Social Reform #7

Early Civil Rights MovementAfrican Americans were still fighting for basic rights guaranteed to them in the Constitution

Problems African Americans Faced

• Voter Restrictions– Poll Tax – Pay a fee to vote

– Literacy Test – prove you could read & write to vote

– Grandfather Clause – exempts a group of people from obeying a law provided they met certain conditions before law was passed

Problems African Americans Faced

• Jim Crow Laws – System of laws that segregated public services by race

Problems African Americans Faced

• Plessy v. Ferguson – “Separate but Equal” (1896)– Supreme Court ruled

against Homer Plessy saying segregation was legal as long as separate facilities were equal

Problems African Americans Faced

• Lynching – mob’s illegal seizure & execution of a person, usually by hanging

African American Leaders

• Booker T. Washington – encouraged African Americans to become educated & learn a trade

• Wanted to work slowly and diligently towards rights – nothing radical

African American Leaders

• W.E.B. DuBois – encouraged Top 10% of African Americans to attend college & become leaders;

Also started the N.A.A.C.P.

African American Leaders

• NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People–Worked through courts to gain

equal rights for African Am.

Our Progressive Presidents

Theodore Roosevelt

• Republican• Youngest President• Took office after

McKinley was assassinated

• BIG PERSONALITY

What Does TR Do?

• Led fight to dissolve 40 monopolies and became known as “trust buster“

• Promised a “Square Deal" or a fair shake for the average citizen – it includes:– regulation of railroad rates and pure

foods and drugs. – promotion of the conservation

movement, emphasizing efficient use of natural resources.

William Howard Taft

• Republican• Promised to

continue TR’s ideas• Tried but lacked

TR’s energy

Our Progressive Presidents

William Taft• Initiated 80 antitrust suits (more than

TR!)• Established the Interstate Commerce

Commission to set railroad rates• Submitted to the states amendments

for a Federal income tax and the direct election of Senators

1912 Election

Woodrow Wilson• Anti-trust legislation

established a Federal Trade Commission to prohibit unfair business practices.

• Laws prohibiting child labor; another limited railroad workers to an eight-hour day.

Our Progressive Presidents