1. Progressives and Equality Aim: To what extent did the Progressives fight for equality? Did the “Atlantic Compromise” help or hinder African Americans in their quest for equality?

2. Background From the end of Reconstruction (1877) to the beginning of World War I (1914), 90% of African Americans lived in the South. They lived with discrimination that affected every aspect of life.

3. Political Poll taxes Literacy tests Grandfather clauses That allowed anyone whose grandfather had voted in 1868 to vote (without taking tests or paying taxes) Exclusion from the Democratic Party Making it impossible to vote in primary elections. Because the Democratic Party controlled the “Solids South” victory in the primary meant victory in the election.

4. Economic Because African Americans received no compensation when slavery was abolished, they were forced to become sharecroppers. Southern unions (especially the AFL) refused to accept black members.

5. Social Segregation laws (‘Jim Crow’ Laws) which ordered the separation of whites and blacks in all public places. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) The Supreme Court declared that segregation did not violate the equal protection of the laws clause of the 14 th Amendment.

6. Opposing Solutions Booker T. Washington Founder of Tuskegee Institute, a vocational school for blacks. Washington emphasized the dignity of work and the importance of job skills as a means of gaining economic independence. Atlanta Compromise (1895) Washington urged blacks to temporarily accept segregation and the denial of voting rights in order to concentrate on improving their economic position. With economic independence would come integration and political equality. This philosophy is usually called gradualism.

7. Opposing Solutions (Con’t) William E.B. DuBois Historian and author of The Souls of Black Folks DuBois believe that blacks could not progress economically without being able to vote and exert political power. DuBois urged blacks to demand full equality immediately. Niagara Movement (1905) Was founded by black Progressives to work for civil rights. It later developed into the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) which fought discrimination through the courts.