Chapter 8: Life at the Turn of the 20th Century

Section 1: Science and Urban Life

  1. Technology and City Life
  1. Lawrence Veiller lashed out against irresponsible tenement owners
  1. Helped in passing New York State Tenement House Bill passed (1901)
  1. Better buildings
  2. Need a courtyard
  3. More bathrooms in tenement houses (one per building)
  1. National Tuberculosis Association formed
  1. National Conference on City Planning (1909)
  1. Daniel Burnham wanted to remodel Chicago (DC is a good example)
  1. Stop slums and instill patriotism in immigrants (be proud)
  2. Buildings can be a sign of a rich and optimistic society
  1. Louis Sullivan and Daniel Burnham inspired many to design skyscrapers (expand upward)
  1. The invention of elevators and internal steel skeletons
  1. Electricity allowed cities to expand outward

1. Richmond, Virginia (1888) was the 1st city to electrify its urban transit

a. Electric streetcars (trolley cars), elevated trains, subways allowed cities to annex suburban areas

D. Frederick Law Olmsted spearheaded the movement for planned urban parks

1. Helped create Greensward (1857), which was selected as Central Park in NYC

a. He was also responsible for the landscaping in Washington, D.C.

  1. New Technologies

A. The literacy rate had risen to 90% by 1890, so written materials were important (ads, news, entertainment)

1. Paper mills produced mass quantities of cheap paper

2. Electrically powered paper press printed on both sides, cut, folded, and counted pages

a. Faster production, lower costs, cheap for readers (ads)

B. Orville and Wilbur Wright experimented with engines that could create flight

1. Dec 17, 1903 the Wright brother’s had their 1st successful flight with the “Kitty Hawk”

1. The Kitty Hawk is at the Air and SpaceMuseum in Washington, D.C.

C. George Eastman developed flexible film that could be sent to a studio for developing

1. Introduced the Kodak camera (1888) to the public, b/c professional photographers were not willing to use his film

a. Wright brothers flight caught on film

b. Spanish-American War (1898) more personal b/c of photos

Section 2: Expanding Public Education

  1. Expanding Public Education (William Harris believed public education as an instrument “to lift all classes of people into…civilized life.”
  1. Believed economic development depended on scientific and technological knowledge (education key to greater security and social status)
  1. School curriculum emphasized reading, writing, and math
  2. Quality of teachers varied greatly and punishment was harsh
  3. Kindergarten was created to operate as a daycare for working mothers (added to Public Education)
  1. 1889 62% of white children compared to 34% of African American children attended elementary school (available to all blacks in 1940)
  1. Andrew Carnegie pointed out the keeping workers loyal to capitalism required society to “provide ladders upon which the aspiring can rise.”

1. 1900’s curriculum expanded to include science, civics, and social studies

C. In 1890 fewer than 1% of black teens attended high school

1. 2/3rds of that 1% attended private schools not funded by the gov’t

D. Immigrants were encourage to attend school

1. Schools were excellent places for “Americanizing” immigrant children

a. Catholics were upset b/c public school system had mandatory readings form the Protestant King James Version of the Bible

b. Adults often attend night school to learn English and qualify for American citizenship

  1. Expanding Higher Education

A. The research university emerged as industrial and technological advances occurred

1. New disciplines such as psychology and sociology emerged

2. Professional schools in law and medicine also emerged

a. Entrance exams and high school diplomas were utilized to gain entrance

B. With the help of the Freedmen’s Bureau and other groups, African Americans founded their own Universities (1865-1868)

1. Booker T. Washington believed racism would end once they blacks proved their economic value to America (vocational education important)

a. Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute/TuskegeeUniversity (1881) would help African American learn vocational skills

b. Whites supported Booker’s idea(s)

2. W.E.B. Du Bois started the Niagara Movement (1905) whish aided in helping African Americans earn liberal arts education so they can compete with whites and have community leaders

a. First African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard in 1895

b. The most educated blacks (talented tenth) would demand/achieve equality in all arenas of political and societal life

  1. NAACP 1909 (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
  1. Founders were Du Bois and Jane Addams
  2. Wanted to end racial inequality and wanted social reforms that would ensure equal rights for African Americans, end restricted voting
  1. Guinn vs U.S.(1915): grandfather clause in southern states that kept blacks from voting but didn’t apply to whites (outlawed)
  2. Buchanan vs Warley (1917): overturned Kentucky law requiring racially segregated housing

Section 3: Segregation and Discrimination

  1. Andrew Johnson takes over on April 14, 1865 when John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln at the Ford Theater (upset confederate)
  2. Johnson , a Democrat, felt bad for the Democrats in the South

1.Pro-Union sympathizer, hoped he would appeal to northern Democrats and southern Unionists during the Lincoln election

2.Allowed black codes to be created (same as allowing slavery)

  1. Moderate and radical Republicans controlled Congress

1.Radicals wanted blacks to vote and destroy plantations

2.Moderates just wanted to restore the South to the Union

  1. Moderates join the radicals when they become aware of the atrocities occurring in the South

1.Johnson vetoed legislation to help blacks

a. Freedom Bureau: created in 1865 to help southerners left homeless and hungry after the war (most of the relief directed at former slaves-overrode veto)

b. Civil Rights Act of 1866: everyone born in US was a citizen with full civil rights (not voting- overrode Johnson’s veto)

c. 14th Amendment: required states to extend equal citizenship to African Americans and all people born in US. States can’t deprive anyone of life, liberty, or property without due process of late. Much harder to overturn an amendment, if Democrats ever control Congress (Johnson campaigned for those opposed to the 14th Amendment during the 1866 congressional election)

  1. 1867 Congress passes Reconstruction Acts

1.Breaks South in to military districts and Union troops are stationed in each district until accepted back in to the Union

a. Johnson tried to veto the Act and Congress knew the President would not enforce the act

1.1868 Johnson impeached by the House and found not guilty by one vote in the Senate (May 16, 1868)

a. Johnson’s power was destroyed

  1. Republicans nominated General Grant in the 1868 election

1.The race was close and the Republicans discovered African American voters gave them their narrow victory

a. 15th Amendment drew up by Republicans and passed in 1869, which gave blacks the right to vote (21st 1933 gave women right to vote)

2. 1868-1876 Grant is President, 1876-1880 Rutherford B. Hayes is President (Reconstruction ended under Hayes)

II. African Americans Fight Legal Discrimination

A. When Reconstruction ended, the South devised ways to restrict African Americans

1. Ida B. Wells (former slave) became the editor of a local paper and focused on racial justice

a. March 9, 1892 three African business men were lynched without a trial

B. Some states administered literacy tests in foreign languages (pass/fail as they wish)

1. Poll tax: annual tax that had to be paid before qualifying to vote

2. Grandfather clause: even if a man failed the literacy test or could not afford the poll tax, he was still entitled to vote if he, his father, or grandfather had been eligible to vote before Jan 1, 1867 (freed slaves didn’t have the right to vote before that date)

C. The Supreme Court failed to overturn the poll tax and grandfather clause

1. Segregation laws were put in place to separate blacks and whites in private and public facilities

a. Referred to as Jim Crow laws

D. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Supreme Court ruled separation of races in public accommodations was legal and didn’t violate the 14th Amendment

1. Est the “separate but equal” clause

a. On Dec 1, 1955 Rosa Parks took a seat in the front row of the colored section of a Montgomery bus and would not move as it filled up (Civil Rights movement kicks in to gear)

III. Turn-of-the-Century Race Relations

A. The races never shook hands, blacks stepped aside for whites when meeting on a sidewalk, and black men always removed their hat in front whites

1. Those who didn’t follow the etiquette were lynched, shot, or burned

2. Many blacks moved North to find higher paying jobs and social equality

a. Life was not necessarily better in the North for blacks (hypocrites)

IV. Discrimination in the West

A. Mexicans were hired by the railroad, helped develop mining and agriculture in the Southwest

1. National Reclamation Act (1902): gov’t assistance for irrigation projects in many desert areas

a. Mexicans became the labor force in agriculture areas of the Southwest

b. Debt peonage: bound laborers into slavery in order to work off a debt to the employer

2. The Chinese may have been hated more than blacks

a. Would work for less than blacks, looked different, and they were fairly new to the U.S. (In a sense whites grew up with blacks and Native Americans)

Section 4: The Dawn of Mass Culture

I. American Leisure

A. To meet recreational needs cities started maintaining green space (parks) for their citizens (EaglePark by the Elks pool)

1. Near Manhattan, the amusement center Coney Island opened (1829 Coney Island House opens, making it a seaside resort, 1903 amusement park opens)

2. Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus (1919)

B. Bicycling started out as a male-only sport (1885 1st safety bike-smaller air filled tires) and tennis started in North Whales in 1873 – lets get in shape and fat

1. Created new apparel for women and freed them of chaperones

2. Those unfamiliar with tennis, thought those with tennis nets were trying to catch birds (Harriman 1880’s)

3. Hershey Chocolate, Coca-Cola

a. Coca-Cola was originally used as a cure for headaches (Peruvian coca leaves and African cola nuts)

C. Baseball and boxing became profitable businesses (packed hotel lobbies, barber shops, and bars to listen to the game)

1. Alexander J. Cartwright organized a club in NYC and created rules for the game (borrowed ideas from English sport called rounders)

a. National League was formed in 1876 and the American League in 1900

2. First World Series in 1903 (Boston Pilgrims v. Pittsburgh Pirates)

a. Adrian Cap Anson would not allow his team to play against a African American team (African Americans were banned for 60 years)

b. African Americans formed the Negro National League and Negro American League

3. Baseball represented freedom and joy, but also hatred and discrimination

II. The Spread of Mass Culture

A. Yellow Journalism: sensationalizing the headlines to draw in readers and subscribers

1. Joseph Pulitzer purchased the New York World in 1883 and emphasized “sin, sex, and sensation”

2. William Randolph Hearst purchased the New York Morning Journal in 1895 (also owned the San Francisco Examiner focused on personal scandals, cruelty, hypnotism and an imaginary conquest of Mars

a. The Spanish-American War became their focus and their feud in 1898

B. Realism: an artistic school that attempted to portray life as it is rally lived

1. Ashcan School: painted urban life and working people with realism and no frill

a. Abstract art (European): most found it difficult to understand

C. Dime novels: told glorified adventure tales of the West and had heroes like Edward Wheeler’s Deadwood Dick

1. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) wrote Huckleberry Finn (life along the Mississippi River)

a. Some enjoyed high culture while others were concerned about real culture

III. New Ways to Sell Goods

A. Cleveland, Ohio (1890) opened the 1st shopping center

1. Brought in bands on Sundays to attract shoppers

2. Shopping districts formed near public transportation

a. Merchants opened department stores

B. Marshall Field of Chicago brought the department store concept to America

1. Field realized paying attention to female shoppers increased sales (“Give the lady what she wants.”)

C. Chain stores were owned by the same individual(s); therefore they bought in bulk, which allowed them to offer lower prices (service not as good)

1. F.W. Woolworth offered items at a very low price, which would cause people to buy at the spur of the moment

D. Less than $10 million was spent of advertising around 1865, but increased to over $95 million by 1900

1. Billboards started being utilized (medicines were advertised the most)

E. Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck brought retail merchandise to small towns

1. Ward’s catalog was launched in 1872

2. Richard Sears started his company in 1886

a. Unites States Post Office introduced rural free delivery (1896): brought packages directly to every home