-
Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species"
Many wealthy American businessmen, inspired by biologist Charles Darwin’s new theories of natural selection, began to believe that they had become rich because they were literally superior human beings compared to the poorer classes. The wealthy applied Darwin’s idea of “survival of the fittest” to society; in the words of one Social Darwinist, as they became known. -
Congress authorizes transcontinental railroad
The forward-looking Congress of 1862 authorized construction of the first transcontinental railroad, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic lines.. The Union Pacific Railroad company began construction on the transcontinental line in Nebraska during the Civil War and pushed westward, while Leland Stanford’s Central Pacific Railroad pushed eastward from Sacramento. Tens of thousands of Irish and Chinese laborers laid the track, and the two lines finally met near Promontory, Utah, in 1869. -
National Labor Union organized
The first large-scale U.S. union was the National Labor Union, founded in 1866 to organize skilled and unskilled laborers, farmers, and factory workers. Blacks and women, however, were not allowed to join the union.The National Labor Union existed for only six years. When the Depression of 1873 hit, workers’ rights were put on hold. -
Crédit Mobilier scandal exposed
As the railroad industry grew, it became filled with corrupt practices. Unhindered by government regulation, railroaders could turn enormous profits using any method to get results, however unethical. Union Pacific officials, for example, formed the dummy Crédit Mobilier construction company and hired themselves out as contractors at enormous rates for huge profits. Several U.S. congressmen were implicated in the scandal after an investigation uncovered that the company bribed them to keep quiet -
Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WTCU) organized
Founded in 1874. The WCTU worked alongside the Anti-Saloon League to push for prohibition. Notable activists included Susan B. Anthony and Frances Elizabeth Willard.The white ribbon was its symbol of purity. -
Booker T. Washington becomes head of Tuskegee Institute
Booker T. Washington, president of the all-black Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, rather than press for immediate social equality, encouraged blacks to become economically self-sufficient so that they could challenge whites on social issues in the future. The Harvard-educated black historian and sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois, on the other hand, ridiculed Washington’s beliefs and argued that blacks should fight for immediate—and overdue—social and economic equality. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
Nativists in the United States reserved special hatred for Chinese immigrants,a group that had worked countless hours of labor at low wages, especially on railroad construction in the West. Unions pressed Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, completely banning Chinese immigration to the United States. Congress did pass the act, and it remained in place until 1943. -
Haymarket Square bombing
An explosion in the middle of a labor strike in Chicago’s Haymarket Square in 1886. Although investigators later concluded that anarchists had detonated the bomb, the American people quickly placed blame on the strikers. The bombing brought an end to the union group the Knights of Labor. -
Homestead steel strike
Several major labor strikes occurred in the early 1890s, foremost among them the Homestead Strike, which protested wage cuts at one of Andrew Carnegie’s steel plants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When Pittsburgh police refused to end the strike, Carnegie hired 300 private agents from the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency to subdue the protest. The laborers, however, won a surprising victory after a bloody standoff. -
Plessy v. Ferguson legitimizes "separate but equal" doctrine
In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld the policy of segregation by legalizing “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites in the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson decision. In doing so, the court condemned blacks to more than another half century of second-class citizenship.
