African Americans During The Progressive Era

Throughout much of American history, African Americans have been enslaved, feared, and loathed by white citizens. Despite gaining their freedom after the Civil War, African Americans continued to deal with racism, violence, and segregation. It wasn’t until the mid to late 20th century that blacks in America were granted equal rights. Many of us accredit the late Abraham Lincoln for the abolishment of slavery; though this was his initial plan before he was assassinated, we owe the credit to the late Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson was appointed after the death of Abraham Lincoln and even though he abolished slavery, he did not include slaves into his plan; but slaves were still free and deserved their rights of freedom. Both whites and blacks …show more content…
They wanted to get corruption out of politics, make state and local governments more efficient, regulate food and employee treatment, and bring justice to the working class. Though this was the basic means of progressivism, women played a major role during the era. Middle and upper class women wanted to become involved; they had degrees but no career options and were not allowed to work outside the home. However, due to municipal housekeeping, women were expected to bring their maternal instincts into society. Because they saw themselves being different from men, they believed they could take corruption out of …show more content…
Most of us know that it was due to the stock market crashing but it was among other factors like the structural weakness of the economy, over production, maldistribution of wealth and international crisis. After FDR was elected as president, he called for a New Deal for America. The New Deal was federal program like the WPA, which was supposed to help relieve the stress of prolonged employment by providing government jobs. In some cases the Great Depression and the New Deal did not mean much but to others it meant everything. For example Clifford Burke was interviewed and stated that there was no such thing as the Great Depression because the Negro was born into depression. He believed it only became official when the white man had to experience it. He felt like the a negro man had an advantage because their wives could go to the stores and by beans and cook them for her family but a white man could not do such because their wives would leave them. He also said that the PWA and WPA did not apply to him because he had his own hustle and saw no point in beating someone else out of a