The Progressive Era
Today’s LEQ: How were social
reforms brought about during
Progressivism?
What Was the Progressive Era?
place between 1890 – 1920
 Problems created during the
Industrial Revolution were
addressed
 Progressives believed that political
action and reform were required
for progress in society
 Took
Progressive Goals and Beliefs

Progressivism was
not a single,
unified movement.
Efforts fell into
four categories:
Social
Reform
Moral
Reform
Progressivism
Economic
Reform
Political
Reform
Social Reform
 Involved
the idea that government
should be given expanded powers
to help improve the lives of its
citizens

For example, progressives sought to
remedy poor living conditions and
dangerous work environments
The Changing Role of Women

Many women joined the labor force

The number of women working outside of the home
tripled between 1870 and 1900!

New appliances made available through
mass production helped many women find
more time for social causes and charitable
activities outside the home
 Some even had the chance to attend college

Break for Washing Machine Video Clip
The Fight for Women’s Rights

Despite their changing role, women had to fight
for rights already guaranteed to men


For example, the right to own property, ask for a
divorce, or use birth control
Many women did not have the right to vote
 A few western states had granted voting rights to
women, but there was still no women’s
suffrage at the national level
 Women known as suffragists pursued voting
rights
Check for Understanding
 Why
do you think some western states
were the first to grant voting rights to
women?
Creation of the National American
Women Suffrage Association

Women demanded the right to vote as early
as 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in
New York
 Leading suffragists joined together to form
the NAWSA with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as
its first president


“The power to make laws was the right through which
all other rights could be secured.” - Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
This group helped organize the suffrage
movement into a powerful political force at
the state and national levels
The First Victories for Women’s
Suffrage
 By
1898, four western states had
granted women the right to vote. By
1918, women had voting rights in 15
states
 As a result, they began to influence
elections
The Creation of the National
Women’s Party
 Another
prominent suffragist was Alice
Paul

She was forced to resign from NAWSA for
being too radical in her approach
 Paul
organized the NWP which used
strategies such as mass marches and
hunger strikes
Women Gain the Right to Vote
 Although
NAWSA and NWP disagreed
on tactics, both helped women’s
suffrage
 On August 26, 1920, the 19th
Amendment was passed and allowed
women to vote
Break
for Women’s
Suffrage Article & Questions
Day 2 –
Progressivism & Social Reform
 Today’s
LEQ: How were social reforms
brought about during Progressivism?
Remember
these
images?

Changing Living Conditions
•
•
Urban poor were jammed into tenements
& lived in unsanitary conditions.
Progressives took on the challenge of
making cities cleaner & more livable.
–
–
NY passed the Tenement House Act of
1901 – required each new tenement to be
built with a courtyard & to have a
bathroom in each apartment.
NY created the Dept. of Street Cleaning –
garbage collection & street sweeping.
Improving Working Conditions
 Progressives
had mixed success in
helping adult workers.
 Reforms needed…





Fewer Hours
Higher Wages
Safer Factories
Right to Unionize
Workers’ Compensation
Ending Child Labor

National Child Labor
Committee –
convinced states to
pass child labor laws
that prohibited
children under 14
from working. Also,
limited the number of
hours that older
children could work.
Medicines at the Turn-of-theCentury…
 did
not require a prescription.
 made exaggerated claims.
 were used for a variety of ailments.
 contained dangerous ingredients.
Cocaine was a common ingredient – even in
children's medication.
Protecting Consumers
Inspection Act – required the Dept.
of Agriculture to inspect meat.
 Pure Food & Drug Act – created the
Food & Drug Administration (FDA), to test
& approve drugs before they went on the
market.
 Meat
Environmental Destruction
 Industry
& urban growth had polluted the
air, water, and devastated the landscape.
Protecting the Environment
 Some
progressives supported…
 Preservation – the protection of
wilderness lands from all forms of
development.

Sierra Club, 1892, founded by John Muir
 Conservation
– the limited use of
resources.

“We are prone to think of the resources of this
country as inexhaustible. This is not so.”
Teddy Roosevelt
Protecting the Environment
(cont.)
Forest Service – protect forests &
other natural areas from excessive
development.
 National Wildlife Refuge System
 National Park Service
 US

1st National Park, Yellowstone,
1872
Day 3 –
African Americans Struggle for
Equality
Today’s LEQ: How were social
reforms brought about during
Progressivism?
Let’s Review for a Moment!
 Reconstruction



13th abolished slavery
14th gave citizenship to all born in US
15th gave all men the right to vote
 Black

Codes
Instituted across the South to deny blacks
their rights; eventually outlawed.
 Jim

Amendments
Crow
Created in response to Black Codes being
outlawed.
African Americans in the Early 1900s
 4/5ths
lived in the South
 Most struggled to make a living as farmers
 Subjected to strict segregation
 Disenfranchised via poll taxes, literacy
tests, understanding clause, grandfather
clause


“Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests, & Other Measures” Secondary Reading
Roots the Next Generation Video Clip
Think, Pair, Share
In
what ways were
blacks disenfranchised?
Inspired by Progressive Ideals
 Many
African Americans were inspired by
progressives and worked to improve their
conditions.
 Two Leaders who Promoted
Advancement:


Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. DuBois
Booker T. Washington
 Founded
the Tuskegee Institute, a
vocational college for African Americans in
Alabama.
 Encouraged blacks to gain respect and
status by working their way up in society.
 P.
228, History Alive
 Venn Diagram
W.E.B. DuBois
 Founding
member of the NAACP.
 Scholar and Activist
 P.
229, History Alive
 Venn Diagram
Think, Pair, Share
 Which
leader’s methods do you agree with
most and why?
NAACP
 National
Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, 1909
 Fought through the courts to end
segregation.
 Tried to ensure that African American men
could exercise voting rights under the 15th
amendment.
 Protested lynching and other racial
violence.
Lynching
A
mob killing of someone, usually by
hanging, for an alleged offense with or
without a legal trial.
Lynching
 3,745


lynchings between 1889 and 1932
Most in the South
Black men were usual the victims
• Presumed threat posed to white women

Community participation
• Few denunciations from white leaders

Women also lynched, but less common.
 Lynching
Secondary Reading & Questions