The Progressive Era

Progressive Era

When was the “Progressive Era”? What was it?

  • (1890-1920) United States after the Civil War
  • important social + economical + political reforms
  • rapid/uncontrolled industrialization + urbanization (especially during the Gilded Age)

Lynching

definition: (mob enacted) killings, especially by hanging for alleged offense with or without legal trial

  • (historical context) hangings preformed by the KKK
  • use of violence against African Americans
  • increased by end of Reconstruction (1877) and increased KKK members
  • resurgence of lynchings in the South after 1915

NAACP

  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
  • formed in 1910 by African Americans + progressive Whites in NY
  • created in response of violence/unfair social treatment of African Americans

American’s oldest + largest civil rights organization

“Birth of a Nation”

  • (1915) movie directed by D.W Griffin
  • America’s first blockbuster
  • popularized the view that:
    • white southerners = victims of “attempted progression”
    • KKK = saved the South
  • boycotted by NAACP

Organized Labor Unions

  • increased wages, shortened work hours, and enforced safe + sanitary workplace

Pure Food and Drug Act (1906)

  • first law regulating food + drugs

Hepburn Act (1906)

  • gave ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) power to regulate railroad rates

Meat Inspection Act (1906)

  • makes it illegal to misbrand meat + meat products being sold as food,
  • ensures meat + meat products slaughtered + processed under strictly regulated sanitary conditions

Muckraking

  • investigation + publication of American life
    • government , child labor, businesses, food industry, healthcare, women’s right
    • “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair (exposed the production of unsafe meat)

Monopolies

definition: a business completely controlling one product or marketplace

  • steel, railroads, oils, and important businesses were put into monopolies
  • seen as anti-consumer by progressives because it
    • limited innovation
    • controlled prices

Theodore Teddy Roosevelt

  • 26th president of US (1901)
  • Republican, (liberal now)
  • became president after William McKinley’s assassination
  • believed in trust busting (ending monopolies) and led reforms
  • friend of muckraking reporters

Woodrow Wilson

  • conserative democrat presidental candidate elected in 1912
  • won after the creation of Teddy Roosevelt’s republican 3rd party (Bull Moose)

Margaret Sanger

  • birth control pioneer
  • wanted contraceptives/birth control to be more accessable to women

William H Taft

  • republican president elected 1908
  • Teddy Roosevelt’s secretary of war
  • previous governor of Philippines
  • his republican party divided between Progressive and Conservatives

Populist Party

  • formed before Progressive Era
  • wanted income tax
  • believed rights of the common people
  • believed federal government needed to play more active role in economy

Professional Class

  • groups of society made up of highly educated professionals
  • created standards for their profession
  • against influence of big businesses
  • called for social cures over charity organizations to fight poor living + working conditions for

  citizens in urban poverty

Women’s Suffrage Movement

  • fight for women’s right to vote
  • started in 1830-1840 and met success in 1920

Socialists

  • believed in:
    • social equality
    • distrubution of wealth based on socital contribution
    • economic arrangements to benifit society
  • became a political force in 1912

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

  • outlawed restraint of trade (reduction of economic competition)
  • outlawed monopolization

Temperance Movement (1830)

  • prohibits alcohol consumption
  • succeeded during the Progressive Era
16th Amendment (ratified 1913)
  • gave congress power to impose income tax
  • later expanded size + role of federal government
17th Amendment (ratified 1913)
  • allowed voters to cast direct votes for US senate
18th Amendment (1919)
  • banned the sale of liquor in US after 1920
  • failed after the end of Progressive Era
19th Amendment (1920)
  • gave women right to vote
20th Amendment (1933)
  • moved the beginning + ending of term date
  • allows president elect to take presidental office on Jan 20th after Nov election
21st Amendment (1933)
  • repealed (revoked/ended) the 18th amendment