Chapter
19 Section 4
Objectives
• Describe the efforts of African American leaders
to fight discrimination.
• Describe the life of Mexican Americans and the
challenges they faced.
• Explain why some Americans called for limits on
Japanese immigration.
• Discuss the problems facing religious minorities.
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Terms and People
• Booker T. Washington – educator and
prominent African American leader
• W.E.B. Du Bois – African American leader who
urged blacks to fight discrimination
• lynching – murder by a mob
• parochial school – school sponsored by a
church
• anti-Semitism – prejudice against Jews
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
What challenges faced minority
groups?
Though they fought for reform, most
Progressives had little interest in fighting
against discrimination.
The turn of the century was a time of
struggle for many ethnic and religious
minorities.
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Jim Crow laws
enforced
segregation.
Landlords
refused to offer
equal housing.
African Americans faced
discrimination in both
the North and the South.
African
Americans were
restricted to the
poorest jobs.
Lynchings
increased after
the depression
of 1893.
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Booker T. Washington was one of the most
prominent African American leaders of the time.
• Born into slavery
• Helped found the
Tuskegee Institute
• Advised African
Americans to learn
trades and move up
gradually in society
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
W.E.B. Du Bois had a different view of how African
Americans should respond to discrimination.
• First African American to
receive a Ph.D. from
Harvard
• Agreed with Washington
on the need for
education
• Urged blacks to fight
discrimination now
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Fighting against discrimination, however, was not
easy. Blacks were threatened, beaten, and even
lynched.
The journalist Ida B. Wells used her newspaper,
Free Speech, to raise awareness, despite threats
against her life.
She called on African Americans to:
• boycott segregated streetcars
• boycott white-owned stores
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
In 1909, W.E.B. Du Bois
joined Jane Addams and
other reformers to
create an organization
to work for equal rights
for African Americans.
National
Association
for the
Advancement
of Colored People
(NAACP)
African Americans saw some successes during the
Progressive Era:
Sarah Walker became the
first female African
American millionaire.
Struggles for Justice
Scientist George
Washington Carver
discovered new uses for
Southern crops.
Chapter
19 Section 4
Mexican Americans were also targets of
discrimination.
• They were denied
skilled jobs and often
worked as manual
laborers.
• They were paid less
than Anglo workers.
• Their children were
forced to go to
separate schools.
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
The number of
Mexicans immigrating
to the United States
soared following a
revolution in Mexico in
1910.
All levels of Mexican
society immigrated,
mostly to the
Southwest. In time, the
migration spread to the
Midwest and the Rocky
Mountains.
Struggles for Justice
United States
Mexicans
War
and
famine
Chapter
19 Section 4
Despite discrimination, Mexican Americans found
ways to help each other.
Mexican Americans
created barrios to
preserve their language
and culture.
They formed
mutualistas such as the
Mexican Blue Cross to
help each other.
The barrio in Los
Angeles was the most
populous.
These groups collected
money for insurance,
legal advice, and those
in need.
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Prejudice against Asians
had already stopped
Chinese from
immigrating to the U.S.
Chinese
Exclusion Act
of 1882
Employers on the West Coast began to hire Asian
immigrants from other countries, such as Japan.
More than 100,000 Japanese entered the United
States in the early 1900s.
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Many Japanese
immigrants farmed
land that Americans
had thought was
useless.
Japanese farms soon
became profitable.
Yet Anti-Japanese feelings ran high.
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Japanese leaders were insulted. Roosevelt wanted to
avoid conflict with a growing naval power.
In response to public pressure, President Roosevelt
reached a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” with the Japanese
government.
Roosevelt convinced
the Japanese to stop
any more workers
from entering the
United States.
Struggles for Justice
In return, the U.S.
allowed the wives of
Japanese immigrants
already in the county to
join their husbands.
Chapter
19 Section 4
Members of religious minorities also suffered
discrimination.
Nativist groups worked
to restrict Catholics and
Jews from immigrating.
Catholics and Jews who were not immigrants
faced discrimination in jobs and housing.
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Like other minorities, Catholic children were often
discriminated against in school.
In response, American Catholics set up their own
schools.
Public
Schools
Parochial
Schools
Run by states
Run by churches
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Jews also faced serious prejudice in the legal
system. One man was falsely accused of murder
and lynched.
To combat antiSemitism, American
Jews founded an
organization to promote
understanding and fight
prejudice.
Anti-Defamation
League
Today, many Americans continue to work
against prejudice.
Struggles for Justice
Chapter
19 Section 4
Section Review
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