Chapter 8
Life at the Turn of the 20th Century
1.Science and Urban Life

Technology and City Life
◦ Skyscrapers
 Phrase coined by Louis Sullivan
 Elevators + steel frames
◦ Electric Transit –electric trolleys, elevated
trains, underground railways
◦ Engineering and Urban Planning
 People need open spaces in which they can
relax: parks, zoos, sports centers, bicycle
paths
 Example: Central Park
1.Science and Urban Life

New Technologies
◦ Printing
 web-perfecting printed on both sides, cut, folded, and
counted pages
 Printed material produced faster and cheaper
◦ Airplanes
 Orville and Wilbur Wright
 December 17, 1903 –first successful flight; 120
feet, 12 seconds
◦ Photography
 Cameras developed for the masses
 George Eastman –Kodak camera
2.Expanding Public Education

Expanding Public Education
◦ Late 1800s:state laws declare 12-16 weeks
of school required per year for children
ages 8-14.
◦ High schools offer technical training
◦ African Americans typically denied access
to public secondary schools; between 1&3%
attend high school between 1890 and 1900
◦ Immigrants encouraged to go to school
and become “Americanized”
2. Expanding Public Education

Expanding Higher Education
◦ 1880-1920: college enrollments
quadruple
◦ Research universities
 Psychology, sociology, physical sciences, modern
languages
2. Expanding Education

Higher Education for African
Americans
◦ 1865-1868: Howard, Atlanta, and Fisk
Universities founded by African Americans
◦ Problem: not enough African American students
can afford to go to college and financial support
from private donors was insufficient
◦ 1900: 3,880/9,000,000 African Americans
attended college or professional school
2. Expanding Education

A Tale of Two Educators:
◦ Booker T. Washington:
 African Americans must acquire useful labor
skills and prove their economic value
 Founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
Institute
◦ W.E.B. Du Bois:
 First African American to receive a doctorate
from Harvard
 Niagara Movement: African American
community needs well-educated leaders; African
Americans should seek a liberal arts education
 “Talented Tenth”
3.Segregation and Discrimination

Voting Restrictions:
◦ Literacy tests: African Americans asked more
difficult questions or given tests in a foreign language
◦ Poll Tax: sharecroppers (both black and white) often
too poor to pay it
◦ Grandfather Clause: ensured that whites who
a)failed the literacy test or b)couldn’t pay the poll tax,
could still vote.
 The Rule: If a man, his father, or his grandfather had been
eligible to vote before January 1, 1867, he did not have to pay
the poll tax or pass the literacy test. *Note: before this date,
freed slaves did not have the right to vote.
3.Segregation and Discrimination

1870s/80s: Southern states put racial
segregation laws (Jim Crow Laws)into
effect.
◦ Schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation
systems become segregated.
3.Segregation and Discrimination

Plessy v. Ferguson: Supreme Court
rules that separation of races in
public places was legal and did not
violate the 14th Amendment.
◦ Established the “separate but equal”
doctrine.
◦ This decision ensured the legalization of
segregation for almost 60 more years.
3.Segregation and Discrimination
Turn of the Century Race Relations
 “racial etiquette” –informal rules and
customs

◦ No hand-shaking between whites and blacks –
would have implied equality
◦ African Americans had to yield to white
pedestrians on sidewalks
◦ Black men had to remove their hats for
whites
3.Segregation and Discrimination



Some moderate reformers (Booker T.
Washington) gained support from whites.
“…In all things that are purely social we can
be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the
hand in all things essential to mutual
progress.” –Booker T. Washington
Washington hoped that improving the
economic skills of African Americans would
help them make long-term gains.
3.Segregation and Discrimination
Violence:
 Those who broke the rules of racial
etiquette faced severe punishment or death
–usually by lynching.
 1882-1892: more than 1,400 African
American men and women were shot,
burned, or hanged without trial.
 Ida B. Wells –investigative journalist
who fought against lynching

3.Segregation and Discrimination

Discrimination in the North
◦ Neighborhoods
◦ Labor unions
◦ Job market

Tension sometimes culminated in race
riots
3.Segregation and Discrimination

Discrimination in the West
◦ Mexican Workers
 Many hired to build railroads in the Southwest
 Paid lower than other ethnic groups
 Some forced into debt peonage* –a system
which bound laborers into slavery in order to
work off a debt to the employer.
 *the Supreme Court outlawed this in 1911 because
it violated the 13th Amendment
The Dawn of Mass Culture

American Leisure
◦
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◦
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Amusement Parks
Bicycling
Tennis
Spectator Sports
 Baseball
The Dawn of Mass Culture

Popular New Products
◦ Hershey Chocolate Bar
◦ Coca-Cola
4.The Dawn of Mass Culture

The Spread of Mass Culture
◦ Mass Circulation Newspapers
 Joseph Pulitzer –owner of the New York World;
emphasized, “sin, sex, and sensation.”
 William Randolph Hearst –owner of New
York Morning Journal; exaggerated tales of
personal scandals, cruelty, hypnotism, and on one
occasion, an imaginary conquest of Mars.
4.The Dawn of Mass Culture

Promoting the Fine Arts
◦ Art Museums more common
◦ Ashcan School: group of artists who
often painted realistic pictures of city
life (tenements, homeless people, etc.)
Ashcan School Art
George Bellows, Cliff Dwellers
Ashcan School Art

George Bellows; Both Members of this Club
4.The Dawn of Mass Culture

Popular Fiction
◦ Most people like to read light fiction
(mysteries, adventure, etc.)

Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain
◦ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
4.The Dawn of Mass Culture

New Ways to Sell Goods
◦
◦
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Urban Shopping
The Department Store
The Chain Store
Advertising
Catalogs
Rural Free Delivery: free government
delivery of mail and packages to homes
in rural areas