Transcript Daily Life in the Gilded Age

Daily Life in the Gilded Age
Chapter 17 Section 1
Angela Brown
Education





End of the Civil War ½ of white children
attended free public schools.
High school diploma the exception
1870 2% of 17 year olds graduated from high
school – few went to college
1900 – 31 states had laws requiring children
ages 8-14 to attend school.
1910 – 60% U.S. children attended school
with more than a million students in high
school.
Immigrants and
Education
Many immigrants placed a high value
on U.S. public education.
 One of the most important functions of
public schools was to teach literacy.
 Literacy Skills – the ability to read
and write
 Public school played a role in
assimilating immigrants to the American
way of life.





Assimilation – the process by which people of
one culture become part of another.
Teachers taught thrift, patriotism and hard
work.
Fearing Americanization, many immigrants
sent their children to religious schools where
they could learn their own cultural traditions
in their native language.
As immigrants shared customs and habits
from their own homelands, they enriched
their new country and helped to redefine
American culture.
Uneven Support for
Schools:
Schools for African Americans received
far less money than white schools.
 Mexican American in parts of the
Southwest and California were
segregated and less funded.
 1900, a small percentage of Native
American children were receiving any
formal schooling.

Higher Education
Expands






1880-1900 more than 250 new American
colleges and universities opened.
Rockefeller $40 million to University of
Chicago.
1890s average annual incomes just under a
thousand dollars.
Few could afford college.
1915 some middle income families to college.
The availability of advanced education would
distinguish the U.S. from other industrialized
nations.
Women in Higher
Education
Educators and philanthropists
established private women’s colleges
with high academic standards.
 1865 Vassar College, NY
 Under pressure to admit women, some
men’s colleges founded separate
institutions for women.

1873 Cornwell and Boston University
welcomed women as students and
professors.
 1879 Harvard in Massachusetts
established Radcliffe.
 1886 Tulane University in Louisiana
established Sophie Newcomb College.
 1889 Columbia in NY opened Barnard.




1891 Brown in Rhode Island started
Pembroke.
Coed universities – Oberlin, Knox, Antioch,
Swarthmore, and Bates existed before the
Civil War.
Most scholarships went to men, if they could
afford college parents feared college made
daughters too independent or
“unmarriageable” = unacceptable friends.
African Americans and
Higher Education
Had to fight prejudice
 Oberlin, Bates, Bowdoin accepted
African Americans
 1890 – 160 African Americans attending
white colleges.
 African American Colleges: Fisk,
Atlanta; Hampton Institute and Howard
founded through American Missionary
Association.

1856 Wilberforce University in Ohio nation’s oldest African American school
 1900 – 2,000 students had graduation
from 34 African American schools
 African American colleges accepted
both women and men however it has
been estimated that 30 black women
were in college in 1891.

Booker T. Washington
1856 born into slavery
 1872 attended Hampton Institute in
Virginia.
 Founded Tuskegee Institute in 1881.
 Taught skills and attitudes to help
succeed in life – put aside desire for
political equality.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/images/people/washington_bt-lc.jpg&imgrefurl=
http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/washington_bt.htm&h=386&w=312&sz=30&hl=e
n&start=1&tbnid=bQR0LkOgNSRsrM:&tbnh=123&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbooker%2BT.
%2BWashington%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2005-11,GGLD:en
Booker T. Washington
Focused on economic security by
gaining vocational skills.
 Win white acceptance eventually by
succeeding economically
 Relieved fears of white’s who thought
education would call for more equality
within society.

Booker T. Washington
Washington was consulted by whites on
race relations.
 T. Roosevelt invited him to the White
House in 1901.
 Autobiography, Up From Slavery 1901
classic

W.E.B. DuBois
Graduated Fisk University
 1895 first African American to earn a
Ph.D from Harvard.
 Taught at Atlanta University.
 1905 help found Niagara Movement.
 A group of African Americans called for
full civil liberties, an end to racial
discrimination, and recognition of
Human brotherhood.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.journaltimes.com/bhm/assets/images/WEB-DuBo
is.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.journaltimes.com/bhm/html/w_e_b__dubois.html&h=3
27&w=275&sz=63&hl=en&start=15&tbnid=CsRsUa
_GSKeC9M:&tbnh=118&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3DWEB%2BDubois%26svnum%
3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2005-11,GGLD:en
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://web.grinnell.edu/individuals/andrewss/
dubois/imgs/dubois.jpg&imgrefurl=http://web.grinnell.edu/individuals/andrew
ss/dubois/&h=360&w=294&sz=20&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=LWnmbb94-0mMNM:&tbnh=121&
tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3
DWEB%2BDubois%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2005-11,GGLD:en
W.E.B. DuBois
DuBois argued the brightest African
Americans had to lead their people in a
quest for political and social equality
and civil rights.
 Urged advanced liberal arts education
rather than vocational like Washington.
 Rejected Washington’s message =
Atlanta Compromise

1910 became publications director for
NAACP.
 (National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People)
 Be proud of African and American
heritage he stressed.
 Wrote, The Souls of Black Folk
