Chapter 9 Sec 3
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By 1920 50% of Americans lived in urban
areas.
Cities struggled to provide:
 Garbage collection
 Safe and affordable housing
 Health care
 Police and fire protection
 Adequate public education
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Various women’s and men’s clubs and reform
societies asked for help to clean up cities.
Lawrence Veiler- Head of N.Y. State Tenement
House Commission
 Interviewed residents and discovered
problems.
 1901 passed N.Y. Tenement House Act
 new tenements built around open courtyards
 contain/bathroom for each apartment or
every 3 rooms
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National Tuberculosis Association
 Fun, special hospitals to treat disease
 By 1915 death rate dropped
significantly
 1908 Massachusetts Law Required cities
with10,000 hold election to pay for at
least one playground.
 41 of 42 cities passed it.
Some critics from middle and upper class
objected to suing taxes to pay for poor
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First National Conference on City Planning was held in 1909
 Cleaner cities would produce better citizens
 Beautiful cities would inspire patriotism.
Daniel Burnham was first to redesign a major city-Chicago 1909
 Other cities hired him
 Only successful and fully built design was in Washington
D.C.
 City planning was necessary function
 Parks
 Building codes
 Sanitation standards
 Zoning
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Prohibition – ban on the manufacture, sale, and
transportation of alcoholic beverages and closing of
saloons
 Reduce crime and breakup of families
McClure’s Magazine- George Kibbe Turner
 “The Story of an Alcohol Slave, as Told by Himself.”
 To truly reform U.S. cities, saloons must be closed
 Colleges did not allow student athletes to drink
 Industrialists tried to get workers not to drink
 Text books had info on dangers of alcohol
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Anti-Saloon League (ASL) and Women’s
Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
By 1902 ASL has branches in 39 states with 200 paid
employees.
 Many ministers spread message in church
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 Billy Sunday saloons were “the parent of crimes and
mother of sins”
 France Willard red WCTU from 1879-1889 force for
temperance, moral purity, and women’s rights.
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During WWI prohibitionists drew on patriotic
sacrifice
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U.S. Navy banned consumption of alcohol in 1914
1917 Congress passed 18th amendment states ratified
in 1919
 proved unpopular and hard to enforce
 repealed in 1933 with 21st amendment
 Urban reformers believed movies were a threat to
morality
 “Great Train Robbery” first movie to tell a story- 1903
 by 1910 millions were going to movies each week
 In 1916 NY times reported movies were 5th largest
industry in U.S.
 Nickelodeons provided cheap entertainment
 Many mid class believed movies were immoral and
sources of temptation
 Reformers demanded censorship
 States and cities set up censorships boards to ban
movies they considered immoral
 By 1909 movie industry censored itself
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Concerned about Plight of Poor
Few devoted much energy to Racial
discrimination and prejudice
 Some expressed open prejudice against
Blacks and Native Americans
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Influential Black leaders emerged
Born 1886 in Massachusetts.
 Attended mixed Sunday school classes
 Not until high school did he realize his skin color caused people to
dislike him.
 Attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
 In 1895 he became the first black to earn a PHD from Harvard.
 Taught at Atlanta University until 1910
 Strong supporter of civil rights
 Access to college and vocational schools offered best chance
 Blacks should be politically active
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Blacks should not fight discrimination
Focus on education and economic prosperity
Throughout career W.E.B. Du Bois maintained
interest in Africa.
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1920’s organized series of Pan African congresses that
attracted black leaders from around world.
By 1950’s embraced socialism for its promise of social
justice
In 1961 at age of 93, joined Communist Party and
moved to Ghana- Died in 1963
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In 1909 Du Bois and a group of black and
white progressives met in N.Y. City
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Discussed lynching of 2 men in Springfield,
Illinois
NAACP- National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People was
formed
Dubois edited The Crisis which publicized
cases of racial inequality
By 1918 magazines circulation rose to
100,000
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Used court system to fight civil rights restriction
 1915-Guinn v. U.S.
 outlawed “grandfather” clause
 This freed men from other voting requirements if
their father or grandfathers had voted.
 1917 Buchanan v. Warley overturned a Louisville,
Kentucky law requiring racially segregated
housing.
 National Urban League-1911
 Improve job opportunity and housing for urban
African Americans
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Dawes Act of 1887-Indians lost land to speculators
and fell deeper in poverty by 50 middle class
professional
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Improve civil rights
Education
Health
Local government
Publicized accomplishments of Jim Thorpe
Some wanted strong native cultures while other favored
assimilation
Some criticized Bureau of Indian Affairs for
Mismanaging Reservations
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Lobbied for improving immigrants lives as
well as conditions in workplace and slums.
Some criticized immigrants for immoral
behavior.
1916 Madison Grant publishes “The Passing
of the Great Race”
 Expressed racist opinions about blacks,
Jews, and immigrants from south and east
Europe
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Americanization-process of preparing foreign born
residents for citizenship
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1924 Horace Kallen Wrote Culture and Democracy in
U.S.
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Focus was on educating immigrants
Learn to read, write, and speak English.
Also U.S. history and government
Cities and states passed Americanization measures
Supports pluralism or home to a number of distinctive
cultures
Some immigrants supported Americanization
without giving up ethnic identities