What Animated the Progressive Movement 

There was once a time were America wasn’t a pleasant place if you were an ambitious individual. Before the terminology ‘American dream’ you could argue that the quality of life was below average. When the people of the united states took note of the fact that the government is using its power for its own benefit during the early 1900’s made the people rise their eye brows. During the Gilded Age there was several events, people were to a certain extent complained about the industrial capitalism coming to its own, which led to the rise of the progressive movement.

sheltering people was what society wanted more of as well as lowering the power that business had at the time.

Known as the most important political groupings. According to the American yawn; Black Americans struggling for equality, women fighting for their independence and having a larger role in social movement and people asking for higher wages were some of the issues that progressives tried to resolve during the time overlapping the gilded age.

The term progressive implies ‘progress’ in other words the transition to freedom and justice for all. The whole goal was to solve these problems and be a role model as a country and through the constitutional amendments reformers were able to form a blueprint to resolve the problems in the society.

Above all of that, the progressive era required that the extreme wealth going to the small 5 percent of the power in which giant co-operations received, was what civilisation saw as negligent.

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The combination of the two meant that opportunities to build or maintain wealth was not equal in the United States and the increase of this prior to the movement threatened the freedom of people to live life.

The triangle Shirtwaist fire was an important event as it was the tipping stone which force America to restructure. Religious leaders, journalist and activist all joined voices to make sure that their voices could be heard and exposed the filth of society business practises, poverty and corruption and economic malfeasance. Throughout that period, workers would risk their life as they had to spend more time in factories than with their families, combine more jobs being available with the increase in immigration cause diseases to spread, services plummeted, and clean water wasn’t available to everyone. The primary mission of the Progressive Era was force a change in the office, change society, move forward as a nation and progress.

Women however, were still not able to participate in the movement. As a result, women like Carrie Chapman would form their own group through churches and moral reforms to demand the right to vote. Members of the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) voiced “What the woman who labours wants is the right to live, not simply exist” this quote verifies the fact that men didn’t respect the presents of women, that they should stay at home taking care of the children and be in the kitchen while they would be working or enjoying themselves. Prior the movement women accepted the role they played in culture until they joined forces.

With the momentum of the progressive movement, Women’s voices started being heard and started to cover more topics such as wanting to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol. It was believed that it was the reason behind laziness and violent behaviour and in 1919, it became the 18th Amendment to not produce nor sell alcohol. Frances Willard changed the approach of women by embracing a “do everything” mentally; in other words, anything to improve social welfare and advance women rights was protested for. According to the American Yawn, once president Woodrow Wilson appointed office the women suffrage was recognised, known as the Nineteenth Amendment, granted women the rights to vote and forbade any suffrage margins due on gender. While there was a separation in society both genders could see the effects of the movement, they could see the results of the work and fight they put in as the United States was changing and becoming more industrial and urban.

The treatment that African Americans received during the times was a big factor that needed fixing. The plight of African Americans was consistently abandon as they were constantly facing racism whether it be separation from public environments, exclusion from political process, the access to healthcare, education and housing conditions. The entry of the Jim Crow law came with a huge effect as it somewhat cause conflict in the southern area, starting with the disenfranchisement of African Americans (The Fifteenth Amendment) the fact that it was now illegal it caused an outrage on the people of the south. To fight this, just like the Women, African Americans would come together to battle for equal rights and emerge to expose. Booker T. Washington, a former slave insisted that the American Africans from the south emphasized their skills to enable them to make them successful in the modern economy as this was a way that a mutual relationship could grow since they are useful through the recognition of growing economy while they lived in separate worlds. On top of that, there was W.E.B DuBois, someone who wanted equal opportunities, which again received many supports. Eventually he formed the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).

This led to the case of Plessy v. Ferguson which resulted the supreme court removed the 14th and 15th amendment. Booker T. Washington addressed the whites “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” This quote tells me that while there was a long history of evil treatment from the whites towards to the blacks he was bold enough to forgive that and take a step in the direction of being one.

Another problem that needed solving was Child labour, they had been vital in the working industry as you could pay little for a lot of work, however, due to industrialisation children at the time had been exposed to terrible working conditions but this was more of a reason to keep them working as they were able to fit through holes and pipelines that adult couldn’t. to build upon that, children couldn’t join forces like how the women could, thanks to reformers they would be a voice for the children but there was small change as businesses still had unheard of control over society. The great depression was an event where the country saw its worst economic crash, this force a real change in the structure of the workforce, the large number of people not having a job organisation would voice to end child labour as it would open more jobs for the adults. Law makers then adapted the practise and decided to limit working hours, improving conditions of the workplace and increase awareness on the importance of education.

There no doubt that the Progressive movement was a transformative event in the American culture. The quality of life in the United States was growing rapidly. With the growth of modern capitalism themes of political, economic and cultural questions had to be answered, marking the end of the old order and beginning of a new appropriate for the new industrial contemporary age. Yet, it wasn’t perfect. African Americans and other ethnicities would still face struggles due to racism. The progressive movement did seek change in this, but now other features added on top of it whether it be ethical or moral issues, African Americans just seem to always have it the hard way. To out everything in a sum, the Progressive movement was a release of tension between the government and the population, they could now see eye to eye be an example as a nation to other countries.