Aspect Of The Progressive Era

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American history from 1900-1920 is referred to as the Progressive Era. It involved many reforms that changed America for the better. It also involved some attempts at reforms that didn’t quite fall through. In just twenty years, parts of America’s economy and government drastically changed such as the end of bad trusts and the fight for women’s suffrage. Others, such as child labor and racial acceptance, stayed unaffected despite reforming efforts. Modern day America definitely shows many aspects of the Progressive Era but some of its privileges were just too drastic to change at the time.
The progressive era was a hit and miss situation. A definite miss was that of racial acceptance. Both socially and politically, African Americans were treated with discontent and bitterness. WWI began on July 28th, 1914. A military draft was put underway to ensure victory for America. Over 350,000 African Americans fought proudly and died for their country. They expected to return home maybe not as heroes, but as equals to their Caucasian counterparts. When the war ended on November 11th, 1918, African Americans returned home to see nothing had changed. W.E.B. Dubois wrote “For the America that represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality and devilish insult- for this, in the hateful upturning and mixing of things, we were forced by vindictive fate to also fight.” They had just finished fighting for European acceptance and to end violence just to return to find it on their own soil. (Doc I) One progressive success was that of Women’s Suffrage.
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At the time the United States was founded, women did not have even close to the same rights as men. “...married women couldn’t own property and had no legal claim to any money they might earn, and no female had the right to vote. Women were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, not politics.” By the 1900s, women were on the offensive. Iron Clawed Angels, is a movie that shows some of the hardships that women faced in their fight for the vote. The protagonists, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, created the National Women’s Party to gain support. They protested with marches, letters, and even standing silently outside the White House. The protesters were arrested for obstructing traffic and taken to jail. They refused to eat which made them known as the “Iron Jawed Angels.” Eventually, President Woodrow Wilson decided to support women's suffrage. 36 states needed to vote “yes” in order to put the 19th Amendment into the Constitution. Tennessee was the 36th vote to finalize women’s suffrage on August 18th, 1920. A large step towards a brighter future was taken by America that day. Another failed reform attempt was that against child labor. As expected, the idea of banning child labor was vigorously battled by large companies such as textile mills and coal mines. Children were an easy source of cheap labor so there was no surprise that large trusts supported it. What some didn’t notice was that some families and children were completely endorsed it as well. When Roland Dagenhart’s fourteen year old son was not allowed to work in a textile mill, he believed that it violated the 10th amendment. It was take to the Supreme Court and it was found that congress had no power under the Commerce

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