history
Urban Society
US History Since 1877
The Progressive Movement
Between 1890 and WWI many Americans identified as progressives
The came from all segments of society (gender, race, class, regions)
They shared a common belief that America needed a new social consciousness to cope with the problems brought on by the enormous rush of economic and social change in the post-Civil War era
The Progressive Movement
Some reforms believed they were an “ethical elite” and should frame laws and regulations for the social control of immigrants, industrial workers, and African Americans
However, they were not unified around a single set of principles
There was a varied collection of reform communities that united citizens
Who Were These Progressives?
They were reformers, not revolutionaries
They emphasized social cohesion and common bonds as a way to understand how modern society and economics works
Rejected individualism
Believed that poverty or success hinged on more than individual character
They opposed social Darwinism’s “survival of the fittest”theory
Believed that citizens should intervene actively, politically and morally, to improve social conditions
Social Gospel
Steeped in evangelical Protestantism
Adherents rejected the idea of the of original sin as the cause of human suffering
Believed Christians had the capacity and duty to purge the world of poverty, inequality, and economic greed
Progressives
Some progressives believed that natural and social scientists could develop rational measures for improving the human conditions and making government and industry more efficient
Women & Reform
Settlement Houses
Jane Addams founded one of the first settlement houses in Chicago (Hull House, 1889)
Addams was an educated woman who struggled to find work
Like most educated women she shunned early marriage and a career working as a teacher, nurse, or librarian
Work in settlement houses provided these women with alternatives
Women & Reform
Hull House was located in a slum area of Chicago
It included a day nursery, medicine dispensary, provided medical advice, had a boardinghouse, an art gallery, and a music school
Women & Reform
Social Reformer Florence Kelley visited Hull House in 1891 and wrote a report detailing the dismal lives of women and girls, especially those who worked in sweatshops
She detailed the effects of working long hours and in substandard conditions
Her report led to landmark legislation in Illinois that limited women to an 8 hour workday and barred children under 14 from working
Women & Reform
Kelley would go on to publish Hull House Maps and Papers (1895), the first scientific study of urban poverty in America
She served as general secretary of the new National Consumers’ League
Was co-founder of the New York Child Labor Committee and pushed for the creation of the U.S. Children’s Bureau (1912)
WOMEN & REFORM
WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION(WCTU)
Members preached total abstinence from consumption of alcohol
Pushed for women’s suffrage
They also wanted to;
Reform the prison system
Eradicate prostitution
Eliminate wage system
Establishing homeless shelters, Sunday schools, and child nurseries
Caption This?
The Progressive Era
Politically women were prevented from voting and shut out of city politics, which had become closed and often corrupted
By the 20th century, the Democratic Party machine was dominated by 1st and 2nd generation Irish
Their strength was disciplined organization and delivery of essential services to immigrants and the business elites
In exchange for their votes, politicians offered immigrants municipal jobs in the police and fire departments, work at city construction sites, intervention with legal problems, and food and coal during hard times
For businesses, staying on the machine’s good side was a business expense
They bribed politicians and contributed liberally to their campaign funds
The Progressive Era
Machines also dabbled in the city’s vice economy and commercial entertainment
Prostitution and gambling could flourish when protected by politicians—who naturally wanted to share in said profits
Many machine figures had been saloonkeepers, and liquor dealers and beer brewers
The Progressive Era
Vaudeville and burlesque theaters, boxing, horse racing, and professional baseball also had economic and political links to political machines
The Progressive Movement
Political Progressive originated in cities to challenge the power of machine politics and deteriorating unban conditions
End Political Corruption
Bring more businesslike methods to governing
More compassionate legislative response to excessive industrialism
The Progressive Movement
In 1906, Frederic C. Howe wrote “the challenge of the city has become one of decent human existence”
City’s were generally ill-equipped to handle basic services for a ever growing urban population
In Pittsburgh, a large number of people died due to an impure water supply that caused typhoid, dysentery, and cholera
In New York City, neighborhoods rarely enjoyed street cleaning
Trash piled up on Varick Street in 1893 New York City, before sanitation reform. Harper's Weekly
MUGWUMPS
Republicans who supported Democratic presidential candidate Grover Cleveland in 1884 because they viewed their own party’s candidate, James G. Blaine, as corrupt
EDUCATION
Along with reading, writing, and mathematics, schools inculcated patriotism, piety, and respect for authority
Progressive looked to education as an agent of “Americanization”
Educational Reformers viewed schools as a vehicle for immigrant children to break free of the parochial ethnic neighborhoods
Elwood Cubberley believed that educators should work to “break up these groups or settlements, to assimilate and amalgamate these people as a part of our American race, and to implant in their children, so far as can be done, the Anglo-Saxon conception of righteousness, law and order, and popular government.”
Education
The most important educational trends during this period was expansion and bureaucratization of the nation’s public school systems
Children started school earlier and stayed longer
Expanding kindergarten
By 1918, every state had some form of compulsory school attendance
High schools multiplied
By 1890, only 4% of children between the age of 14-17 were enrolled in school
By 1930, it was 47% for that same age group
High schools included instruction in health, family life, citizenship, and ethical character
A small number of these schools prepared students for college
Education
Vocational programs trained boys and girls for industry
Boys took up courses in metal trades, carpentry, and machine tools
Girls learned typing, bookkeeping, sewing, cooking and home economics
Education reforms also established national testing organizations such as the College Entrance Examination Board (1900)
They also helped standardize agencies for curriculum development and teacher training
HIGHER EDUCTION
The Morrill Act of 1862
Gave states public land that would be used to finance land-grant colleges offering education to ordinary citizens in practical skills such as agriculture, engineering, ad military science
Between 1880-1900, more than 150 new colleges and universities were established
The wealthy also established institutions of higher education (Leland Stanford $24 million to establish Stanford University)
Religious institutions also established colleges and universities in the post Civil War period
Women and African Americans were largely locked out of the opportunities to attend American colleges and universities
Higher Education
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Churches establishing schools
White philanthropist supporting schools
Higher Education
Before the Civil War only 3 private schools admitted women
That number increased after the war and women’s colleges were also established (Vassar, Radcliffe, Smith, Bryn Mawr0
JIM CROW
In the late 19th early 20th century, white violence towards African Americans reached levels unknown since Reconstruction
Local and state governments codified racist ideology by passing discriminatory and segregationist laws
They became know collectively as Jim Crow laws
Wealthy planters, merchants, and farmers organized to disfranchise black voters and extend the practice of segregation to cover public accommodations and facilities
The Supreme Court upheld new discriminatory legislation in their decision in the Civil Rights Cases (1883)
Civil Rights Act 1875 Be it enacted, That all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude.
Civil Rights Act 1875
That any person who shall violate the foregoing section by denying to any citizen, except for reasons by law applicable to citizens of every race and color, and regardless of any previous condition of servitude, the full enjoyment of any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, or privileges in said section enumerated, or by aiding or inciting such denial, shall, for every such offense, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the person aggrieved thereby, . . . and shall also, for every such offense, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or shall be imprisoned not less than thirty days nor more than one year . . .
Supreme Court Decision 1883 In 1883, The United States Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875, forbidding discrimination in hotels, trains, and other public spaces, was unconstitutional and not authorized by the 13th or 14th Amendments of the Constitution.
Before Plessy
1887 Florida passed a law requiring segregated railroad accommodations
Other states followed
Railroad companies not happy about added expense
Before Plessy
In 1890 Louisiana legislator proposed a similar bill
Black citizens in Louisiana outraged
Law required separate passenger coaches or partitioned coaches
Fined $25 or 20 days in jail for breaking this law
Only black nurses attending to white children could get around law
Homer Plessy
*Born free in 1862
*A part of a French speaking Creole family
*Plessy was 1/8 African
*Could have passed for white
*Member of New Orleans Citizen Committee
*Group desired to challenge Louisiana Law that called for separate but equal facilities for blacks and whites within the state
*This group was primarily made up of Creoles (mixed race French speaking people)
Before Plessy
Daniel F. Desdunes
*Arrested for riding in the whites only car
*Father leader with New Orleans Committee of Citizens (Comité des Citoyens)
*Justice John Howard Ferguson considered a carpetbagger from Massachusetts ruled it was unconstitutional to enforce separate but equal in interstate commerce-incompatible with federal law
Slaughter House Cases (1873) 13th Amendment restrict occupation meant involuntary servitude 14th Amendment denied butchers ability to create wealth and liberty to pursue calling. Court narrow interpretation 13th end slavery 14th extend citizenship amendment’s concerned blacks. Blacks need broad and narrow interpretation the decision restricted the ability of federal government to intervene…
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Plessy Challenges Segregated Railroad Cars
*In 1892 Plessy arrested for violating Act 111 Section 2 of a Louisiana State Statue
*According to the law accommodations were suppose to be separate but equal
*Railroad company notified that Plessy would board the train and sit in the whites only section
*Justice John Howard Ferguson ruled that the state had the right to regulate trains operating within its borders-cannot prevent non-governmental discrimination
The Plessy Case
The Louisiana State Supreme Court upholds Judge Ferguson’s decision.
‘The Federal Government had the authority to pass laws prohibiting only discriminatory actions by states, not those of private citizens.’
The State’s Argument
State empowered to preserve the public good, peace and health of the community
Plessy’s Attorney’s Attack That Argument
Public Health-How can state claim that segregation in rail cars protect public health if state law allows black nurses to accompany children in first class.
Race not real evil but power dynamic
Law protects whites at the expense of blacks
Therefore, the state violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
Revisiting the 14th Amendment
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Plessy’s Attorneys Also Argues…
Plessy is being deprived of his whiteness
&
Therefore he is being deprived of his property
(Reputation of being white property)
&
Allow railroad conductor to assign Plessy to “colored” car meant he was deprived of his property without due process.
Another Argument
Segregation perpetuated the essential features of slavery; thus, violating the
13th Amendment
14th Amendment National citizenship coexist with state citizenship
Majority Decision
*Court refers to Slaughter House Case & Civil Rights Case to deal with the 13th Amendment
*14th Amendment not intended to abolish distinctions based on color
*14th Amendment could not force social equality
Or
Force the commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either
Decision
Distinguished between political and social rights
&
Social difference between races had a foundation “in the nature of things.”
“The Problem of the 20th Century is the Problem of the Color Line”
W.E.B. Du Bois
Midterm Exam
Thomas Edison Chinese Workers
Henry Ford African American Workers
John D. Rockerfeller Pullman Strike 1894
Carnegie and Steel Strike at Carnegie Steel
Women and Work Political Machines
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Education
Labor Unions Higher Education
Growth of US Industry Jim Crow
Mail Order Houses & Catalogues Plessy v. Ferguson
Chain stores & Department Stores Settlement Houses
Advertising Agency Women and Reform Movement
Sherman Anti-Trust Act Progressives
Gospel of Wealth Women’s Christian Temperance Union
Gospel of Work
European Immigrants
Movement of labor rural to urban