Progressivism Reform, 1880-1917 Flashcards
An urban aid society that served members of an ethnic immigrant group, usually those from a particular province or town. The societies functioned as fraternal clubs that collected dues from members in order to pay support in case of death or disability.
mutual aid society
A term for an attack on African Americans by white mobs, triggered by political conflicts, street altercations, or rumors of crime. In some cases, such “riots” were not spontaneous but planned in advance by a group of leaders seeking to enforce white supremacy.
race riot
A high-density, cheap, five- or six-story housing unit designed for working-class urban populations. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; became a symbol of urban immigrant poverty
tenement
A type of professional stage show popular in the 1880s and 1890s that included singing, dancing, and comedy routines; it created a form of family entertainment for the urban masses that deeply influenced later forms, such as radio shows and television sitcoms.
vaudeville theater
A form of American music that originated in the Deep South, especially from the black workers in the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta.
blues
A derogatory term for newspapers that specialize in sensationalistic reporting; associated with the inflammatory reporting by the Hearst and Pulitzer newspapers
yellow journalism
A critical term, first applied by Theodore Roosevelt, for investigative journalists who published exposés of political scandals and industrial abuses.
muckrakers
A highly organized group of insiders that directs a political party.
political machines
A political reform organization that advised cities to elect small councils and hire professional city managers who would direct operations like a corporate executive.
National Municipal League
A loose term for the cause of political reformers — especially those from the elite and middle classes — who worked to improve the political system, fight poverty, conserve environmental resources, and increase government involvement in the economy.
progressivism
A turn-of-the-twentieth-century movement that advocated landscape beautification, playgrounds, and more and better urban parks.
“City Beautiful” movement
A community welfare center that investigated the plight of the urban poor, raised funds to address urgent needs, and helped neighborhood residents advocate on their own behalf.
social settlement
One of the first and most famous social settlements, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and her companion Ellen Gates Starr in an impoverished, largely Italian immigrant neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side.
Hull House
A 1906 law regulating the conditions in the food and drug industries to ensure a safe supply of food and medicine.
Pure Food and Drug Act
Begun in New York, a national progressive organization that encouraged women, through their shopping decisions, to support fair wages and working conditions for industrial laborers.
National Consumer’s League
A labor organization for women founded in New York in 1903 that brought elite, middle-class, and working-class women together as allies; supported union organizing efforts among garment workers.
Women’s Trade Union League
A devastating fire that quickly spread through a factory building in New York City on March 25, 1911, killing 146 people. In the wake of the tragedy, fifty-six state laws were passed dealing with such issues as fire hazards, unsafe machines, and wages and working hours for women and children. The fire also provided a national impetus for industrial reform.
Triangle Fire
African-American composer and pianist; achieved fame for his ragtime compositions and was dubbed the King of Ragtime; wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas.
Scott Joplin
Danish-American social reformer, “muckraking” journalist and social documentary photographer; contributed to the cause of urban reform in America at the turn of the twentieth century; “How the Other Half Lives.”
Jacob Riis
an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator and author; was a notable figure in the history of social work and women’s suffrage in the United States and an advocate for world peace; Hull House
Jane Addams
an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse; popularized the term “birth control”, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Margaret Sanger
an American writer whose involvement with socialism led to a writing assignment about the plight of workers in the meatpacking industry, eventually resulting in the best-selling novel The Jungle
Upton Sinclair
one who sells something in a dishonest and aggressive way.
huckster
