Essay On The Progressive Era

The Progressive Era (1890s to 1920s) saw the rise of the Progressive movement, a reform movement that arose in response to the negative effects of industrialization; progressive reformers sought to regulate private industry, strengthen protections for workers and consumers, expose corruption in both government and big business, and improve society. On the surface, the Progressive movement was successful because reformers influenced the passage of substantive legislation, however, the tendency of Progressives to promote discriminatory policies and espouse intolerant ideas that infringed upon the rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, makes it difficult to classify the entirety of the movement as a success. Progressive reformers …show more content…
The 19th Amendment granted women the right of suffrage, thus allowing them to have increased political involvement and ending the infringement upon their right to the pursuit of happiness. Despite their successes in passing legislation and accomplishing their political goals, Progressives governments, for example the Wilson administration, pursued racial policies that culminated in a segregated federal government and resulted in a revival of the Ku Klux Klan as well as a violent and racist backlash against the economic and political gains of Black Americans in the post-Reconstruction era. Progressive reformers also favored restrictions on immigrants and spouted xenophobic rhetoric that blamed immigrants for low wages and harsh working conditions; in line with their racist and xenophobic tendencies, progressives championed eugenics, “the science of better breeding” and believed they could improve the genetic condition of humanity by preventing the “undesirables” (lower classes, ethnic minorities, recent immigrants, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled,