Chapter 16 Life at the Turn of the 20 th Century

Segregation and Discrimination  After Reconstruction many African Americans exercised their new political and social rights, despite hostile and violent opposition.  By the turn of the 20 th Century, however, many Southern states had adopted legal policies of racial discrimination and devised methods to weaken African- American political power.

Voting Restrictions  Restrictions included:  Literacy test-test reading skills  Poll tax-annual tax paid before qualifying to vote  Grandfather clause-put into place to help poor, uneducated, white voters  stated that if a man, his father, or grandfather had voted before 1867 then he could vote even if he could not pass the test or pay the tax.  This clause eliminated African Americans who would not have had voting rights before 1867.

Jim Crow Laws  Southern states also passed racial segregation laws to separate white and black people in public and private facilities.  These laws came to be known as Jim Crow Laws after a popular old song.  Segregation was put into effect in schools, hospitals, parks, transportation, etc.

Jim Crow songbook This songbook, published in Ithaca, New York, in 1839, shows an early depiction of a minstrel- show character named Jim Crow. By the 1890s the expression “Jim Crow” was being used to describe laws and customs aimed at segregating African Americans and others. These laws were intended to restrict social contact between whites and other groups and to limit the freedom and opportunity of people of color.

Plessy v. Ferguson  Eventually a legal case reached the Supreme Court that would test the constitutionality of segregation.  In 1896, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the SC ruled that the separation of races in public places was legal and did not violate the 14 th Amendment.  The Court’s decision established the doctrine of “separate but equal,” which allowed states to maintain segregated facilities as long as they provided equal service.  The decision permitted legalized racial segregation for almost 60 years.

Higher Education for African Americans  Booker T. Washington, a prominent AfrAmer educator, believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society.  In 1881 Washington was in charge of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, or now, Tuskegee University in AL.  The school wanted to equip students with teaching diplomas and useful agricultural, domestic, or mechanical skills.

 W.E.B. Du Bois, the first AfrAmer to receive a doctorate from Harvard (1895), strongly disagreed with Washington’s views.  In 1905 Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement to insist that AfrAmer should seek a liberal arts education so that the AfrAmer community would have educated leaders.  Du Bois proposed that a group of educated blacks, the “talented tenth,” should try to achieve immediate inclusion into society.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)  In 1909 a group of AfrAmer and white reformers met in New York to found the NAACP to combat racial inequalities.  By 1914 the NAACP would have 6000 members aimed at achieving full racial equality.

Chapter 17 The Progressive Era

Progressivism and Its Champions   Industrialization helped many but also created dangerous working environments and unhealthy living conditions for the urban poor.   Progressivism, a wide-ranging reform movement targeting these problems, began in the late 19th century.   Four goals of Progressivism included:   Protecting social welfare   Promoting moral improvement   Creating economic reform   Fostering efficiency

Jacob Riis   Danish immigrant who faced New York poverty   Exposed the slums through magazines, photographs, and a best-selling book called How the Other Half Lives   His fame helped spark city reforms. Ida Tarbell   Exposed the corrupt Standard Oil Company and its owner, John D. Rockefeller   Appealed to middle class scared by large business power Lincoln Steffens Shame of the Cities (1904) exposed corrupt city governments Frank Norris Exposed railroad monopolies in a 1901 novel  Journalists called muckrakers and urban photographers exposed people to the plight of the unfortunate in hopes of sparking reform.

Election Reforms  Progressives wanted fairer elections and to make politicians more accountable to voters.  Proposed a direct primary, or an election in which voters choose candidates to run in a general election, which most states adopted.  Backed the Seventeenth Amendment, which gave voters, not state legislatures, the power to elect their U.S. senators.

Election Reforms  Some measures Progressives fought for include:  Direct primary: voters select a party’s candidate for public office  17th Amendment: voters elect their senators directly  Secret ballot: people vote privately without fear of coercion  Initiative: allows citizens to propose new laws  Referendum: allows citizens to vote on a proposed or existing law  Recall: allows voters to remove an elected official from office

Roosevelt’s Upbringing  Theodore Roosevelt was a sickly, shy youth whom doctors forbade to play sports or do strenuous activities.  In his teenage years, Roosevelt reinvented himself, taking up sports and becoming vigorous, outgoing, and optimistic.  Roosevelt came from a prominent New York family and attended Harvard University, but he grew to love the outdoors.  He spent time in northern Maine and in the rugged Badlands of North Dakota, riding horses and hunting buffalo.  In 1884, when Roosevelt was 26, both his mother and his young wife died unexpectedly.  Trying to forget his grief, he returned to his ranch in Dakota Territory, where he lived and worked with cowboys.  He returned to New York after two years and entered politics.

Roosevelt’s View of the Presidency  Roosevelt’s rise to governor of New York upset the Republican political machine.  To get rid of the progressive Roosevelt, party bosses got him elected as vice president, a position with little power at that time.  President William McKinley was shot and killed in 1901, leaving the office to Roosevelt.  At 42 years old he was the youngest president and an avid reformer.  Roosevelt saw the presidency as a bully pulpit, or a platform to publicize important issues and seek support for his policies on reform.

The Square Deal  The Square Deal became Roosevelt’s 1904 campaign slogan and the framework for his entire presidency.  He promised to “see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.”  Roosevelt’s promise revealed his belief that the needs of workers, business, and consumers should be balanced.  Roosevelt’s square deal called for limiting the power of trusts, promoting public health and safety, and improving working conditions.

Dismay Over Food and Drug Practices Food  Food producers used clever tricks to pass off tainted foods:  Dairies churned fresh milk into spoiled butter.  Poultry sellers added formaldehyde, which is used to embalm dead bodies, to old eggs to hide their smell. Unwary customers bought the tainted food thinking it was healthy. Unwary customers bought the tainted food thinking it was healthy.Drugs  Drug companies were also unconcerned for customer health:  Some sold medicines that didn’t work.  Some marketed nonprescription medicines containing narcotics.  Dr. James’ Soothing Syrup, intended to soothe babies’ teething pain, contained heroin.  Gowan’s Pneumonia Cure contained the addictive painkiller morphine.

Upton Sinclair and Meatpacking  Of all industries, meatpacking was the worst.  The novelist Upton Sinclair exposed the wretched and unsanitary conditions at meatpacking plants in his novel The Jungle, igniting a firestorm of criticism aimed at meatpackers.  Roosevelt ordered Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson to investigate packing house conditions, and his report of gruesome practices shocked Congress into action.  In 1906 it enacted two groundbreaking consumer protection laws: – –The Meat Inspection Act required federal government inspection of meat shipped across state lines. – –The Pure Food and Drug Act outlawed food and drugs containing harmful ingredients, and required that containers carry ingredient labels.

Environmental Conservation Roosevelt’s Thoughts  Recognized that natural resources were limited and that government should regulate resources  Disagreed with naturalist John Muir, who helped protect Yosemite Park and thought the entire wilderness should be preserved  Believed that conservation involved the active management of public land for varied uses: some preservation, some economical Roosevelt’s Solution  The Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 reflected Roosevelt’s beliefs.  The law allowed federal government to create irrigation projects to make dry lands productive.  The projects would be funded from money raised by selling off public lands.  During Roosevelt’s presidency, 24 reclamation projects were launched.

John Muir ( ) was a Scottish-born journalist and naturalist best known for his explorations of the Yosemite area ( ) and for his efforts to create Yosemite, Sequoia and General Grant National Parks (1890). He was also a founder of the Sierra Club (1892).