Urban Problems and Reform  Do Now: Read about the Great Chicago Fire and answer questions about urban reform. (10 minutes)

Introduction  The US population growth:  swamped municipal services  caused terrible housing and sanitary conditions  aggravated class differences and conflicts  The physical deterioration, ethnic diversity, and social instability alarmed native-born reformers who tried to clean up cities and quickly “Americanize” immigrants.

Migrants and Immigrants  In the late 19th century, “new immigrants” from southern and eastern Europe arrived  Italians  Slavs  Greeks  Jews  Armenians (from the Middle East)  By 1890, the foreign-born and their children accounted for 4/5’s of the population of Great New York

Slums and Ghettos  Neighborhoods deteriorated into slums  landlords packed more and more people into their buildings  The poorer the residents, the greater the crowding and the faster the area declined  Ethnic slum neighborhoods became ghettos when discrimination and law kept members of the minority group from obtaining housing elsewhere.  Black ghettos in Chicago and Philadelphia  Mexican in Los Angeles  Chinese in San Francisco

Fashionable Avenues and Suburbs  In contrast to slums, grand millionaires’ mansions lined Fifth Avenue in New York, Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, and fashionable boulevards in other cities.  The wealthy and the middle class also moved to newer, more desirable suburbs on the edges of the old, compact cities.  American cities became increasingly segregated along class as well as ethnic and racial lines.

Middle-and Upper-Class Society and Culture  Manners and Morals  The 19th century Victorian worldviews preached to make personal and national progress an individual must: work hard exercise self-discipline display good manners cultivate an appreciation of literature and the arts

Battling Poverty  Middle-class reformers also set out to relieve poverty.  They often tended to blame:  the problem on character flaws of the poor  “self-destructive” cultural practices of the immigrants  Reformers concentrated on moral uplift and Americanization campaigns among the needy.

Battling Poverty (cont.)  Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations offered rural young people arriving in the cities temporary housing, recreation, and moral strictures against alcohol and other vices  New York Children’s Aid Society  Charles Loring Brace  Founded dormitories, reading rooms, and workshops for indigent boys  Sent thousands of them to live with and work for families in the Midwest

New Approaches to Social Reform  By the 1880’s, the Salvation Army and Charity Organization Society (COS) joined the fight against poverty  COS preached a tough-minded approach to charity  Insisted that the needy must meet the standards of responsibility and morality set by the COS’s “friendly visitors” to receive aid  Critics charged that the COS was more interested in “controlling the poor than in alleviating their suffering”

The Moral-Purity Campaign  Middle-and upper-class reformers attacked what they considered urban vice  Crusaders demanded that city officials close down gambling dens, saloons, and brothels and censor obscene publications  Anthony Comstock and Charles Parkhurst

The Social Gospel  The Social Gospel movement developed in the 1870’s and 1880’s among a small group of Protestant clergymen.  It was founded by Washington Gladden who was a Congregational minister.  The movement preached that urban poverty was caused in part by actions of the rich and well-born.  “that true Christianity commits men and women to fight social injustice head on, wherever it exists”

The Settlement-House Movement  Settlement-House founders blamed poverty not on the poor but on social and environmental causes.  Leaders believed that middle-class relief workers must reside among the immigrant masses and learn what services they needed.  Firsthand experience

The Settlement-House Movement (cont.)  Jane Addams  Founded the Hull House in Chicago  It provided:  Day-care nursery  Legal aid  Health aid  Helped find jobs  Offered classes in English and other subjects for immigrants

The Settlement-House Movement (cont.)  Settlement-house workers also published studies of the terrible housing and corrective laws  By 1895, more than 50 settlement houses in various cities were training a young generation of students  Many would become state and local govt. officials  Applying the lessons they had learned  Florence Kelly became a factory inspector for IL in 1893

Group Activity  You are the mayor of a major American city. You experience many problems that come with the growth of a city during the late 18 th century and early 19 th century. Your groups will get a scenario and will have to decide how to solve an urban problem. Choose someone to present the following:  1. A summary of your group’s scenario  2. Your group’s solution to the problem  3. A flyer to alert the public about the problem and educate them on how to be a part of the solution

Homework  Tomorrow we will be learning about political bosses. In preparation you will be reading about the most famous political boss of the 20 th century: Boss Tweed.  Study for your quiz tomorrow and make a notecard.