Progressive Era and Women's Suffrage

Silent Sentinels

Members of the National Woman's Party who picketed the White House for nearly two years during World War I to pressure President Wilson to support women's suffrage

Federal Trade Commission

A federal agency created to investigate business trusts and enforce antitrust policies against monopolies

Pure Food and Drug Act

Federal legislation requiring accurate labeling of food and drug products and banning adulterated items to protect consumer health

Niagara Movement

A group of Black leaders led by W. E. B. Du Bois in 1905 who called for immediate political, economic, and social equality and drafted a "Declaration of Principles"

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A foundational suffrage leader who helped write the 1876 "Declaration of the Rights of Women of the United States," asserting women's demand for political equality

National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage

An anti-suffrage organization that argued women should remain outside politics and used ridicule, fear-based messaging, and moral arguments to oppose women's voting rights

Atlanta Compromise

Washington's speech urging African Americans to emphasize economic progress over immediate demands for civil rights, with the hope that success would eventually win White support

National Child Labor Committee

A reform organization that pushed for laws against child labor and used Lewis Hine's photography to publicize the harsh and dangerous conditions under which children worked

Muckrakers

Investigative journalists who exposed political corruption, poor working and living conditions, corporate abuses, and other social problems in order to spur Progressive reform

Booker T. Washington

An African American leader who encouraged Black Americans to focus on self-improvement, practical skills, and proving economic value as the path toward racial progress

W. E. B. Du Bois

A leading African American intellectual who edited The Crisis and argued for immediate civil rights, political activism, and leadership by the "talented tenth"

Mary Ann Shadd Cary

A pioneering African American suffrage advocate who became the first Black woman to attend law school and testified that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote

NAACP

A civil rights organization founded in 1909 that investigated lynching, pushed for federal legislation, and used The Crisis to promote racial justice

Eugenics

Advocates of the belief that human traits and behavior were inheritable, who promoted racial "fitness" and judged individuals and families through competitions and social rankings

Convict Leasing

A system in which African Americans, often arrested on minor charges, were forced into harsh labor conditions similar to slavery, especially in the South

19th Amendment

The constitutional amendment stating that voting rights cannot be denied on the basis of sex, extending the vote to women nationally in 1920

Commission Government

A city government reform in which elected commissioners each oversaw one functional area of city operations, reducing corruption and machine politics

Scientific Management

A workplace system designed to maximize industrial efficiency by standardizing tasks and reducing worker autonomy, reflecting Progressive interest in expertise and productivity

Keating-Owen Act

A federal law that prohibited interstate commerce in goods produced by child labor, reflecting growing public pressure to restrict the exploitation of children in industry

Alice Paul

A suffrage leader who organized parades, public demonstrations, and picketing of the White House to pressure political leaders into supporting a federal suffrage amendment

Ida Tarbell

A prominent female muckraker whose detailed articles investigated and exposed the harmful monopolistic practices of Standard Oil