Transcript Ch 16 Turn of the Century Life

Life at the Turn of
th
the 20 Century
Ch 16 Notes
16. 1: The Expansion of
Education
 Public Schools
 By Civil War, more than ½ of nation’s white children
were attending free public schools
 Many left at early age to work
 1870: only 2% of 17 yr olds graduated from high
school
 School year was November to April to help in fields
with farming
 People realized more schooling was required with
industrialization
 Pressured state govs to increase school funding, lengthen
the school year, and limit child labor
Education Cont.
 By 1900, 31 states had laws requiring
children between 8 and 14 to attend
school
 By 1910, nearly 72% of American
children attending school
 Graduation rate among 17 yr olds rose to
8.6%
Schools
 One-room schools
 Learned many lessons by rote
 Read aloud from texts called McGuffey
Readers
 Studied geography, history, grammar,
reading, writing, and mathematics
 Teachers disciplined with the threat of
physical punishment
Immigrants and Education
 Many immigrants valued American public
education as way for their children to become
successful Americans
 Wanted their children to be literate
 Not only children went to school
 Played important role in assimilating
immigrants (American cultural values, cook
American foods, play American sports/games)
 Some resisted Americanization
 Immigrant cultures mixed with American too
Uneven Support for
Schools
 Not everyone benefited equally
 Whites and African Americans were
segregated and African American schools
received less funding
 Mexican Americans and many Asians were
also separated and their schools got less $
 In 1900, only small percentage of Native
American children received any formal
schooling
High Education Expands
 Between 1880 and 1900 >150 new colleges
and universities opened
 Wealthy Americans endowed (gave $ or
property to) institutions of higher learning
 College enrollment >doubled between 1890
and 1910 (still small %)
 By 1915 some middle class families were
beginning to send their children to college
 Advanced education made US different
Women and Higher Ed
 Private women’s colleges opened like
New York’s Vassar College in 1865
 Increased pressure on men’s colleges to
admit women
 Many opened private schools for women like
Harvard opened Radcliffe College in 1879
 Coeducational opportunities also increased
Women’s ed continued
 Most scholarships went to men
 Women faced discrimination against
educating women
 Struggled to gain access to most statefunded institutions
 Faced prejudice within the colleges
African Americans and
Higher Education
 Only a few colleges accepted African
Americans
 In 1890 only 160 African Americans were
attending white colleges
 Some African American colleges opened
 Many accepted women but the number was
small because of financial issues
Perspectives on African
American Ed
 Booker T. Washington
 Teach skills and attitudes
that would help succeed
 Put aside desire for political
equality and prove economic
security
 Vocational education
 Will get white acceptance
eventually
 W.E.B. DuBois
 First African American to
earn PhD from Harvard
 Brightest African Americans
must step forward and lead
their people in quest for
political and social equality
and civil rights
 Seek liberal education not
just vocational
 Founded Niagara Movement
that called for full civil
liberties and end to racial
discrimination
 Worked with NAACP for long
time
16.3: World of Jim Crow
 Post-Reconstruction Discrimination
 Voting Restrictions:
 Poll tax
 Literacy tests
 Grandfather clauses meant to get poor white vote
back
 Segregation
 De facto: result of custom
 Jim Crow laws (many in South but all over)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
 Supreme Court upheld many Jim Crow
laws
 “Separate but equal” doctrine
 Segregation is ok as long as it’s separate
but equal
 Separate was NOT equal
Violence Broke Out
 System of customs or etiquette required
black people to show deference to white
people
 Small breaches of this could lead to serious
trouble for African Americans like losing their
jobs or being subjected to violence
Lynching
 Murder of an accused person by a mob
without a lawful trial
 Estimated 1,200 black people lynched
between 1882 and 1892
 Sometimes included a mock trial
 Sometimes body was mutilated before being
hanged or shot up
 Those who did it were rarely punished
 Most were in South but some in North
Race Relations in North
 Not perfect
 Many African Americans moved there to
escape violence and legal segregation
 Found de facto discrimination instead in
schools, housing, and employment
 Race riots in NYC in 1900 and
Springfield, IL in 1908
Resisting Discrimination
 Black leaders began to find new approaches to
race problems
 Some supported emigration to Africa
 Niagara Movement: under Du Bois in 1905 to
denounce all discrimination
 NAACP formed in 1909 to abolish segregation
and discrimination, to oppose racism, and to
gain civil rights for African Americans
 Works primarily through courts
 First real victory in 1915 when Supreme Court
declared grandfather clauses unconstitutional
Overcoming Obstacles
 Early 1900s African American mutual aid
and benefit societies multiplied
 Young Men’s and Young Women’s
Christian Associations developed
separate programs for African American
youth
 National Urban League (1911) improved
job opportunities and housing for blacks
Continued…
 Intellectuals published literature, history,
and groundbreaking sociological studies
 George Washington Carver became known
for scientific and agricultural research at
Tuskegee Institute
 American Negro Academy est in 1897
 Black-owned businesses were est
 Washington founded National Negro
Business League in 1900 to help
Still more…
 Madam C.J. Walker spoke at annual meeting
of Negro Business League in 1912
 Developed a successful business styling hair for
African American women, opened mail-order
business for hair products, and est a chain of beauty
parlors and training schools
 Moved to NYC and African American leaders
gathered in her home
 Gave speeches for black welfare, education, and civil rights
16.2: New Forms of
Entertainment
 Vaudeville: inexpensive variety show
 Minstrel Show: perpetuated racial stereotypes
 Movies (nickelodeons)
 Charlie Chaplin
 Circus
 Amusement Parks
 Sports (baseball, horse racing, boxing, football,
basketball)
 Some for women too
What were people
reading?
 Newspapers
 Yellow journalism: sensationalistic
 Joseph Pulitzer: St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the
New York World
 William Randolph Hearst: New York Journal
 Magazines
 Cosmopolitan
 Popular Fiction
 Huck Finn
Musical Diversions
 African American Spirituals
 Folk songs performed for white audiences
 Ragtime and Jazz
 Ragtime: originated in South and Midwest
 Jazz: originated in New Orleans
 Became VERY popular
 Music at Home
 player piano, phonograph (birth of music biz)
16.4: Changing Roles of
Women
 Work in the Home
 Less physically demanding and time
consuming
 Vacuums, canned foods
 Becoming Consumers
 Departments stores: Macy’s in NYC
 Rural free delivery (RFD)
 Mail-order catalogs (Sears Roebuck and Co)
Working Outside the Home
 1870: nearly 2 mill women/girls worked
outside the home
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Many were single
Domestic work (servants)
Factory work (16-24)
Nurses or teachers
Clerical work (typists)
Few physicians, ministers, and lawyers
Volunteering
 During Civil War volunteer work needed
 Continued afterward
 Organizations for intellectual and social
reasons
 Groups combined into national associations
 Women’s Christian Temperance Assoc.
 National American Woman Suffrage Assoc.
New Ideas
 Women wanted economic and political
rights
 Dress and behavior changed: shorter
hairstyles, higher hemlines, skirts and
blouses
 Courting and Marriage customs changed
 Higher expectations of fulfillment
 Divorce rate rose