Social Movement: The Progressive Movement

The Progressive Movement began in 1901 and ended in 1917. It started as a social movement to fix social, economic and political problems and turned into a political movement that changed the nation, and the main objective was to eliminate corruption within the government. The issues that they worked on included, but were not limited to women’s suffrage, prohibition, Native American issues, child labor, workers compensation, direct elections, and political reforms. The Progressive Movement shaped the United States into the nation it is today, without it women still would not be able to vote, prohibition would probably still be in affect, Native Americans would not be United States citizens, labor laws would not have been established, and business …show more content…
When the United States was founded, only white men were allowed to vote and elect representatives and political leaders into government positions. Over the years these laws changed, allowing African Americans to also vote in 1807 after the 15th amendment to the constitution was added. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many women were demanding suffrage, or the right to vote. This finally happened in 1920, when the Progressive Movement ended. Prohibition was another major issue that added to the cause of the Progressive Movement. For many of the social reformers, alcohol was a social evil that caused the breakdown of marriages, violence and abuse. There were many in the country that wanted to prohibit liquor, because without alcohol they thought the nation would become better as a whole but it did quite the opposite. Prohibition began in 1920 and ended in 1933; it was so short lived because it created large-scale organized crime, and made the United Stated less of a nation, instead of making it better like it was planned to …show more content…
These two forms of communication were used greatly throughout the Progressive Movement because of the time era they were in. Other ways of communication used throughout the Progressive Movement were newspapers and journals. Reform-minded American journalists who wrote mainly for popular magazines were given the name muckrakers. They relied on investigative journalism reporting; they worked to expose social troubles and corporate, economic and political corruption in the United States. As mentioned before Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair were very famous muckrackers known for their work in magazines such as McClure’s of publisher S.S. McClure. Muckrackers raised awareness of social, economic and political issues, which led to the formation of reform groups across the