The United States entered the Progressive Era from 1880 to 1920 when a variety of reformers tried to clean up problems created during the Gilded Age Industrialization led to a rise in urbanization, immigration, poverty, and dangerous working conditions City, state, and federal governments were seen as corrupt Corporate monopolies limited competition and workers’ wages

: Social Gospel movement  to honor God you need to help people Focus on trying to improve living and working conditions YMCA, Salvation Army Settlement houses – Jane Addams – Hull House in Chicago Florence Kelley - child labor laws

Prohibition (temperance) movement Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) – Carrie Nation 18 th Amendment (1919) – outlawed alcohol throughout the USA

Changes for Women New laws will give women more legal rights Women are active in other successful reforms during the late 1800s and are inspired to demand greater rights for women Margaret Sanger – birth control

The most significant reform for women was the demand for suffrage (voting rights) Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton formed the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

By the early 1900s, most western states allowed women to vote but women in the East could not vote In 1920, the 19 th Amendment gives women the vote

The Progressive Era led to demands for equal rights by African Americans Sharecroppers = poverty Literacy tests and poll taxes limited black voting Jim Crow segregation Plessy v Ferguson (1896) declared that segregation did not violate the 14 th amendment Lynching and violence were common

Black civil rights leaders were divided on how to address racial problems Booker T. Washington Tuskegee Institute  school to train black workers and teachers Accommodation: Blacks should work hard, educate themselves, and earn the rights they wanted

WEB DuBois Called for immediate civil rights and the promotion of the “Talented Tenth” of young black leaders Black civil rights leaders were divided on how to address racial problems Niagara Movement National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

While women gained voting rights and labor laws… …African Americans were unable to end Jim Crow segregation, stop lynching, or gain economic equality But, black leaders in the Progressive Era inspired later generations to demand changes

Investigative journalists known as muckrakers exposed corruption, poverty, health hazards, and monopolies

Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives (1890): urban poverty and life in the slums Ida Tarbell’s The History of Standard Oil (1904): corruption of monopolies (especially Standard Oil) Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906): unsanitary conditions of slaughterhouses

Politics were in need of reform Pendleton Act (1883): merit-based exams for government jobs City governments shift to city commissions and city managers Most state create commissions to oversee gov’t spending Referendum: citizens can vote to increase taxes for new programs Voting Reform Initiatives: citizens can make law Recalls: citizens vote to remove officials Direct primary elections Secret ballot 17 th Amendment (1913): direct election of Senators

The most significant state reform was governor Robert La Follette’s “Wisconsin Idea” First state to create an income tax, form industrial commissions, and adopt regulations on big businesses Wisconsin politicians teamed with academic “experts” from the University of Wisconsin to create state laws Wisconsin was a model for other progressive state reforms

: Theodore Roosevelt Believed the gov’t ought to take responsibility for the welfare of the people “Square Deal” Trust-buster; Regulate good monopolies Meat Inspection Act (1906) Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) Conservation

TR hand-picked his successor in 1908 William Howard Taft

Like TR, Taft pushed for progressive reforms Broke up 2X more trusts Establish the Children’s Bureau and the Department of Labor Went against Progressives by supporting a high tariff Not much on conservation

The election of 1912 was a three way race William Howard Taft can on the Republican ticket Democrats ran New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson TR ran as a Progressive Bull Moose

Federal Trade Commission: monitors unfair business practices President Woodrow Wilson Federal Reserve System: regulates economy by controlling money supply and interest rates 16 th – 19 th Amendments Most of Wilson’s 2 nd term was focused on World War One

The Progressive Era ( ) brought major changes to the United States For the first time, the government began regulating big business Working and living conditions improved Women’s suffrage and new state ballot reforms increased democracy for the people America’s involvement in World War I brought an end to the Progressive Era