Progressive Era Reform:

African Americans

Obstacles

• South: poverty, poor education, discrimination, lack of voting power, lynch mobs, literacy tests

• North: lowest paying jobs, run-down housing & schools, little political influence

• Result: African American communities relied on each other, and included black-owned businesses, schools, and music

Two Different Approaches

Booker T. Washington

• Tuskegee Institute• Atlanta Exposition Speech, 1895- vocational

skills• Prove their economic value end racism• Racism was a result of slavery• “Gradualism”- patience, don’t confront

oppression• Up From Slavery, 1901

W.E.B. DuBois• 1st African American to graduate from Harvard• Liberal arts education & demand same opportunities for

blacks

• Racism slavery • The Souls of Black Folk, 1903• Niagara Movement 1905 led to NAACP, 1909• Organized public protest and initiated legal action

against racism- “confrontationalism”

• Called Washington “Uncle Tom”

Few Gains Made:

• TR blasted by critics for allowing Washington to dine at White House- TR never publicly supported blacks again

• Great Migration resulted in race riots in the North• Lynchings continued between 1890 and 1920• Gains:

– NAACP– Black illiteracy cut in half– Black ownership of land increased 10%

Madame C.J. Walker: 1st Black Millionaire