The Progressive EraThe Progressive Era

Major Progressive Programs

EducationEducation

– Progressives believed that more access to education for all people would create an enlightened population

– Pushed for expansion of public education system

EducationEducation

• John Dewey – Wanted to reform

the education system

– More emphasis on experience rather then memorization of facts

• Women began attending college in large numbers

Social WorkSocial Work

• Settlement Houses– Created by Jane

Addams– Group homes in city

slums that helped poor urban residents

– Promoted public health reform in cities

• Chlorinating water supplies

• Tighten sanitary regulations

• Created public health clinics and dispensers

Racial Anti-Discrimination Racial Anti-Discrimination EffortsEfforts

• Booker T. Washington– Believed that African-

Americans would achieve equality through education and economic power

– Pushed the idea that African-American community had to help itself rather then expect white society to help

Racial Anti-Discrimination Racial Anti-Discrimination EffortsEfforts

• W.E.B Dubois – Urged African-

American community to fight for economic and political equality

– Founded NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Women’s RightsWomen’s Rights

• Seneca Falls Convention (Seneca Falls, NY. 1848)

• Birthplace of the Women’s Suffrage movement

• Suffrage- refers to the right to vote; self determination

Women’s RightsWomen’s Rights

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott fought for women’s suffrage and an end of laws which discriminated against women

Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth C. Stanton

Women’s SuffrageWomen’s Suffrage

• Nineteenth Amendment (1920)- gave women the right to vote

Important Events in the Important Events in the Struggle for Women’s Struggle for Women’s

RightsRights

Child Labor LawsChild Labor Laws

• Most states passed laws banning child labor

– prohibited children from working more then 10hrs day

– minimum work ages

• Enforcement of laws was difficult

Temperance MovementTemperance Movement

a. Women’s Christian Temperance Union

b. Fought alcohol use on state level through blue laws

c. 18th amendment (1919) banned the manufacture, sale, and Transportation of alcohol in the United States

d. was eventually repealed

EnvironmentEnvironment

• Conservationists wanted the government to supervise the nation’s resources and preserve land for future generations

• Supported by President Roosevelt

• John Muir was an influential conservationist

John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt

John MuirJohn Muir• Walked 1,000 miles from

Indiana to Florida in 1864• John Muir moved to the

Yosemite Valley in California in 1869 and worked to protect the valley from development

• Yosemite became one of the first national parks

• Started the Sierra Club 1892

• Wrote a number of books advocating protecting wild places

Yosemite National ParkYosemite National Park