Chapter 8: Life at the Turn of the 20th Century
Section 1: Science and Urban Life
I.
II.
Technology and City Life
A. Lawrence Veiller lashed out against irresponsible tenement owners
1. Helped in passing New York State Tenement House Bill passed (1901)
a. Better buildings
b. Need a courtyard
c. More bathrooms in tenement houses (one per building)
2. National Tuberculosis Association formed
B. National Conference on City Planning (1909)
1. Daniel Burnham wanted to remodel Chicago (DC is a good example)
a. Stop slums and instill patriotism in immigrants (be proud)
b. Buildings can be a sign of a rich and optimistic society
2. Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham inspired many to design
skyscrapers (expand upward)
a. The invention of elevators and internal steel skeletons
C. Electricity allowed cities to expand outward
1. Richmond, Virginia (1888) was the 1st city to electrify its urban transit
a. Electric streetcars (trolley cars), elevated trains, subways allowed cities
to annex suburban areas
D. Frederick Law Olmsted spearheaded the movement for planned urban
parks
1. Helped create Greensward (1857), which was selected as Central Park in
NYC
a. He was also responsible for the landscaping in Washington, D.C.
New Technologies
A. The literacy rate had risen to 90% by 1890, so written materials were
important (ads, news, entertainment)
1. Paper mills produced mass quantities of cheap paper
2. Electrically powered paper press printed on both sides, cut, folded, and
counted pages
a. Faster production, lower costs, cheap for readers (ads)
B. Orville and Wilbur Wright experimented with engines that could create
flight
1. Dec 17, 1903 the Wright brother’s had their 1st successful flight with
the “Kitty Hawk”
1. The Kitty Hawk is at the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
C. George Eastman developed flexible film that could be sent to a studio for
developing
1. Introduced the Kodak camera (1888) to the public, b/c professional
photographers were not willing to use his film
a. Wright brothers flight caught on film
b. Spanish-American War (1898) more personal b/c of photos
Section 2: Expanding Public Education
III.
IV.
Expanding Public Education (William Harris believed public education as an
instrument “to lift all classes of people into…civilized life.”
A. Believed economic development depended on scientific and technological
knowledge (education key to greater security and social status)
1. School curriculum emphasized reading, writing, and math
2. Quality of teachers varied greatly and punishment was harsh
3. Kindergarten was created to operate as a daycare for working mothers
(added to Public Education)
a. 1889 62% of white children compared to 34% of African American
children attended elementary school (available to all blacks in 1940)
B. Andrew Carnegie pointed out the keeping workers loyal to capitalism required
society to “provide ladders upon which the aspiring can rise.”
1. 1900’s curriculum expanded to include science, civics, and social studies
C. In 1890 fewer than 1% of black teens attended high school
1. 2/3rds of that 1% attended private schools not funded by the gov’t
D. Immigrants were encourage to attend school
1. Schools were excellent places for “Americanizing” immigrant children
a. Catholics were upset b/c public school system had mandatory readings
form the Protestant King James Version of the Bible
b. Adults often attend night school to learn English and qualify for
American citizenship
Expanding Higher Education
A. The research university emerged as industrial and technological advances
occurred
1. New disciplines such as psychology and sociology emerged
2. Professional schools in law and medicine also emerged
a. Entrance exams and high school diplomas were utilized to gain
entrance
B. With the help of the Freedmen’s Bureau and other groups, African
Americans founded their own Universities (1865-1868)
1. Booker T. Washington believed racism would end once they blacks
proved their economic value to America (vocational education important)
a. Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute/Tuskegee University
(1881) would help African American learn vocational skills
b. Whites supported Booker’s idea(s)
2. W.E.B. Du Bois started the Niagara Movement (1905) whish aided in
helping African Americans earn liberal arts education so they can compete
with whites and have community leaders
a. First African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard in 1895
b. The most educated blacks (talented tenth) would demand/achieve
equality in all arenas of political and societal life
C. NAACP 1909 (National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People)
1. Founders were Du Bois and Jane Addams
2. Wanted to end racial inequality and wanted social reforms that would
ensure equal rights for African Americans, end restricted voting
a. Guinn vs U.S. (1915): grandfather clause in southern states that kept
blacks from voting but didn’t apply to whites (outlawed)
b. Buchanan vs Warley (1917): overturned Kentucky law requiring
racially segregated housing
Section 3: Segregation and Discrimination
I.
Andrew Johnson takes over on April 14, 1865 when John Wilkes Booth
shot President Lincoln at the Ford Theater (upset confederate)
A. Johnson , a Democrat, felt bad for the Democrats in the South
1. Pro-Union sympathizer, hoped he would appeal to northern
Democrats and southern Unionists during the Lincoln election
2. Allowed black codes to be created (same as allowing slavery)
B. Moderate and radical Republicans controlled Congress
1. Radicals wanted blacks to vote and destroy plantations
2. Moderates just wanted to restore the South to the Union
C. Moderates join the radicals when they become aware of the atrocities
occurring in the South
1. Johnson vetoed legislation to help blacks
a. Freedom Bureau: created in 1865 to help southerners left
homeless and hungry after the war (most of the relief directed at
former slaves-overrode veto)
b. Civil Rights Act of 1866: everyone born in US was a citizen
with full civil rights (not voting- overrode Johnson’s veto)
c. 14th Amendment: required states to extend equal citizenship to
African Americans and all people born in US. States can’t deprive
anyone of life, liberty, or property without due process of late.
Much harder to overturn an amendment, if Democrats ever control
Congress (Johnson campaigned for those opposed to the 14th
Amendment during the 1866 congressional election)
D. 1867 Congress passes Reconstruction Acts
1. Breaks South in to military districts and Union troops are
stationed in each district until accepted back in to the Union
a. Johnson tried to veto the Act and Congress knew the President
would not enforce the act
1. 1868 Johnson impeached by the House and found not guilty by
one vote in the Senate (May 16, 1868)
a. Johnson’s power was destroyed
B. Republicans nominated General Grant in the 1868 election
1. The race was close and the Republicans discovered African
American voters gave them their narrow victory
a. 15th Amendment drew up by Republicans and passed in 1869,
which gave blacks the right to vote (21st 1933 gave women right to
vote)
2. 1868-1876 Grant is President, 1876-1880 Rutherford B. Hayes is
President (Reconstruction ended under Hayes)
II. African Americans Fight Legal Discrimination
A. When Reconstruction ended, the South devised ways to restrict African
Americans
1. Ida B. Wells (former slave) became the editor of a local paper and focused
on racial justice
a. March 9, 1892 three African business men were lynched without a
trial
B. Some states administered literacy tests in foreign languages (pass/fail as
they wish)
1. Poll tax: annual tax that had to be paid before qualifying to vote
2. Grandfather clause: even if a man failed the literacy test or could not
afford the poll tax, he was still entitled to vote if he, his father, or grandfather
had been eligible to vote before Jan 1, 1867 (freed slaves didn’t have the right
to vote before that date)
C. The Supreme Court failed to overturn the poll tax and grandfather clause
1. Segregation laws were put in place to separate blacks and whites in private
and public facilities
a. Referred to as Jim Crow laws
D. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Supreme Court ruled separation of races in public
accommodations was legal and didn’t violate the 14th Amendment
1. Est the “separate but equal” clause
a. On Dec 1, 1955 Rosa Parks took a seat in the front row of the colored
section of a Montgomery bus and would not move as it filled up (Civil
Rights movement kicks in to gear)
III. Turn-of-the-Century Race Relations
A. The races never shook hands, blacks stepped aside for whites when meeting
on a sidewalk, and black men always removed their hat in front whites
1. Those who didn’t follow the etiquette were lynched, shot, or burned
2. Many blacks moved North to find higher paying jobs and social equality
a. Life was not necessarily better in the North for blacks (hypocrites)
IV. Discrimination in the West
A. Mexicans were hired by the railroad, helped develop mining and agriculture
in the Southwest
1. National Reclamation Act (1902): gov’t assistance for irrigation projects
in many desert areas
a. Mexicans became the labor force in agriculture areas of the
Southwest
b. Debt peonage: bound laborers into slavery in order to work off a debt
to the employer
2. The Chinese may have been hated more than blacks
a. Would work for less than blacks, looked different, and they were fairly
new to the U.S. (In a sense whites grew up with blacks and Native
Americans)
Section 4: The Dawn of Mass Culture
I. American Leisure
A. To meet recreational needs cities started maintaining green space (parks) for
their citizens (Eagle Park by the Elks pool)
1. Near Manhattan, the amusement center Coney Island opened (1829 Coney
Island House opens, making it a seaside resort, 1903 amusement park opens)
2. Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus (1919)
B. Bicycling started out as a male-only sport (1885 1st safety bike-smaller air
filled tires) and tennis started in North Whales in 1873 – lets get in shape and fat
1. Created new apparel for women and freed them of chaperones
2. Those unfamiliar with tennis, thought those with tennis nets were trying to
catch birds (Harriman 1880’s)
3. Hershey Chocolate, Coca-Cola
a. Coca-Cola was originally used as a cure for headaches (Peruvian coca
leaves and African cola nuts)
C. Baseball and boxing became profitable businesses (packed hotel lobbies,
barber shops, and bars to listen to the game)
1. Alexander J. Cartwright organized a club in NYC and created rules for
the game (borrowed ideas from English sport called rounders)
a. National League was formed in 1876 and the American League in
1900
2. First World Series in 1903 (Boston Pilgrims v. Pittsburgh Pirates)
a. Adrian Cap Anson would not allow his team to play against a African
American team (African Americans were banned for 60 years)
b. African Americans formed the Negro National League and Negro
American League
3. Baseball represented freedom and joy, but also hatred and discrimination
II. The Spread of Mass Culture
A. Yellow Journalism: sensationalizing the headlines to draw in readers and
subscribers
1. Joseph Pulitzer purchased the New York World in 1883 and
emphasized “sin, sex, and sensation”
2. William Randolph Hearst purchased the New York Morning Journal
in 1895 (also owned the San Francisco Examiner focused on personal
scandals, cruelty, hypnotism and an imaginary conquest of Mars
a. The Spanish-American War became their focus and their feud in 1898
B. Realism: an artistic school that attempted to portray life as it is rally lived
1. Ashcan School: painted urban life and working people with realism and no
frill
a. Abstract art (European): most found it difficult to understand
C. Dime novels: told glorified adventure tales of the West and had heroes like
Edward Wheeler’s Deadwood Dick
1. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) wrote Huckleberry Finn (life
along the Mississippi River)
a. Some enjoyed high culture while others were concerned about real
culture
III. New Ways to Sell Goods
A. Cleveland, Ohio (1890) opened the 1st shopping center
1. Brought in bands on Sundays to attract shoppers
2. Shopping districts formed near public transportation
a. Merchants opened department stores
B. Marshall Field of Chicago brought the department store concept to
America
1. Field realized paying attention to female shoppers increased sales (“Give
the lady what she wants.”)
C. Chain stores were owned by the same individual(s); therefore they bought in
bulk, which allowed them to offer lower prices (service not as good)
1. F.W. Woolworth offered items at a very low price, which would cause
people to buy at the spur of the moment
D. Less than $10 million was spent of advertising around 1865, but increased to
over $95 million by 1900
1. Billboards started being utilized (medicines were advertised the most)
E. Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck brought retail merchandise to small
towns
1. Ward’s catalog was launched in 1872
2. Richard Sears started his company in 1886
a. Unites States Post Office introduced rural free delivery (1896):
brought packages directly to every home