Educational Opportunities for Minorities at the Turn of the

Century• Immigrants• Assimilation- The process by which people from one culture

become part of another culture.

• Women• After the Civil War there was a greater opportunity for women to

attend college and receive a higher level of education.

• African Americans• Booker T Washington—optimist. He wanted African Americans to

put aside their desire for political equality and instead focus on building economic security. He thought that African Americans could win white acceptance by succeeding economically

• WEB Dubois (first African American to earn a Harvard degree). He wanted African Americans to push for FULL civil liberty. He was also the public director for the NAACP (1909) and called for federal legislation to protect the rights of African Americans.

Set Backs for African Americans

• Despite the passing of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, African Americans still had their rights being suppressed.

• Voting Rights

• Legal Segregation (Jim Crow Laws)

• Violence

Set Backs for African Americans

• Voting Rights• Poll taxes• Literacy tests• Grandfather clauses- helped the poor whites vote

• Legal Segregation• Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896.• “Separate but equal” was constitutional.

• Violence• KKK• Lynchings- the murder of an accused person by a

mob- without a trial.

New Roles for Women

• Women’s work in the Home• Women spent tons of time cleaning and

keeping up with the home. • New technology such as the vacuum (1908)

helped women in the home.• By 1900, less women were having to

butcher their meat, make their own bread and time was saved by buying material for clothing. Food in tin cans also increased by 4x.

New Roles for Women

• Producer Consumer• Growing population, an abundance of

manufactured goods, the expansion of public transportation and lighting led to the emergence of department stores.

• Many of female workers were between the ages of 16-24 and employers assumed that they would leave when they got married so they were given low income jobs.

• Their pay was usually 30-60% less than men.

So what jobs were acceptable for women in the

1900s?• Most women during the 1900s were nurses or teachers

because these jobs were low paying, did not lead to promotion and did not put women in competition with men.

• Women also started to question their lifestyle, because they valued convenience, they began to wear shorter hairstyles, raise hemline and wear skirts & blouses so that they were more suitable for their new activities.

• Courting and marriage customs changed, too. Women were now allowed to date without supervision.

• “New Women” wanted to marry they just seemed to have new expectations. Divorce rates increased and women gained more control of their bodies (i.e. birth control). Their goal was DOMESTIC FULFILLMENT.CLICK- Progressive Era

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Economic Depression &

Social Crisis 1892-1897• The Economy

• Homestead Strike (1892): Iron and steel workers went on strike in Pennsylvania against the Carnegie Steel Company to protest salary reductions.

• Depression of 1893• Causes? Dramatic growth of the federal deficit,

withdrawal of British investments from the American market and the outward transfer of gold, and loss of business confidence.

• March of Unemployed• Pullman Strike (1894)

Foreign Relations

• Cuban Revolt against Spain in 1895. Sensational “yellow journalism,” and nationalistic stalemates from officials, encouraged popular support for direct American military intervention on behalf of Cuban independence. This will eventually lead to the Spanish American War. STAY TUNED.

• Japan’s victory over China signaled to the US and others trading in Asia that China’s weakness might result in its colonization by industrial powers and thus, close the China market. This concern led the US to announce the Open Door Policy with China, designed to protect equal opportunity of trade and China’s political independence.

Isolationism Internationalism

• PERIOD FROM ISOLATIONISM INTERNATIONALISM and it starts with OUR IMPERIALISTIC POLICIES (1870-1920)

• Why did we need imperialistic policies? • We needed cheap materials (to market for US

products and promote trade)• We needed military presence to protect ships,

merchants; nationalism, etc.

Spanish American War

• President McKinley moved the USS MAINE (battleship) into Havana harbor to protect American citizens and property after Cuban Revolts.

• Causes for US to jump in: Spanish American War• U.S. desire for more markets and foreign bases• De Lome letter- letter from an ambassador about

president McKinley (caused an outcry in the US)/ ridiculed Mckinley and gave the press an opportunity to intensify Anti-Spanish sentiments.

• Growing pressure to stop Spanish abuses of Cubans (reported in the paper by yellow journalists)

• Explosion of the USS Maine 250 American soldiers, probably caused by an accidental fire but was blamed on the Spanish.

Spanish American War

Final attempt at peaceful solution—McKinley sent list of demands to Spain.

• Compensation for the Maine• End of concentration camps• Truce in Cuba• Cuban Independence (Teller Amendment)

• Spain agreed to all but the last one. The US recognized Cuba’s independence and decided to fight Spain.

Spanish American War

• Teller Amendment  -  A resolution by Congress in 1898 promising to grant Cuba independence after the war. The Teller Amendment provided the US with justification for its actions while allaying fears that the war was simply an imperialist land grab.

Outcomes of the War

• Treaty of Paris 1898- Ends the Spanish American War. Spain recognizes Cuba’s independence and the US gets Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines for $20 million.

• Although Cuba was granted its independence (Teller Amendment), the Platt Amendment of 1901 guaranteed that it would become a virtual protectorate of the U.S. Cuba could not:• Make a treaty with a foreign state impairing its independence, or• Contract an excessive public debt.

• Cuba was required to allow the U.S. to preserve order on the island, and lease a naval base for 99 years to the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay.

• We retained some power over Cuba until 1934, now it is a communist country.

Roosevelt Corollary

• Roosevelt Corollary- While the Monroe Doctrine said European countries should stay out of Latin America, the Roosevelt Corollary took this further to say had the right to exercise military force in Latin American countries in order to keep European countries out.

• The Roosevelt Corollary effectively stipulated that only the U.S. could intervene in Latin American affairs. Roosevelt announced this Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine out of fear that European countries would use unpaid debts to exert influence in Latin America

Progressive Era

• Progressive Era was a time of REFORMATION.

• Reform took place on all LEVELS.

Federal Reforms

• Theodore Roosevelt and the Square Deal.

• Theodore Roosevelt did much to create a bipartisan coalition of liberal reformers whose objective was to restrain corporate monopolies and promote economic competition at home and abroad.

• President pledged strict enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), which was designed to break up illegal monopolies and regulate large corporations for the public good.

Muckrakers

• Muckraker- a person who uncovers the wrongdoings in politics or business.

• Term coined by Theodore Roosevelt.

• Lewis Hine- Photo journalist who captured children working in dangerous situations (coal mines, factories, etc.). This paved the way for Child Labor Laws.

• Ida Tarbell- Exposed the ruthless business tactics of the Standard Oil Company.

• Jacob Riis- Photo journalist who captured the living conditions of the urban poor.

• Upton Sinclair- Author of The Jungle, a book that exposed the Meat Packing Industry. This led to the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

Progressive Amendments

• 16th Amendment— Established a federal income tax (1913)

• 17th Amendment—Established a direct election of senators (1913)

• 18th Amendment—Prohibition (1919)

• Repealed with the 21st Amendment (1933)

• 19th Amendment– Women’s Suffrage (1920)- Prohibits any U.S. citizen from being denied the right to vote based on gender.

Prohibition

• Prohibition began with the members of temperance movements, mainly Christians, who agreed not to drink alcohol since they saw that it did damage to family life and they wanted to stop it.

• These were mostly made up of two main movements called the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Reasons for Prohibition

• Medical- It was unhealthy. Many men suffered from sclerosis, and eventually died which caused financial problems for their families.

• Economic- Men were getting drunk and unable to perform at work.

• Social- Husbands were spending their family’s savings on alcohol instead of essential items. That problem led to family arguments, which eventually led to divorce.

Bootleggers and Speakeasies

• A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcohol. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition (1920–1933, longer in some states). During this time, the sale, manufacture, and transportation (bootlegging) of alcoholic beverages was illegal throughout the United States.

Women’s Suffrage

• Many reforms died down after World War I but the drive for women’s suffrage got stronger after the war.

• 19th Amendment (1920)- Prohibits any U.S. citizen from being denied the right to vote based on gender.