Download US HIST SSUSH13 Progressive Era

US HISTORY
Greer
SSUSH14 – PROGRESSIVE ERA
INSTRUCTIONS: Using the NOTES FROM GADOE or any other internet resources you need, read
through the following text and do the Vocabulary and Critical d Questions, as you come to them. Make
sure you do the practice questions at the end, as well as the Writing Prompt. Write your answers on a
separate sheet of paper, to be turned-in to the substitute teacher, before you leave. If you finish early,
log-on to www.usatestprep.com and do a practice test from each of the first three domains, then
games/puzzles, as time permits.
SSUSH13 The student will identify major efforts to reform American society and politics in the
Progressive Era.
a. Explain Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and federal oversight of the meatpacking industry.
b. Identify Jane Addams and Hull House and describe the role of women in reform movements.
c. Describe the rise of Jim Crow, Plessy v. Ferguson, and the emergence of the NAACP.
d. Explain Ida Tarbell’s role as a muckraker.
e. Describe the significance of progressive reforms such as the initiative, recall, and referendum; direct election
of senators; reform of labor laws; and efforts to improve living conditions for the poor in cities.
f. Describe the conservation movement and the development of national parks and forests; include the role of
Theodore Roosevelt.
Overview: The perceived excesses of business and industry coupled with growing social concerns inspired
reformers to make important improvements in America’s political and social environment. These reformers
were known as Progressives. The Progressive Era marks the second definitive era of social and political
reform, comparable to the reform movements of the 1840’s. Progressive reforms strengthened American
democracy in ways carried forward into present times. Sadly, these reforms did not extend to all parts of
American society as African Americans found themselves left out of reform efforts when southern whites
continued to deny basic rights to black citizens.
.
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
The Jungle (1906) was an intended exposé on the dangerous working conditions faced by immigrant workers
but instead is remembered as an exposé on the Chicago meatpacking industry. In 1904, Upton Sinclair was sent
by a socialist magazine to work undercover in the Chicago meatpacking industry. In his undercover research,
Sinclair learned about all aspects of the meatpacking industry and about the lives of the immigrant workers who
made up its workforce. The novel took two years to be published because of its horrific subject matter. The
novel was an instant success.
The role of the government was expanded by these efforts to protect the U.S. population and to require
regulation of business practices.
Just as Uncle Tom’s Cabin brought the issue of abolition into middle class homes of the1850’s, Sinclair’s novel
had a similar effect in rousing the middle class in calling for action against unsafe food packaging and
preparation practices. Popular history has President Theodore Roosevelt reading the novel at breakfast
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and resolving to take action against the practices described by the novelist. The Jungle served as an impetus for
passage of laws to regulate the meatpacking industry, to require meat packers to produce food that was safe to
consume, and, ultimately, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
Critical Thinking: What impact did Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle have for American consumers?
.
Women’s Role in Reform Movements (Progressive Era)
By the last quarter of the 19th century, many middle class women had received considerable education and
society still respected women as nurturers and agents of stability. Women used this influence and their
educational attainment to advocate for social change. These reforms included a re-born temperance movement,
women’s suffrage, sanitation, educational reforms, and attacks on racism. Women, such as Jane Addams,
played a huge role in improving the lives of the urban poor, especially immigrant women and children who
were forced by circumstance to work and live in dangerous and unhealthy conditions.
Jane Addams (1860-1935) was the founder of the Settlement House Movement in the United States. The
Settlement House Movement began in urban England as a way of helping the poor by using donations from the
wealthy in an effort to improve the lives of the destitute. Addams decided to create similar settlement house in
Chicago after visiting Toynbee House in London, England. She founded Hull House in 1889 in an immigrant
community for the purpose of provide educational opportunities for immigrants, especially immigrant women.
By 1893, Hull House was serving 2000 clients. Addams was also gradually drawn into advocating for
egislative reforms at the municipal, state, and federal levels, addressing issues such as child labor, healthcare,
and immigration. Later, Addams also became actively involved in women’s suffrage and was a charter member
of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Define, identify, or explain the following:
Women’s suffrage
Temperence movement
Jane Addams
Hull House
NAACP
Jim Crow Laws (1876-1965)
Following the end of Reconstruction, white Democrats regained power in southern legislatures, and, beginning
in 1876, ten of the eleven former Confederate states had created a legal framework for separating whites and
African-Americans known as “Jim Crow laws”. The initial purpose of Jim Crow laws was to prevent
African-Americans from participating in the political process, including voting, serving in office, and
participating in jury trials. Gradually, Jim Crow laws were extended to include public education, transportation,
and other public facilities. There were separate water fountains, waiting rooms, and restrooms for whites and
African-Americans. The laws were supposed to provide “separate but equal” facilities but, in practice, facilities
for African-Americans were separate and inferior. Jim Crow laws were initially created by states but, during the
Woodrow Wilson administration, Jim Crow was extended to the federal government.
In 1890, Louisiana passed just such a Jim Crowe law that required separate facilities on railroads. Concerned
citizens, of all races, were determined to challenge the legality of the new law. The opportunity came in 1892
when Homer Plessey (who was 1/8th African-American, thus meeting the legal definition, but not looking
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African-American) decided to challenge the law. He was arrested for refusing to leave a whites only railroad
car. Plessey’s case was fought all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessey v.
Ferguson that “separate but equal” was constitutional. Racial discrimination was now legal.
Widespread violence, including lynchings, against African-Americans led to the formation of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Created by a group of white
supporters and W.E.B. Dubois, the NAACP's stated goal was to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in
the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution. The organization quickly began to
challenge Jim Crow laws and lynching through the courts. Success in an Oklahoma case enhanced the
organization’s reputation and foreshadowed the success the NAACP would have in ending public school
segregation in 1954.
Critical Thinking: What were the original purposes of “Jim Crow” Laws and how were they expanded?
What did the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson mean for racial discrimination in the
United States?
Ida Tarbell and the “Muckrakers”
The term “muckraker” originated from a speech that President Theodore Roosevelt used praising journalists in
their role of uncovering that which was hidden from and corrupted society. Between 1902 and 1904, Ida
Tarbell (1857- 1944) wrote a series of magazine articles exposing Standard Oil’s business practices. Tarbell’s
19 part “The History of the Standard Oil Company” marked the beginning of investigative journalism. Spurred
by her father’s business loss at the hands of Rockefeller, Tarbell’s methods became a model for other
investigative journalists.
She investigated Standard Oil for two years by examining public records, newspaper coverage and interviewing
former Standard Oil executives in order to piece together how Rockefeller was able to create the company. The
articles told of how Rockefeller used his business methods to destroy independent oilmen in Pennsylvania in
order to create an oil monopoly. She concluded her series by examining Rockefeller’s character in which she
characterized him as “money-mad” and that Rockefeller had created a national life that was far meaner, poorer,
and uglier than had existed prior to Rockefeller’s creation of Standard Oil. Her series was well received
because, unlike Sinclair’s socialist tendencies, Tarbell was not critical of capitalism but instead focused her
criticism on the unethical practices of Rockefeller and his associates in building Standard Oil. Issues raised by
Ida Tarbell’s role as a muckraker led to the growing belief that the government should intervene in business and
not allow monopolies.
Critical Thinking: Who was the main target of Ida Tarbell’s research and writing and how did her efforts
influence government’s thinking about intervention in the practices of big corporations?
Progressive Reforms
In the early 20th century, Progressivism emerged as a movement to improve American democracy, to achieve
social and economic justice, and to correct the evils of industrialization and urbanization. The Progressive
Movement was generally made up of the educated middle class who saw reform as civic duty. Politically, the
Progressives planned to attack graft, the political machine, and the influence of big business on government.
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The Progressive Movement also planned to create new political procedures that would enable greater political
participation. To attack poverty, the Progressive planned to lobby for greater governmental regulation to
protect consumers and workers.
Political Reforms
Local/ State Reforms
Initiative/referendum: allowed voters to suggest and approve laws directly without going through state
legislatures.
Recall: enabled voters to get rid of politicians who were unsatisfactory, without waiting for a complete election
cycle.
National Reforms
Direct election of senators: The Seventeenth Amendment provided for the direct elections of U.S. Senators
ending the state legislative cronyism responsible for the appointment of Senators.
Economic Reforms
Labor laws
• State child labor laws set a minimum age for employment and restricted the types of jobs that children could
hold.
• State laws were also passed to protect women by setting a minimum wage and laws that created maximum
hours.
• Work site inspections to insure health, safety, and sanitation.
• State Worker’s Compensation Laws
Improving living conditions for the poor in cities.
At the outset of the Progressive Era, Jacob Riis, a New York photojournalist documented the living conditions
of the urban poor. His work How the Other Half Lives (1890), documented the unhealthy tenement housing
that workers and families were forced to live in, as well as the sanitary conditions of slum streets. His work led
to the institution of municipal housing codes calling for the re-design of urban housing and the creation of
sanitation departments that removed garbage and dead animals from the streets. In addition, large urban centers
began providing sewer and water services lessening the chances of typhoid and cholera outbreaks in cities.
Critical Thinking: Who generally made up the Progressive Reform movement? Why them?
What were referendums and recalls? Why do you think they would have been important?
What impact did the book by Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, have on the lives or poor city dwellers?
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The Conservation Movement
The Conservation Movement emerged in the 1870’s. There were three schools of conservationist thought at
the time. First, business supported a laissez-faire approach believing that business should be allowed to do as
they wished with public lands. Second, there was the Environmentalist school led by John Muir. The
environmentalists believed that nature was sacred and humans were the intruders. Further, humans should
make a minimal impact on nature. Theodore Roosevelt and his mentor, Gifford Pinchot, belonged to the
Conservationist school. They believed that nature could be used but it should also be protected.
Theodore Roosevelt was a life-long naturalist, who majored in Natural History at Harvard, and an avid hunter.
Roosevelt saw the continued despoliation of land for timbering and mining would result in the loss of key
habitat needed for hunting and future economic development. Throughout his presidency, Roosevelt increased
national reserves of forests, mineral lands, and hydropower sites. During his tenure in office, Roosevelt created
the National Forest Service, five new national parks, 18 new U.S. national monuments, 51 bird reserves, four
game preserves, and 150 national forests. This also encouraged states to follow the lead of the national
government.
Critical Thinking: What did President Theordore Roosevelt do during his tenure in office to aid the
Conservation Movement?
Key Terms (Make sure you have a thorough understanding of these terms!)
Conservation Movement
Direct Election of Senators
Hull House
Ida Tarbell
Initiative
Jim Crow
Muckrakers
NAACP
Plessy v. Ferguson
President Theodore Roosevel
Recall
Referendum
Upton Sinclair/The Jungle
Jane Addams
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Sample Questions
Founded by Jane Addams in 1889 in Chicago, Hull House was intended to
A. protest the Army’s treatment of Native Americans in the frontier.
B. provide services to newly arrived immigrants to the United States.
C. raise awareness to the plight of the rural poor in the United States.
D. lobby Congress to limit the number of poor immigrants to the United States.
The importance of the Supreme Court Case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was that it
A. reinforced the doctrine of separate but equal facilities based on race.
B. required that the Voting Rights Act would be enforced in the South.
C. permitted the placing of Indians on reservations.
D. ended the Jim Crow era in the American south.
In the era of the "Muckrakers," Ida Tarbell became known for exposing the abuses of
A. the oil industry.
B. the steel industry.
C. the Federal government.
D. state and local governments.
Writing Prompt:
How did the efforts of Progressive Reformers lead to changes in American society and government?
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