Chapter 20 - The Progressive Era

1897-1920

Gilded Age Issues

Unprecedented fortunes and poverty, controversies over imperialism, urban squalor, near-war between capital and labor, loosening social mores, unsanitary food production, onrush of foreign immigration, environmental destruction, and outbreak of political radicalism.

Progressive Era Reform

Following the Gilded Age, movements emerged to clean up politics, fight for Black civil rights, advance women’s suffrage and equal roles in society, and address workers' demands for higher wages, safer workplaces, and union recognition.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

A tragic fire in a 1911 Manhattan garment factory killed 146 workers due to unsafe working conditions, despite a strike the year prior calling for higher wages and safety conditions. The incident sparked calls for reform in labor laws and workplace safety.

Muckrakers

Journalists who exposed corruption, inequality, poverty, and business and political abuses during the Progressive Era, sparking public demands for reform.

How the Other Half Lives

A scathing indictment of living and working conditions in New York City’s slums published in 1890 by journalist Jacob Riis. It featured shocking photographs and narratives that highlighted the struggles of the urban poor, prompting social reform efforts.

Meat Inspection Act

Legislation enacted in 1906 to ensure that meat products were processed under sanitary conditions and made available for public consumption, following public outcry over unsanitary practices revealed by Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle."

Looking Backward

A novel published by Edward Bellamy in 1888, envisioning a future utopian society in 2000, where capitalism is replaced by harmony and cooperative economic prosperity. The book inspired social reform movements and Bellamy clubs.

The Social Gospel

A Protestant religious movement that emerged in the late 19th century, asking “what would Jesus do?” Included reforms in poverty and inequality through Christian ethics and activism, imploring the salvation of society, not just the individual.

Walter Rauschenbusch

A key figure in the Social Gospel movement, confronting crime and stark poverty through Christian ethics. He advocated that every Christian regardless of social status or occupation ask themself what they could do to enact the kingdom of God on Earth.

The Female Club Movement

Social organizations devoted to social issues such as education, labor rights, public health, inequality, and charity, fostering activism and community organization among women emerging in the political sphere.

Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

A national political organization formed in 1879 to “do everything” adopting all reasonable reforms to improve social welfare and advance women’s rights. Advocating intensely for Temperance to combat abuse, poverty, crime, and disease.

Jane Addams

A prominent social reformer for immigrants, women, the poor, and peace, and co-founder of Hull House. She joined the Anti-Imperialist League and opposed World War I, proposing pacifism in the Newer Ideals of Peace (1907).

Settlement House Movement

A reform initiative in which educated reformers lived in impoverished urban areas to provide social services and education to the urban poor, immigrants, and marginalized communities, often through community centers such as Hull House in Chicago (1889).

Women’s Suffrage

The collective advocating of many Women’s groups that women’s votes would clean up politics, combat social evils, further economics, and representation for working-class women, or enhance southern white supremacy. Gained support from President Woodrow Wilson in 1918.

19th Amendment (1920)

Granted women the right to vote in the United States, marking a significant victory for the women's suffrage movement. Passed in 1919 and ratified in August 1920.

Trusts & Monopolies

Corporate structures, such as Carnegie Steel or Rockefeller’s Oil Company, restricted competition by controlling production and absorbing competitors, leading to higher prices, fewer consumer options, and the mistreatment of workers.

Progressive Era Business Reform

Reforms and policies centered around railroad regulation, anti-trust laws, and labor protections aimed at curbing corporate excesses and promoting fair competition.

Interstate Commerce Commission

A regulatory agency established in 1887 to supervise and regulate the railroad industry, expanded through the 1906 Hepburn Act to control fair rates and practices and oversee other industries and excessive monopolies.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

A federal statute enacted in 1890 to prevent monopolistic business practices that unreasonably stifled free trade and break up large trusts, promoting fair competition. Strengthened by the Clayton-Anti-Trust Act in 1914.

Taft Trust Busting

Policies furthering Roosevelt’s more lenient push for antitrust legislation and regulation, focusing fiercely on breaking up monopolies, notably U.S. steel. Enhanced federal government regulation over big business.

The Clayton Anti-Trust Act

1914 legislation that substantially enhanced the Sherman Act, regulating mergers and price discrimination and protecting labor’s access to collective bargaining and protesting. Created the Federal Trade Commission to oversee implementation.

1912 Election Issue of Monopolies

Taft (R) focused on all-encompassing illegality of monopolies. Roosevelt (Bull Moose) sought to regulate existing corporations and expand federal power. Woodrow Wilson (D) focused on small-business incentives instead of trust regulation. Republican party split led to Wilson’s victory.

Preservation Movement

A social and political effort in the late 19th and early 20th centuries aimed at protecting untouched nature and wilderness areas from exploitation and human manipulation, driven by figures like John Muir.

Conservation Movement

A social and political effort focused on the sustainable use of environmental resources to benefit the most people, harvesting resources such as timber and wood efficiently without waste, driven by figures such as Gifford Pinchot.

Black Disenfranchisement

Exclusion of Black voters through poll taxes (pay to vote), stripping suffrage of petty crime offenders (commonly blacks), and literacy tests unfairly judged by local voting officials. Officials effectively could deny suffrage at will.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

A landmark Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine, legitimizing Jim Crow laws. Homer Plessy challenged Louisiana streetcar segregation, but the court did not rule in his favor.

Separate But Equal

A legal doctrine that justified racial segregation of public space, asserting that separate facilities for Blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were equal in quality. Although equality was almost never the case.

Booker T. Washington

An African American leader who founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, promoting vocational training and self-reliance for Black economic independence and incremental advancement while living within the confines of Jim Crow laws.

“Atlanta Compromise” Speech

A speech by Booker T. Washington in 1895 advocated that African Americans focus on vocational training, economic self-sufficiency, and cooperation with white Southerners for gradual progress while accepting social segregation.

W.E.B Du Bois

An African American sociologist, journalist, and civil rights activist who co-founded the NAACP. He opposed Booker T. Washington's approach and advocated for immediate civil rights, outlining the inhumanity of white supremacy in The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and Darkwater (1920).

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909 to fight for civil rights, combat racial discrimination, and promote political and social equality. Formed by prominent activists such as Du Buois and Ida B. Wells.

The Crisis

A magazine published by the NAACP, focusing on civil rights issues, African American culture, and social justice, playing a vital role in the civil rights movement. W.E.B. Du Bois was the editor from 1909 to 1934.