Thesis Statement: Although progressives responded to the ills of inner cities and working-class immigrants with significant reforms, they mostly failed to address the horrors of Jim Crow rule in the South.
The first set of reforms, which sought to curb the social problems that plagued the United States during the Progressive Era, revolved around an understanding of the communities as a key component in providing the necessary solutions. According to Eric Foner, part of the changes encompassed improving the democratic government by not only “weakening the power of city bosses” but also giving the ordinary citizens more influence on legislation (545). After all, the people who understood the problems faced at the societal level were the best candidates in finding a solution. A perfect illustration of the presented claims is evident in the formation of the Socialist Party in 1901 (Foner 552). From their demands for free college education to the calls for improvement of working conditions for the laboring masses, socialists demanded immediate reform in all spheres of society. Economically, the group advocated the public ownership of “railroads and factories” as a means to ensure democratic control of the American economy (Foner 552). Similarly, the nature of local politics shifted with the new perceptions of the role of society. Rather than have mayors, many localities appointed city managers whose qualifications relied more on their levels of expertise than they did on their financial statuses and popularity (Foner 562).
With the given facts in mind, a look at the reforms that sought to change the conditions of the working-class immigrants highlights the progressives’ view of an active government as an enhancer of freedom and not a threat to the same. With a particular interest in President Woodrow Wilson’s 1912 penning of The New Freedom, it is impossible to overlook the Progressive Era as the point at which the federal government assumed an active role in elevating the country’s social problems. Case in point the section where the then Head of State informed his readers that Thomas Jefferson’s idea of a perfect government as one that did “as little governing as possible” was flawed and inapplicable in the twentieth century (Wilson). On the contrary, as Wilson argued, industrialization “without the watchful interference” of the government hindered “fair play between individuals and such powerful institutions as the trusts” (The New Freedom). Now, Wilson’s views did not emerge in 1912 the man merely voiced an ongoing perception of the federal government as one responsible for all persons residing on American soil. It was certainly within such circumstances that women reformers assumed a more active role than their counterparts did during the Gilded Age: if the government is responsible for all persons then “poor immigrant communities” were not an exception (Foner 562). That was why the enacting of “antitrust laws” to protect the right of workers to form and join unions favored immigrants directly (Foner 570).
Meanwhile, the white supremacist ideas that had made a Civil War necessary in the liberation of African Americans remained intact even during the Progressive Era; as a result, the Jim Crow laws in the Southern States were devoid of the reforms mentioned above. In Foner’s words, while the unions barred persons of African descent from joining, most of the “skilled employment” went to Caucasians or immigrants; in that sense, the black population did not enjoy the benefits of the “industrial freedom” that progressives sought (594). At the same time, white supremacists were keen to restrict persons of color in a permanent state of inferiority. Two factors came into play to define the color line after the abolition of slavery: lynching and segregation. Accordingly, between 1880 and 1950 alone, an estimated 5,000 black men and women died at the hands of a lynching mob, and during the same period, African Americans remained a disfranchised lot (Foner 522). Jim Crow laws in the South made the horrors inflicted upon the black populace a reality by encouraging the doctrine of “separate by equal”; apparently, the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson provided the necessary grounds for disfranchisement (Foner 521). Subsequently, as the progressives worked towards reforming the American societies, people of African ancestry did not make part of the beneficiaries.
Works Cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. 4th. Vol. II. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014. Print.
Wilson, Woodrow. "The New Freedom." 1912. The American Yawp Reader. Web. 1 January 2017. <http://www.americanyawp.com/reader/20-the-progressive-era/woodrow-wilson-on-the-new-freedom-1912/>.
