Progressive Era Reform and Jim Crow in the Southwest Mexicans in the United States,

Major Themes Progressive Era “Reform” in the Southwest often meant segregating Mexicans. Racialization is a process that occurs locally, regionally and nationally. Individuals, civic groups, courts and governments all had an effect on how Mexicans were racialized. Mexicans contested their subordinate position. For Mexicans there were significant benefits to claiming “legal whiteness” and denying Indian ancestry. Women of all groups were key participants in shaping Progressive Era “reforms”.

Key Questions What is the Progressive Era? What was a “racial prerequisite?” During the Progressive Era individuals from which racial groups could become citizens? What did the In Re Rodriguez case establish? What is de facto segregation? de jure? What was a Mutualista? What role did historical memory play in racializing Mexicans?

The Progressive Era, 1890s-1920 Reform through laws and government regulation. Nadir of race relations From Upper Left: March Supporting Voting Rights for Women, 12 Year Old Mill Worker in Vermont, March of 40,000 Ku Klux Klan members in Washington, D.C. 1925

Racial Prerequisites, Desirable Citizens and Racialization In these tables are a sampling of the 52 racial prerequisite cases decided in various state, district and federal courts between 1878 and Information adapted from White by Law by Ian Haney-Lopez.

In Re Rodriguez (1897) Ricardo Rodriguez Seeks Citizenship

Jim Crow and the Segregation of Mexicans De Jure=By Law De Facto=By Practice Disenfranchisement Segregation in Education, Housing and Public Facilities D.W. Glasscock

Arizona Orphan Incident Photos From Left: Mexican Miners, Mexican Miner’s Family (both in Clifton-Morenci area around turn of the century), Clifton in 1903.

Mutualistas Focused on Mexican identity, nationalist Based in reciprocity and altruism Many went beyond self-help and organized against exploitation

Adina de Zavala vs. Clara Driscoll

Mexican Immigrants 1900 Census

Mexican Immigrants 1920 Census

Further Reading Bederman, Gail. Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Flores, Richard R. Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity, and the Master Symbol. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, Frankel, Noralee, and Nancy S. Dye. Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, Gonzalez, Gilbert G. A Century of Chicano History: Empire, Nations, and Migration. New York: Routledge, Gordon, Linda. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, Haney-López, Ian. White by Law. New York: New York University Press, Lomelí, Francisco A., Víctor A. Sorell, and Genaro M. Padilla. Nuevomexicano Cultural Legacy. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, Menchaca, Martha. Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black,and White Roots of Mexican Americans. Austin: University of Texas Press, Painter, Nell Irvin. Standing at Armageddon: United States, New York: W.W. Norton, Zamora, Emilio. The World of the Mexican Worker in Texas. Texas A&M University Press, 1993.