A Unit 2: The Progressive Era

Progressive Era

Period from about 1890–1920 when Americans pushed for political, social, and economic reforms.

Conservationism

Movement to protect and wisely manage natural resources and public lands.

Muckrakers

Journalists who exposed corruption, unsafe conditions, and social problems during the Progressive Era.

The Jungle

1906 novel by Upton Sinclair that exposed the horrible conditions in the meatpacking industry.

Initiative

Process that allows citizens to propose laws by collecting enough signatures.

Referendum

Process that allows citizens to vote directly on a proposed law.

Australian Ballot

Secret ballot printed and distributed by the government, rather than political parties.

Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt's program focused on consumer protection, business regulation, and conservation.

Meat Inspection Act

1906 law requiring federal inspection of meat and meatpacking facilities.

Pure Food & Drug Act

1906 law that prohibited the sale of mislabeled or harmful foods and medicines.

Ballinger-Pinchot Affair

Dispute over conservation policy that hurt President Taft's reputation and divided Republicans.

Payne-Aldrich Tariff

1909 law that raised some tariffs despite President Taft's promise to lower them.

Woodrow Wilson

28th U.S. president who promoted the New Freedom and Progressive reforms.

New Freedom

Woodrow Wilson's program to reduce monopolies, lower tariffs, and reform banking.

Federal Reserve

U.S. central banking system created in 1913 to regulate the nation's money and banking system.

16th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that allowed the federal government to collect an income tax.

17th Amendment

Constitutional amendment establishing the direct election of U.S. senators by voters.

18th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.

WCTU

Women's Christian Temperance Union; organization that fought against alcohol and promoted temperance.

Temperance Movement

Movement to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption.

Prohibition

Nationwide ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol from 1920–1933.

Suffrage

The right to vote.

Seneca Falls Convention

1848 women's rights meeting that launched the organized women's suffrage movement in the U.S.

Susan B. Anthony

Major women's suffrage leader who worked for women's voting rights and helped create NAWSA.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Women's rights leader who helped organize Seneca Falls and wrote the Declaration of Sentiments.

Lucretia Mott

Quaker reformer and women's rights activist who helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention.

Carrie Chapman Catt

Women's suffrage leader and president of NAWSA who helped campaign for the 19th Amendment.

Alice Paul

Suffragist who used protests and demonstrations to push for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's voting rights.

NAWSA

National American Woman Suffrage Association; organization that worked to win women's voting rights.

Congressional Union

Organization led by Alice Paul that used aggressive tactics to pressure Congress for women's suffrage.

19th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that prohibited denying the right to vote based on sex.

Seraph Young

Utah woman who became the first woman to vote after Utah's 1870 women's suffrage law was restored in 1896.

Lucy Hayes

Wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes who was known as "Lemonade Lucy" because she supported a temperance lifestyle.

Carrie A. Nation

Radical temperance activist famous for using a hatchet to destroy saloons.

Missouri Compromise

1820 agreement that admitted Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and restricted slavery north of latitude 36°30′ in the Louisiana Purchase.

Popular Sovereignty

Idea that settlers in a territory should vote to decide whether slavery would be allowed.

Emancipation Proclamation

1863 order by Abraham Lincoln that declared enslaved people in Confederate areas to be free.

Radical Republicans

Republicans during Reconstruction who wanted strong federal protection for the rights of formerly enslaved people.

Reconstruction

Period after the Civil War when the South was rebuilt and the nation addressed the status and rights of formerly enslaved people.

13th Amendment

Constitutional amendment that abolished slavery in the United States.

14th Amendment

Constitutional amendment granting citizenship and equal protection under the law to people born or naturalized in the U.S.

15th Amendment

Constitutional amendment prohibiting denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Literacy Test

Test used to determine whether a person could read or write, often used to prevent African Americans from voting.

Grandfather Clause

Voting restriction that allowed men to vote if their ancestors could vote before the Civil War, helping exempt white voters from literacy tests.

Poll Tax

Tax that voters had to pay before being allowed to vote; used to disenfranchise African Americans and poor voters.

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacist terrorist organization that used violence and intimidation against African Americans and others.

Marbury v. Madison

1803 Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review.

Judicial Review

Power of the Supreme Court to declare laws or government actions unconstitutional.

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896 Supreme Court case that upheld racial segregation under the doctrine of "separate but equal."

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws that enforced racial segregation, especially in the South.

W.E.B. Du Bois

African American scholar and activist who demanded immediate civil rights and helped found the NAACP.

Booker T. Washington

African American leader who emphasized vocational education and economic advancement as a path toward equality.

Great Migration

Movement of millions of African Americans from the rural South to Northern, Midwestern, and Western cities during the 20th century.