Transcript The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era
Ch. 17 Notes
The Progressive Movement
Developed in response to problems growing in
cities & the changing workplace in the late 19th
century
Mainly led by middle class, wanted:
-to reform corrupt gov’t
-end monopolies in Big Business
-improve conditions for industrial workers
-address problems of immigrants & migrants
The Progressive Movement
• Progressives reached
large audiences with the
help of muckraking
journalists
• The Jungle, by Upton
Sinclair, was a book that
exposed the horrors of
the meatpacking
industry
Child Labor Reform
• Supported by Northern
progressives, SC
newspaper editors, &
women’s groups of both
races
• Opposed by mill owners
& some workers…why
do you think?
Child Labor Reform
– Minimum working
age set to 12, then
raised to 14
– Compulsory
education laws were
passed & funding
increased for schools
Temperance Movement & Prohibition
• Gov. Tillman did not want prohibition, but
progressives did
• By early 20th century, 20/43 counties were
“dry”
• 1915: statewide prohibition
• 1918: U.S. prohibition (18th Amendment)
– Could not make, sell, or transport alcohol
– Many did not follow the law; crime rate increased
because of “bootleggers” and “moonshiners”
Women’s Groups
• Many young, educated women promoted
reform
• In SC, women’s clubs supported
– Prohibition
– Fostering civil responsibility
– Education reform
• Successes: Improving health & education
• Failures: did not help much with women’s
suffrage movement
– 19th Amendment (1920): gave women the right to
vote—not ratified in SC until 1969
African Americans during the Progressive
Era
• Many African Americans migrated from the
South to the North
• Organizations like the Urban League and the
NAACP as well as Progressive leaders like
W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells Barnett wanted
to improve conditions for African Americans
– Progressive movement for African Americans not
successful in SC; politicians still wanted
segregation
Progressive Era Governors
• Robert Cooper
– Increased taxes & spent
more on education
– Supported law to increase
school year to 7 months
– Graduation rate still low
(esp in African American
schools) because of lack of
high schools
• Coleman Blease
– NOT PROGRESSIVE
– Didn’t support antilynching laws
– Opposed child labor
reform in mills
• Richard Manning
– Progressive governor
– Establish fair tax
system
– Established schools
– Improved
administration of
hospitals & paved
roads
Reforms in the State
• State hospitals established for TB patients &
women’s leagues raised money to build
libraries
– Separate facilities for races existed in the
state
• SC Highway Department created
– Gov’t supported construction of roads b/c
of cars
WWI brought an end to the movement, but
not the problems addressed in the
movement