Progressive Era Responses

Progressive Era Responses

Responding to Classmate 1

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your post. Indeed, African Americans had little to look forward to during the Industrial Revolution. Men, women, and children were subject to slavery. The Progressive Era did much to change the storyline with Blacks allowed to farm on rented land. However, prejudice was still rife with Blacks not being allowed to own homes or bank accounts. In the 1950s, Blacks could not live in predominantly white neighbourhoods or enter white-owned banks. It took craftiness from two business people to change the narrative. Bernard Garrett and Joseph Morris were two African-American entrepreneurs who believed in the financial empowerment of Blacks. The two began buying homes for Blacks to rent in white neighbourhoods and even offered black-owned business loans. When their plot was discovered, they ended up having their assets taken by the government and sent to serve a prison sentence each (Clark, 2019). So while the Progressive Era began in the early 19^th century, many issues remained unchanged, racism being the topmost.

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Reference

Clark, A. (2019). The Black Businessman Who Built an Empire Despite Jim Crow’s Oppression. https://www.history.com/news/bernard-garrett-banker-jim-crow

Responding to ClaU.S.maU.S. 2

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your post. Child labour continues in the US though it is not what makes the news. Laws enacted to protect children are grossly violated in some South states. For example, the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs estimates (based on figures by the Department ofU.SU.Sor) suggest nearly 500,000 child farmworkers in the US. Most of these children have been working from as young as eight years and for more than 10 hours a day. Farm work is not only demanding but also dangerous for children. Exposure to pesticides predisposes children to cancer; the harsh climates, especially the heat and dangerous farming tools, endangers the health and life of children working on farms (American Federation of Teacher, 2019). This situation is exacerbated because the Occupational Health and Safety Administration has had its funding cut back considerably, which means fewer employees are investigating different work fields, including construction sites. Hence, the proliferation of child labour continues un-hindered (Semuels, 2014).

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References

American Federation of Teachers (2019). Child Labor in the United States. https://www.aft.org/coU.S.unity/child-labU.S.-united-states

Semuels, A. ( 2014). How Common is Child Labor in the US? https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/12/how-common-is-chid-labor-in-the-us/383687/ 

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Progressive Era Responses

Classmate 1’s Post

Hello Everyone,

Explain the socio-economic status and challenges of your minority groups at the turn of the century. How did the Industrial Revolution affect your chosen minority groups?

African Americans are primarily the descendants of enslaved people, their rights were severely limited, and they were long denied a rightful share in the economic, social and political progress of the United States. Despite the end of the civil war and the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U. S Constitution (ending slavery, ensuring equal protection under the law, and protecting the right to vote, respectively), African Americans were still subjected to intense racial hatred (OpenStax, U S History, 2019). They were primarily restricted to poorly paid, menial jobs in steel, mills, mines, construction and meat packing. Racism and a lack of formal education relegated African American workers to many lower-paying unskilled, or semi-skilled occupations. In the railroad industry, they were often employed as porters or servants. In other businesses, they worked as janitors, servers, or cooks. This affected them economically; they could not afford most of their wants, making them live in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. In addition, some bankers practiced mortgage discrimination, later known as “redlining,” to deny home loans to qualified African American buyers (OpenStax, U S History, 2019), which led to a concentration of African Americans in some of the worst skim areas of major metropolitan cities. This problem remained ongoing throughout most of the twentieth century.

The Industrial Revolution saw the rise of factories in need of workers. CIndustrialre ideal employees because they could be paid less, were often of more diminutive stature, could attend to more minute tasks, and were less likely to organize and strike against their pathetic working conditions. Children even work at night in a glass factory. From 1870 through 1900, child labour in factories tripled (OpenStax, U S History, 2019). This is a social injustice because it puts children in horrible industrial working conditions, robbing them of a childhood.

Analyze how the Progressives brought reform to your selected minority groups. Do you find that the Progressives successfully made government responsive and improved the conditions of your chosen minority group?

The Progressive Era was marked by a movement to correct social, economic and political problems in America. Reformers such as Theodore Roosevelt, Charles Evans Hughes, and Robert La Follette on the Republican side and William Jennings  Bryan and Woodrow Wilson on the Democratic side took up the cause of progressive reform. Reforms in the Progressive Era centred around the institutional voting process and oncentredlating to the creation of bureaucratic c and the territorial expansion of cities (Newman, 2019). Yet the Progressive movement did little to improve the lives of African AmericProgressive; during the Progressive Era, racism affected many aspects of American society, especially African Americans and their children. To counter this injustice, African American reformists also emerged to expose this injustice of equal rights in the United States. W. E. B. Du Bois was a sociologist, historian, author, and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of coloured people (NAACD) who discussed in depth the psychology of racism and political issues. He consistently fights against racial inequality. His efforts were guided by the belief that a proper understanding of this situation would help eliminate racism; if people only understood correctly what African Americans were going through, Du Bois felt, they would appreciate better the circumstances they faced and work toward their complete liberation and flourishing. Another important person was a journalist named Ida B Wells, who wrote about the horrors of lynching in the South. He is one of the muckrakers who drew public attention to some of the most glaring inequities and scandals that grew out of the social ills of the Gilded Age and the handoff approach of the federal government since the end of ReconstruhandoffpenStax, US History, 2019). Wells’s reporting led to the development of the AnUS inching campaign. National Urban League was established in 1910; this organization’s mission was to end racial discrimination and provide economic empowerment to African Americans who migrated from Southern rural areas. Although African Americans fight to end discrimination, unfortunately, it still exists today.

Child labour laws during the Progressive Era didn’t become major until Americans realized how many young children were working to make money. Having to work caused many children not to be able to attend school. Thus, social reformers spoke out against the practice. The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), formed in 1904, urged the passage of labor legislation to ban child labour in the industrial sector (OpenStax, U S History, 2019). The Committee employed  Lewis Hine to engage in a decade-long pictorial campaign to educate Americans on the plight of children working in factories. Although low-wage industries fiercely opposed any federal restriction on child labour, the NCLC did sucU.S. in 1912, uU.S.g President William Howard Taft signed the creation of the U.S. Children’s Bureau into law. As a branch of the Department of Labor, the bureau worked closely with the NCLC to bring greater awareness to the issue of child labour. In 1916, the pressure from the NCLC and the general public resulted in the passage of the Keating-Owen Act, which whiU.S.rohibited tU.S.nterstate trade of any goods produced with child labour. Although the U.S. Supreme Court later declared the law unconstitutional, Keating-Owen reflected a significant shift in the public perception of child labour. Finally, in 1938, the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act signalled the victory of supporters of Keating-Owen. This new law outlawed the interstate trade of any products produced by children under the age of sixteen.

References

Newman, P. (2019). Taking Government out of Politics: Murray Rothbard on Political and Local Reform During the Progressive Era. The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, 22(1), 49 – 67. https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=f2329bde-f3b4-U.S.-8585-6aad9U.S.f18%40pdc-v-sessmgr02 (Links to an external site.)

OpenStax. (2019). U.S. history. OpenStax CNX. Retrieved from https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:gMXC1GEM@7/Introduction

Classmate 2’s Post

Hello Everyone,

I have chosen women’s rights activists and child workers to evaluate. To start with, women’s rights activists tended to be upper-middle class. The Industrial Revolution didn’t impact the middle class other than to give them causes to be politically involved in. Despite protesting and agitating for decades, the states had not enfranchised women as late as 1913. These experiences did help women gain momentum for the sufU.S.e movement, U.S.rbett, 2017), yet the 19^th Amendment wasn’t ratified across the whole U.S. until 1920 (History, 2007).

Working-class immigrants, women and children, suffered the negative impacts of the Industrial Revolution and newly available jobs. Women were paid lower wages than men (although men were not paid a living wage either), under the that they were under the care of their fathers or husbands (Corbett). Children were paid even less and were given dangerous jobs on all shifts. Inherent hazards included disability and death from accidents as well as workplace deformities. These included flat feet, musculoskeletal deformities, and susceptibility to diseases such as tuberculosis and rickets (Derickson, 1992). Despite the dangers, paltry wages and long shifts, many poor immigrants could not afford to relinquish even the meanest pay (Corbett).

Progressive reformers grew concerned over the safety of women and children workers. They developed political lobby groups to pressure Congress to pass legislation that provided protection, but not much would be done until many years later.

The progressive era produced the National Child Labor Committee in 1904, which helped the public see child labor differently. The NCLC supported the Keating-Owen Act, which outlawedU.S.erstate salU.S.f any products created by any child under age 16. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court stated the law to be unconstitutional, but the Act helped intensify awU.S.ess of the U.S.ht of children’s working conditions.

References

Corbett, P.S. (2017) U.S. History OpenStax, Rice University, Houston, Texas

Derickson, A. (1992) Making human junk: child labour as a health issue in the Progressive Era. Am J Public Health (Links to an external site.). ; 82(9): 1280–1290. doi 10.2105/aj.82.9.1280 (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from https://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.chamberlainuniversity.idm.U.S..org/pmc/arU.S.es/PMC1694314/ (Links to an external site.)

History, Art & Archives, U.S. HouseD.C.ReU.S.entatD.C., U.S.ce of the Historian, Women in Congress, 1917–2006. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2007. “The Women’s Rights Movement, 1848–1920,” https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/ (Links to an external site.)