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Du Bois
One of the most influenced African American Leaders to emerge during this period was W.E.D. Du Bois. He was born in 1868 in great Barrington, Massachusetts. As a child Du Bois attended sunday school with African american and white children. Not until high school did Du Bois realize that his skin color caused some people to not like him. -
American Indians Organize
Demands for equal rights and greater opportunities for American Indians also surfaced during this period. The Dawes Act of 1877 had caused many Indians to lose their property to land speculators and fall deeper into poverty. Some progessives took up their cause. They wanted to slow down land allotment ad maintain the reservation system for a time. -
Writers and Social Problems
In 1902 in Democracy and Social Ethics, Jane Addams urged private citezens to show more social responsibility as well. "We are bound to move forward together. None of us can stand aside; our feet are mired in the same soil and our lunges breathe the same air." Although progressives such as Addams and Corly wanted to transform U.S. society and its values, they remained committed to democracy. -
Ida Tarbell and Standard Oil
In November 1902 McClure's ran the first installment of "history of the standard oil company" by Ide Tarbell. Born in West Pennsylvaina in 1857, Tarbell was the daughter of an independent oil producer. She was Deeply angered when John D Rockefeller's standared oil Company began swallowing up independent oil copanies. -
Daniel Burnham City Planning
in 1909 Daniel Burnham, a leading architect and city planner, produced a magnificent plan for redesigining Chicago. The first Comprehensive plan to redesign a U.S. city. The centerpiece of Burnham's vision for Chicago was a soaring city hall that would inspire all residents to be good citizens. -
African Americans Orginize
In 1909 Du Bois and a group of African American and white progressives met in New York City. They discussed the lynching of two African American men n Springfield, Illinois, the previous year. Out of this meeting came the National Assosiation for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization dedicated to ending racial discrimination. Du Bois edited its monthly magazine, The Crisis, Which publicized cases of racial inequality. -
Female and Child Laborers
In Early 1910 almost half of the women who worked in such jobs as factory workers, store clerks, and launderesses earned less than $6 a week. The Commission on Industrial Relations reported in 1916 that salary "means that every penny must be counted, every normal desire stifled, and each basic necessity of life barely satisfied." -
Progressivism and supreme court
As more states oassed protective legislation, buisness owners fought back through the courts. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits states from depriving "any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of laws."Owners claimed that laws regulating their business unfairly deprived them of their property. -
Americanization
Many progressives supported americanization, a process of preparing foreign- born residents for full U.S. citezenship. These efforts to assimilate immgrants, or to make them more like native-born Americans, focused on education. In school, voluntary associations, and public prograns, immigrants were taught to read, and write, and to speak english. -
Reforming City Life
By 1920, the first time in U.S. history that more than 50 percent of America lived in Urban areas. As the populatin in the Urban areas soared, cities struggled to provide garbage collection, safe and afforddable housing, health care, police and fire protection, and adequate public education. "the challenge of the city," declared progressive "has become one of decent human existence."
