Section 3 - The Struggle Against Discrimination

  1. Why It Matters
  2. Prejudice and discrimination against minorities continued even as the Progressive Movement got underway.
  3. In the spirit of Progressivism, new immigrant groups worked to help themselves
  4. These efforts paved the way for the era of civil rights that would follow decades later

Progressivism Presents Contradictions

  1. Non-white and immigrant Americans
  2. This era was not so Progressive for these people
  3. Progressives
  4. Most were white Anglo-Saxon Protestant reformers who were indifferent or hostile towards minorities
  5. Tried to make the U.S. a model of society by encouraging everyone to follow white, middle-class ways of life
  6. Social Reform or Social Control?
  7. Americanization
  8. Settlement houses - taught immigrants English
  9. Dress like middle class citizens
  10. Pushed to replace the foods and customs of their homelands
  11. Replace with Protestant practices and values
  12. Assimilating immigrants to American society would make them more loyal and moral citizens
  13. Found use of alcohol alarming
  14. Custom in European countries to have beer or wine with food
  15. Racism Limits the Goals of Progressivism
  16. Progressives help same predjudice against nonwhites held by other white Americans
  17. Believed some people are more fit to lead society than others
  18. Tried to base it on “so-called” scientifc theories
  19. Dark skinned people are less intelligent than whites
  20. 1910 - segregation was the norm across the nation
  21. A result of Plessy v. Ferguson
  22. 1914 - segregation in Washington, D.C.
  23. Approved by Woodrow Wilson
  24. President of the US
  25. Progressive

African Americans Demand Reform

  1. Booker T. Washington
  2. Told blacks to move slowly toward racial progress
  3. Work hard
  4. Wait patiently
  5. Gradually earn white Americans respect and eventually be able to exercise their full voting and citizenship rights
  6. W.E.B. DuBois
  7. Rejected Washington’s view
  8. Demanded immediately all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution
  9. Niagara Movements
  10. 1905
  11. Black leaders (including DuBois) meet in Niagara Falls - on Canada side
  12. Side on NY would not give them rooms in hotel
  13. Denounced the idea of gradual progress
  14. Also rejected the idea of only teaching trade skills
  15. DuBois states, “can create workers, but cannot create men”
  16. Should be taught;
  17. History
  18. Literature
  19. Philosophy
  20. So black men could think for themselves
  21. Ultimately failed - not enough members
  22. Formation of the NAACP
  23. 1908
  24. White mob attempted to lynch two African American prisoners in Springfield, Illinois
  25. Prisoners moved to safety, rioters took anger out on city
  26. Killed 2 people and burned 40 homes
  27. Niagara Movement members angered this could happen in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown
  28. Got attention of white reformers
  29. Acknowledged needed to help African Americans;
  30. Protect their lives
  31. Win the right to vote
  32. Secure civil rights
  33. 1909 - from the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
  34. Aimed to help African Americans be “physically free from forced, low labor, mentally free from ignorance, politically free from disfranchisement, and socially free from insult”
  35. Focused on middle-class blacks for political and social injustice
  36. Still around today
  37. Leaders were white and black Progressives
  38. Jane Addams
  39. Ray Stannard Baker
  40. Florence Kelley
  41. Ida B. Wells - used her publication (paper) to make clear the horror of lynching
  42. African Americans Form the Urban League
  43. 1911
  44. More than 100 groups in cities joined
  45. Focused on poor workers
  46. Helped families buy clothes and books
  47. Send children to school
  48. Factory workers find jobs
  49. Still around today

Reducing Prejudice and Protecting Rights

(other groups other than African Americans also fought for their rights)

  1. Anti - Defamation League Aids Jews
  2. Anti-Defamation League - started in 1913
  3. Goal was to defend Jews and others against physical and verbal attacks, false attacks,false statements, and “to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike…”
  4. Mexican Americans Organize
  5. Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM)
  6. Formed mutualistas- groups that made loans and provided assistance
  7. Native Americans Take Action
  8. Dawes Act in 1887 - divided reservations into plots for individuals to farm
  9. Land could be sold to the general public
  10. 1932 - ⅔ of the lands were in the hands of whites
  11. Carlos Montezuma
  12. Native American from Arizona
  13. Helped establish the Society of American Indians in 1911
  14. Protest federal Indian policy
  15. Preserve Indian culture
  16. Avoid being dependent on the government
  17. Asian Americans Fight Unfair Laws
  18. 1913 - California law said only American citizens could own land
  19. Forced Japanese to sell their land
  20. Japanese find loopwhole
  21. Put name of land in children’s name
  22. Because children born in US, they were considered citizens
  23. Takao Ozawa - famous leader