The Struggle Against Discrimination

 Social Reform or Social Control  Settlement houses aid in Americanization of immigrants  Provide help, but also change how they lived  Why? – create more loyal/moral citizens  Alcohol Use – (Customary in European cultures)  Reformers – alcohol use = moral faults  Behind Temperance Movement→ prejudice

 Racism Limits Goals of Progressivism  Progressives –  shared prejudices of other white Ams  Believed in “so-called” scientific theories – others less intelligent  Plessy v. Ferguson – separate but equal  Segregation laws passed in N + S  1914 – Fed. Offices in DC segregated

 African Americans Form the Niagara Movement  Meeting of AA thinkers (W.E.B. DuBois)  Opposed gradual progress/teaching trade skills  Riots Lead to Formation of NAACP  Springfield, IL (1908) – white mob kills 2 AAs, burn 40 homes  Some white reformers join AAs  NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)  Goals – anti-lynching, decent housing, professional careers  Strategies – use courts to challenge unfair laws

 African Americans form the Urban League  AAs migrate to urban areas  Local black clubs/churches set up relief efforts & employment agencies  Urban League – network of over 100 of these groups  Focused on poor workers (jobs)  Provided clothes, book, children to school

GroupForm of Discrimination Response (Actions taken) Jewish- Americans Anti-SemitismB’nai B’rith (1843) – rel. education, help families Anti-Defamation League – defend Jews against physical/verbal attacks, false statements, and ensure fair treatment Mexican- Americans Unfair labor contracts 1911 – S.C. challenge – struck down laws that enforced system PLM (Partido Liberal Mexicano) – offered similar services as Urban League Mutualistas – made loans, provided legal assistance Native Americans Dawes Act – loss of land Society of American Indians (1911) – preserve culture, fight fed. Policy Asian- Americans CA law – only citizens own land Japanese could not become citizens Put property in children’s names (automatically citizens = born here) S.C. challenge of law against citizenship – SC upheld law