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Period: to
Social Changes from 1865 - 1929
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Social Darwinism
Darwin's theory of evolution was greatly misinterpreted when social classes used the rhetoric to justify a lack of social services or an increase in racial bias. The widespread belief in scientific evidence did not, however, deter the NAACP from pushing back against social class divides. Graphics were used to show that different races were genetically inferior and to establish that the wealthy deserved their wealth through survival of the fittest, making social relief unnecessary. -
Lynch Law in All Its Phases
The definitive text by Ida B. Wells written to negate the allegations that African American men were sexual predators towards white women. Her focus on the racial defamation of men in the southern United States helped to bridge the gap between races that led to the NAACP. It also helped to establish the misrepresentation of relations that were promulgated by the rising re-establishment of the KKK in the southern United States. -
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
This controversial piece of literature exposed the dangerous, decrepit, and depressive lifestyle that many poor laborers had to work in during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Focusing on northern factory conditions and the communities that surrounded them, the graphic details in Sinclair's work highly influenced the legislature that would establish the FDA and Meat Inspection Act. As most of these laborers were minorities and immigrants, their equal treatment became a large part of social reform -
FDA
Theodore Roosevelt established the Food and Drug Administration in 1906 as a response to increased union pressures and poor working conditions for laborers. Roosevelt's trust busting agenda from 1890 to 1903 exposed many of the unsafe and immoral practices of big businesses that cut corners on safety, cleanliness, and employee health. Today the FDA is a regulatory agency that ensures safe work conditions, the purity of food and drug products, and proper testing of marketed materials. -
Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916
This act began to establish that children should not be working in factory conditions, whereas previously whole families worked together. As was written in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, child injury and death in factories was common due to poor working conditions and long work days with little benefit. The act would be put down in the Supreme Court but initiated a precedent for future court cases. These would lead to our now modern day Child Labor Laws. -
19th Amendment
The final Constitutional Amendment of the early 1900s gave women the right to vote. After their many struggles with other minority group efforts, women had the basic right to have a voice in politics. This would be the last major civil rights act until after both world wars. Even though discrimination would still exist, women now had federal enforcement for their rights.
