Unit 2 Vocabulary: The Progressive Era (1890-1920)

Booker T. Washington

African American leader, former slave, leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama; called African Americans to assimilate through hard work and vocational education proving themselves worthy of their rights.

W.E.B. Du Bois

African American leader, Harvard Grad, and co-founder of the NAACP; called African Americans to demand full immediate rights and to protest until received.

Ida B. Wells

African American leader, utilized speeches, essays, and a newspaper called Free Speech to attack lynching in America; also an advocate for women's suffrage.

Robert La Follette

Gov. and Sen. of Wisconsin; Progressive who regulated RRs and supported the direct primary (citizens vote on nominees for public office); utilized Univ. of Wisconsin professors to research best practices of democracy and legislation to remove power out of the hands of self-serving politicians (Wisconsin Idea); Wisconsin became known as the 'laboratory of democracy.'

Theodore Roosevelt

26th President; Republican who pushed for Progressive reforms such as trust-busting, and the regulation of industries (Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act) and railroads (Hepburn Act); ran as the Progressive Party candidate or 'Bull-Moose' Party in election of 1912.

Ida Tarbell

Muckraker who researched the Standard Oil Company and exposed the ruthless business tactics and motives of Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller.

Lincoln Steffens

Muckraker who published a series of essays called 'The Shame of Cities' to expose political machines and corruption of big business in city politics.

Upton Sinclair

Muckraker who wrote The Jungle; a book exposing the meat packing industry in Chicago.

Jacob Riis

Muckraker who used photographs and wrote accounts of the tenement lifestyle in his book How the Other Half Lives.

Social Gospel

Advocated by Baptist minister, Walter Rauschenbusch; belief that Christianity and the churches can help solve social, economic, and industrial issues. Based on biblical principles.

NAACP

National Association of the Advancement of Colored People; organization to rid the U.S. of segregation and discrimination through the court systems.

Initiative

Progressive political reform: the right for voters to propose a bill/law.

Referendum

Progressive political reform; the right for voters to vote to approve or veto a bill.

Recall

Progressive political reform; the right for voters to remove a public official.

16th Amendment (1913)

Created the income tax.

17th Amendment (1913)

Created the direct election of Senators by popular vote.

19th Amendment (1920)

Women's right to vote.

Anne Dallas Dudley

Organized the first parade for women's right to vote in the South (Nashville, TN); efforts led to TN voting to ratify women's right to vote.

Rep. Harry Burn

Made the deciding vote for TN to ratify women's right to vote.

Carrie Chapman Catt

Prominent women's suffrage leader, president of NAWS (National American Woman Suffrage Association). Focused on state efforts for suffrage.

Alice Paul

Another important leader in the women's suffrage movement, more militant in her strategies and beliefs than Catt. Founded the NWP (National Woman's Party). Paul and the NWP were the first to ever picket at the White House. These women were known as the 'Silent Sentinels.'

Suffragettes

Term used to refer to women who were working to achieve women's suffrage.

Perfect 36

Nickname for TN for becoming the necessary 36th state to vote to ratify the 19th amendment.

Margaret Sanger

Women's rights activist; advocated for the use of birth control.

Jane Addams

Co-founder of the Hull House in Chicago which was a settlement house used to provide education, child care, and vocational classes to immigrants and the poor in urban areas.

Square Deal

Teddy Roosevelt's domestic policy; advocated the elimination of corruption in business and labor and pushed for conservation policies.

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

Passed under TR's presidency; prohibited the mislabeling of food and drugs and the shipment of such items.

Meat Inspection Act (1906)

Passed under TR's presidency; allowed federal government to inspect meat packing industry starting from the livestock shipment from state to state to the meat packing process.

Conservation

Refers to efforts to preserve land and wildlife; Teddy Roosevelt is known as the 'conservation president' as he worked to set aside 230 million acres as public lands during his presidency.

New Freedom

Woodrow Wilson's domestic policy; attacked the 'triple wall of privilege,' i.e., banks, trusts, and tariffs.

Underwood Tariff (1913)

Passed under Wilson's presidency; lowered the tariff, reduced import fees, and proposed a graduated income tax to compensate the loss of money from the lowered import fees.

Federal Reserve Act (1913)

Passed under Wilson's presidency; central banking system which created the Federal Reserve Board that oversaw regional banks; allows the board to dictate the issuing of Federal Reserve Notes.

National Park Service

Created in 1916 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the act; focus is to preserve and protect natural and cultural resources for future generations to enjoy.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

Important law that was passed banning businesses from merging to form monopolies, and allowing the government to dissolve any of them; unfortunately, it was rarely enforced strongly from Presidents and Congress.

Clayton-Anti Trust Act (1914)

Passed under Wilson's presidency; provided a more concrete list of illegal business activities to further strengthen the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and weaken the formation of monopolies.

Samuel Gompers

First president of the American Federation of Labor; fought for trade unions and better working conditions and wages for laborers.

Eugene V. Debs

Leader of the American Railway Union who encouraged all railroad workers to strike against the use of Pullman railcars; represented the American Socialist Party in elections in the early 1900s.

Haymarket Affair (1886)

Knights of Labor demonstrated in the Haymarket Square in Chicago for an 8-hour work day; Anarchists threw a bomb injuring several and killing 7 police officers; leads to a negative view of unions.

Coal Creek Labor Saga (1891-3)

After the Civil War to save money, Southern states (ex. TN) leased convicts as laborers to private industries including coal mines in East TN; miners go on a series of strikes and armed conflicts leading the state militia to intervene.

Pullman Strike (1894)

George Pullman raises wages at the company town in Chicago and refused to negotiate because of the Panic of 1893; Workers go on a wildcat strike but later turns to one of the largest strikes as RR workers all over the country strike.

Collective Bargaining

Tactic used by unions to negotiate for better working conditions with employers.

Blacklisting

Tactic used by businesses by listing individuals who are prohibited from working for the company or business.

Social Darwinism

Taking Darwin's theory of natural selection and 'Survival of the Fittest,' and applying it to human society; used by the wealthy to explain the large class differences in society.