Social Changes and Development
The Progressive Era in America was a time of great social change.
Progressives considered themselves to be champions of social justice with a deep sense of morality, focused on promoting the rights of immigrant communities in big cities.
The Progressive movement also promoted Female Suffrage Amendment, which led to the 19th Amendment being added to the Constitution.
Another major cause for Progressives was Prohibition, for many involved in the movement to ban alcohol in the USA (temperance movement).
Alcohol consumption was considered the root of society’s problems.
The Prohibition movement ultimately successful, leading to the passage of the 18th Amendment.
This Amendment involved a ban on producing, importing, transporting and selling alcohol.
The era of Prohibition lasted until 1933 when the 18th Amendment was repealed.
One of the big social issues at the time was the impact of large-scale-immigration and urbanisation.
These things led to the transformation of cities as well as the increase of social and ethnic tensions.
Interestingly, while Progressives championed the rights of immigrants, they often held racist or xenophobic views of groups of immigrants, especially Catholic immigrants and their so-called vices.
Another major issue was the experience of African Americans which often included discrimination.
In the Southern States, segregation and violence were becoming more pronounced which led to inequality.
This led to the rise of black activism.
In addition, African Americans started migrating North.
Segregation was legal as long as the both services were considered separate but equal.
In practice, this was not the case as it would’ve cost too much to provide equal facilities for African Americans.
The African American experience in the North was different, but still characterised by racism and discrimination in many ways.
This period saw a shift where racism and discrimination against black people was no longer only a Southern problem anymore.
Immigration and urbanisation
The period from 1890 to 1920 witnessed the biggest wave of immigration is US history. More than 18 million migrants arrived from Europe alone.
This wave of immigration profoundly impacted American society, politics and economy.
Immigrants entered the country because of various push and pull factors.
One of the biggest pull factors was the American economy itself. Migrants were arriving to seek work opportunities or acquire land and make a better life than the one they left behind.
An additional pull factor was the desire to join friends and family who had already migrated to America
There was also a multitude of push factors linked to the social and political upheaval in Europe.
The social conditions in Italy were poor and led to widespread poverty and hunger. This brought around 4 million Italian immigrants to America.
Increasing persecution of Jewish communities in Eastern European countries like Russia or Austria-Hungary and Romania led to 2 million Jews coming to the USA.
This added to the already existing Jewish communities who had been immigrating from Germany since the 1840s.
This influx of immigration was put to an end by restrictive immigrant policies in the 1920s.
The way cities looked and catered to the people living there was changing.
There was building on a large scale, the development of transport links such as tramways and railways and, of course, housing development.
Theatres, music halls and cinemas were made to entertain the public, so urbanisation boosted the arts and culture.
Small towns also benefitted from the development of transport and infrastructure.
Nevertheless, urbanisation was regional.
Most Americans still lived and worked on the land in rural areas.
The impact of the First World War
The First World War had a significant impact on American society. Despite the facade of unity in everyone pulling together for the war effort, it actually deepened many already existing divisions in American society.
The First World War impacted the perception of different immigrant communities in the USA.
It led to a backlash against immigrants viewed as undesirable and more restrictive immigration policies.
Nativism led to hostility to Irish Catholic immigrants and the formation of the American Party.
The formation of the American Party was associated with the desire to protect the hegemony of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants or WASPs.
WASPs are Americans of British (or other Northern European) descent whose ancestry goes back to the Founding Fathers. This group dominated the social and political landscape in America for years.
The First World War led to a growing sense of fear about immigration and the potential threats immigrants could cause.
There was a growing anti-German sentiment which led to German Americans being viewed as a security threat.
Some states banned German language schools and banned German books from libraries.
German Americans became targets of violence.
As a result of this, many German Americans changed their names to sound more English and stopped speaking German in public.
The Red Scare
The Communist revolution in Russia in 1917 also had a significant impact on the perception of immigrants in the United States.
This contributed to the Red Scare where people had a genuine fear that there would be a communist revolution in America.
This led to fear and suspicion surrounding immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe as well as anarchists, pacifists, socialists and communists.
The government passed the Sedition Act in 1918 which made it illegal to use language which would incite resistance to war effort or speak negatively about the government.
Eugene Debs, leader of the Socialist Party, was arrested and convicted under the terms of the Sedition Act.
Growing unrest due high unemployment and inflation after the First World War also contributed to the hysteria of the Red Scare.
The government passed the 1918 Immigration Act as a response to the Red Scare which enabled them to deport immigrants who were perceived as undesirable such as anarchists and communists.
The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 brought tough measures: immigration from a specific nation could not exceed 3% of the immigrants already in the United States as of the 1910 census, significantly limiting the flow of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.
Progressivism, prohibition and female suffrage
The temperance movement started 100 years before the 18th amendment.
The Civil War delayed the temperance movement, but it gained movement again in the 1870s.
Women blamed domestic violence and financial problems in the home on excessive drinking.
Middle-class Progressives believed the temperance movement was inextricably linked to the betterment of the lives of American women.
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed despite resistance from liquor companies. They campaigned for national prohibition.
The WCTU also supported female suffrage.
Liquor companies lobbied against female suffrage since they thought extending the vote to women would lead to the passage of Prohibition.
In 1893, the temperance movement was given a boost with the formation of the Anti-Saloon League.
This was dominated by male supporters of Prohibition.
The leader of the Anti-Saloon league exploited anti-immigrant sentiment and suggested that immigrant communities such as the Irish, the Italian and the Germans were drinking too much and it was affecting the moral fibre of the nation.
During the First World War, the Anti-Saloon League, the WCTU and other Protestant church groups joined forces to campaign for a national ban on alcohol.
This led to the 18th Amendment being passed.
Anti-German hysteria had a big influence as German brewers were now seen as unpatriotic or even traitorous.
The Anti-Saloon League changed the Prohibition movement from a moral issue only to a movement against anti-American elements of society.
The Road to the 19th Amendment
In August 1920, the 19th Amendment granted American women the right to vote.
Western states started giving women the vote in 1910, but states in the South and the East were still reluctant to let women vote.
This caused the emerging of The National Women’s Party.
This group engaged in more militant tactics such as hunger strikes and picketing in order to make publicity for the cause.
The First World War boosted the cause of female suffrage since women’s participation in the war proved they deserved their right to citizenship.
The African American Experience
Lynching was a horrific and significant part of life in the American South during the 18th and 19th centuries.
While not all states recorded cases of lynchings, lynching continued into the 20th century.
Between 1889 and 1929, 3724 people were lynched with 581 in the state of Mississippi alone. 85% of the victims of these lynchings were African American.
Lynchings are significantly less common, but they still occur in modern society and are still racially motivated
The federal government consistently failed to deal with the issue of lynching.
In 1901 an anti-lynching bill was proposed, but it was defeated in Congress.
The racism in American society was so rampant that any attempt at reform was opposed by politicians, especially those from the South.
Governor Ben Tillman of South Carolina is just one example of an elected representative who opposed any measures to address the inequality and violence faced by African Americans and who in fact, openly encouraged continued persecution
He encouraged lynch mobs and had even participated in lynchings himself. His dominance in politics and his influence in the Democratic Party as well as the support for his views from fellow Southern senators and Congressmen meant that he was never held accountable for his views or actions
Racist policies were given a further boost in the South with the landmark Supreme Court ruling that declared the races could be separate, but equal. This led to a constitutional basis to segregation in the South.
Due to this ruling, the states were able to introduce segregationist laws without reproach.
Two prominent campaigners for African American rights were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois.
W.E.B Dubois was a historian, sociologist, socialist and pan-Africanist civil rights activist.
W.E.B Dubois helped found the NAACP.
The discrimination of black Americans led to the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).
The NAACP sought to work with the law to abolish segregation and let African Americans have access to their 15th Amendment rights.
The impact of the First World War
African Americans were encouraged by black activists like Booker T. Washington to participate in the war effort and so large numbers volunteered.
Soldiers returned home from the war with a greater political awareness which contributed to the fight against inequality at home.
The hardships of life in the South, caused predominantly by lynchings, alongside the growth in industry in the North, led to large-scale migration of African Americans to Northern states. Many black workers found jobs, aided by gaps left by conscription and immigration quotas that reduced the labour supply.
In addition to this, migration made a cultural mark - areas like Harlem in New York underwent a period of ‘renaissance’ in the 1920s, becoming centres of black music, art and literature. However, racial tensions also culminated in race riots in St Louis, Chicago and Omaha in the ‘Red Summer’ of 1919.