1. Issues at the Turn of the Century
How does technology, pop culture, education and segregation effect 1880s-1910s America?

2. Technology in the City
Louis Sullivan designs the skyscraper, Otis invents elevator
Electric streetcars, elevated trains, subways, steel cabled bridges improve transportation
Urban planning allows for open space in cities [parks]

3. Pop Culture
8 hour workday gives people more free time
Amusement midways have first ferris wheel & rollercoaster
Spectator sports (boxing & baseball) popular
Vaudeville & Ragtime are popular shows & music

4. George Eastman introduces Kodak camera
Spread of Pop Culture
Discuss: How do popular ideas & trends spread?
George Eastman introduces Kodak camera
Pulitzer & Hearst begin daily newspapers
1890: FW Woolworth is 1st department store (becomes chain)
Sears mailed catalogs allow purchases w/o leaving house
Capture
the
moment

5. Expanding Public Education
Mandatory schooling for children 8-16, (literacy rises to 95%)
College enrollment increases to 20% but most African Americans excluded from secondary education
Booker T. Washington: 1) “black schools” that teach skills, 2) once Af-Ams have skills, will be valued by society, ends seg.
WEB Dubois: 1) Niagara movement - college education to create future black leaders
2) Talented Tenth: those already educated need to legally fight segregation now!

6. Booker T. Washington W.E.B Du Bois
born enslaved
born well-off
self-educated
1st AA graduate of Harvard
influential black leaders
“bottom up” approach
“talented tenth”  “top down approach”
basic work skills  economically independent
goal: improve lives of African Americans politically, socially, economically
classical, liberal arts education
eventual rather than immediate change
immediate change enforced by gov’t
college educated
patient, peaceful means  tolerate racial segregation
Niagara Movement oppose racial segregation
segregation = evil
teacher
Tuskegee University
NAACP founder
editor of The Crisis

7. Jim Crow Laws (De jure segregation - legal)
1877: Southern state laws allowed for segregated public & private facilities (schools, restaurants, public transit, etc
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Homer Plessy (1/8th black) tries to challenge segregation on trains that cross state lines (interstate travel = ICC)
Plessy argues segregated trains violate 14 Am
Sup. Court rules “separate but equal” is not a violation of 14th Amendment

8. Racial Etiquette (De facto segregation - customary)
Many southerners want blacks to have “step & fetch” mentality & follow “southern” customs
African Americans who didn’t “follow custom” could face violence & death (1,400 lynched )
Discrimination outside the South (De facto)
North: immigrants & blacks forced into segregated neighborhoods, unions disallow black & Irish membership in jobs
West: many Mexicans forced into debt peonage (forced to work until your debt is paid off), some segregation
West: most Chinese segregated in schools (esp. California)