The Progressive Era sought to address problems created by rapid industrialization and urbanization between 1890-1920. Reformers known as Progressives pushed for regulations of large businesses, consumer protections, and expanded democracy. Some key reforms included civil service reforms through the Pendleton Act, regulations of railroads and interstate commerce, and consumer protections such as the Pure Food and Drug Act. However, Progressives were divided on issues of race and segregation, with some supporting policies that ultimately legalized discrimination until the civil rights era.

1. Progressive Era
It is time to fix the problems of
the “Gilded Age”
a.k.a. Progressivism
1890-1920

2. Populists vs Progressives
Populists---rural
Progressives---cities
Populists were poor and uneducated
Progressives were middle-class and
educated.
Populists were too radical
Progressives stayed political mainstream.
Populists failed
Progressives succeeded

4. Pendleton Act
 Patronage (spoils system) – gov’t jobs
given to supporters of winning party in an
election
 Act was civil service reform
 President fills federal jobs according to Civil
Service Committee rules
 Civil Service Examinations
 Examination given for federal jobs
 Only qualified candidates placed on list
 Selection for job comes from list

5. Wabash v. Illinois
 Railroads charged lower shipping rates for large
corporations
 Illinois laws began to regulate railroad rates
 Regulating trade between states
 Wabash Railroad sued State of Illinois
 Supreme Court ruled Illinois could not restrict rates
on traffic between states
 Only federal gov’t can regulate interstate commerce
 Interstate Commerce Commission established
 Legislation limited rates to ‘reasonable and fair’

6. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
 was a landmark decision in which the
Supreme Court of the United States held
that the power to regulate interstate
commerce was granted to Congress by
the Commerce Clause of the United States
Constitution.
 Plain terms: means the Federal
government can REGULATE trade between
the states

7. Legalized Segregation
 Progressive’s didn’t believe it was right for Civil laws
cannot dictate how society treats people
 Southern practices
 Jim Crow laws – segregation, voting restrictions
 Loopholes in 15th Amendment prohibited voting
 Poll tax
 Literacy test
 Grandfather Clause
 Progressives passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875
 Prohibited keeping people out of public places based on race
 BUT… Supreme Court overturned act in 1883—opening door
for legalized segregation yet again. 

8. Improving Conditions for
African Americans
Lynching – Ida Wells – The Red Record.
Marion, Indiana --

9. South’s Backlash1
0 to 20
20 to 60
60 to 100
100 to 200
200 or more
Lynchings of
Whites/Blacks

10. Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
 Homer Plessy—1/8 African
American
 Intentionally sat in wrong section of
train
 Arrested, fined, appealed to
Supreme Court
 Supreme Court upheld the
Louisiana law requiring
segregation
 Significance of ruling:
 Endorsed “separate but equal”
facilities
 Established legal basis for
discrimination in South for over 50
years

12. Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896
US would be segregated until the 1960’s.

15. Social equality vs. legal equality Which way will the scale tip?

16. The Two Opposing Ideas on
HOW TO OVERCOME
SEGREGATION
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
VS.
W.E. B. Du BOIS

18. Booker T. Washington
How do Black Americans overcome segregation?
Southern Perspective
•Former slave
•Wrote a book/ Up From Slavery
•Founder of Tuskegee Institute
•Don’t confront segregation head on
•Before you are considered equal in society--
must be self sufficient like most Americans
•Stressed vocational education for Black
Americans
•Gradualism and economic self-sufficiency

19. Harvard-educated professor who focused on the
need for a traditional liberal arts education for
African-Americans who could then insist upon
equal treatment and rights from white society.

20. W.E.B. Dubois
How do Black Americans overcome segregation?
Northern Perspective
1st African American to earn a P.H.D from
Harvard
• Founder of NAACP
 National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People
• Fought for immediate Black equality in society
• Talented 10%: Demanded the top 10% of the
talented Black population be placed into the “power
positions”
• Gain equality by breaking into power structure

21. Political Reforms of
Progressives
 Direct primaries – voting public chooses
candidates to run in general election
 Initiative – citizens can introduce laws and
legislature required to vote on them
 Referendum – proposed laws submitted to
voters
 Recall – voters demand special election to
remove elected official
 17th Amendment – direct election of Senators

22. Other Reforms endorsed by
Progressives
 Zoning laws – divide cities into zones for
specific use
 19th Amendment – women’s suffrage
 Child labor reform
 Worker safety
 Worker’s Compensation
 18th Amendment – prohibition; illegal to
manufacture, sale, or transport alcohol

23. QUIZ Yo’self 

25. Theodore Roosevelt’s Upbringing
 Theodore Roosevelt was a
sickly, shy youth whom doctors
forbade to play sports or do
strenuous activities.
 In his teenage years, Roosevelt
reinvented himself, taking up
sports and becoming vigorous,
outgoing, and optimistic.
 Roosevelt came from a
prominent New York family and
attended Harvard University,
but he grew to love the
outdoors.
 In 1884, when Roosevelt was
26, both his mother and his
young wife died unexpectedly.
 Trying to forget his grief, he
returned to his ranch in Dakota
Territory, where he lived and
worked with cowboys.
 He returned to New York after
two years and entered politics.

26. Roosevelt’s View of the Presidency
 President William McKinley was shot and killed in
1901, leaving the office to Roosevelt.
 At 42 years old he was the youngest president and
an avid reformer.
From Governor
to Vice
President
 Roosevelt’s rise to governor of New York upset the
Republican political machine.
 To get rid of the progressive Roosevelt, party bosses
got him elected as vice president, a position with
little power at that time.
Unlikely
President
 Roosevelt saw the presidency as a bully pulpit, or a
platform to publicize important issues and seek
support for his policies on reform.
View of
Office

27. Theodore Roosevelt’s SQUARE DEAL
 Taking on Big Business
 Sued Northern Securities (RR TRUST)
 Striking Coal Miners
 Use arbitration to break strike and support the WORKERS!
 Interstate Commerce Commission power to set
railroad rates
 Elkins Act and Hepburn Act- amended the ICC to be
stronger on RR companies that offered big rebates to
“BIG” business
 Pure Food and Drug Act
 Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle
 Meat Inspection Act
 Avid conservationist
 Increased power of executive branch

29. Square Deal
•TR believed in the
“capitalistic system” but
believed that the system
must be regulated by US
Govt.
•TR was a Hamiltonian but
for the betterment of the
“common man” as opposed
to benefit the elite.
•TR believed the U.S. Government was running the country and
not the rich and corrupt industrialists….
•U.S. Government involvement with “regulatory
agencies”….Similar to “checks and balances”

30. MUCKRACKER:
• Investigative
• Ida Tarbell, was the foremost woman in the MUCKRACKING
MOVEMENT.
• She published a highly critical history of Standard Oil Co… calling it
the “MOTHER OF TRUSTS”
reporters who
promoted
social/political
reforms by exposing
corruption/urban
problems
• Leading critics of
Political bosses and
robber barrons

31. “How the Other Half Lives”-
Jacob Riis

32. Upton Sinclairs, The Jungle, exposed the filthy, unsanitary working
conditions and corruption in a meatpacking company in Chicago

33. Dismay Over Food and Drug Practices
Food
 Food producers used clever tricks to
pass off tainted foods:
 Dairies churned spoiled milk into
fresh butter.
 Dye was added to spoiled food to
disguise the rotting color
 Injuries happened often and
would overlooked at added to the
meat in some cases
 Poultry sellers added
formaldehyde, which is used to
embalm dead bodies, to old eggs
to hide their smell.
• Unwary customers bought the tainted
food thinking it was healthy.

36. •Pure Food and
Drug Act, 1906
•Federal inspection to all
packaged foods and drugs.
•Labels with medicine as well
as food.
•Contents of food and drug
packages must be listed
•All additives/chemicals must
be listed on labels.
•FDA today or Food and Drug
Administration
President Roosevelt proposed legislation to clean up the
meatpacking industry after reading The Jungle.
LEADS TO…. Meat Inspection Act

38. Teddy Roosevelt’s
Conservation Policy
•125,000 acres in reserve
•National Reclamation Act 1902
•25 water projects
•Founding of the National Park
System

40. •Preferred to avoid
Conflicts
•Big Supporter of
Competition
•Conservationist
•Federal Children’s Bureau
•Creation of a Dept. of
Labor
•8 hr. workday
•Mann-Elkins Act
•Aligns with Conservative
Republicans and splits
with Roosevelt’s
Goodness gracious, I must have been dozing Progressives.

41. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
March 25, 1911
 Women and children
burned alive
because there was
too many to fit in
stairwell and there
was not enough
exits
 Led to fire safety
codes for all
buildings- that
protected the
workers

43. •TR forms his own party called the Progressive “Bull
Moose Party”……..
•As a result, TR splits the Republican Party and
Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) will be elected.

44. Progressive
Movement ends
in 1917 with US
entrance into
WWI
Wilson’s time is
devoted to the
WWI instead of
the Progressive
Reforms.
•Worked to lower tariffs
•Created Federal Reserve system
Banks keep portion of deposits in
regional reserve bank and regulate
currency
•Federal Trade Commission
Regulate American businesses
Stop unfair trade practices
•Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
Banned employment of children under
age 14 in factories that made goods
for interstate trade
•Expanded role of president and federal
gov’t
•Was president during
World War I

45. •18th Amendment
•19th Amendment
•Civil Rights Act of
1875
TO REFORM:
TO FIX/CHANGE FOR THE
BETTER
Pendleton Act
• 19th Amend-
Women’s
Suffrage
•18th Amend-
Prohibition/
Temperance
•Child Labor
Reform
• Civil Rights Act
of 1875
•Pure Food and
Drug Act*
•National Parks!
(Reclamation Act
of 1902)
• Pendleton Act
•Direct Primaries
•Recall Elections
•Initiatives
•Referendums
•Zoning Laws
•17th Amend-
Direct Election of
Senators
•Federal Trade
Commission*
•Keating-Owen Child
Labor Act
•8 hour workday!
•Federal Trade
Commission- regulate
business
•Sherman ANTI-TRUST –
outlawing monopolies
•Food and Drug Act- FDA
(Food Drug Admin)
•Federal Reserve System-regulating
banks
•INTERSTATE COMMERCE
ACT/Commission
•Creation of Labor Dept