Social Reform #6, cont.Unsafe Working Conditions/Child Labor

– Fewer Hours

– Higher Wages

– Safer Factories

– Unions

Mar. 25, 1911

• The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory operated on the top 3 floors of the 10 story Asche Building in New York City

• Notice that the tallest ladders owned by the fire dept. only reach the 6th floor

• In 1911, Unsafe working

conditions lead to a deadly fire

• Rather than burn alive in the swift moving fire, many women jump from windows

• This is actually a photo of the building after the fire! Note how there is very little damage on the outside of the building

•

Eight months after the fire, a jury acquitted the factory owners, of any wrong doing.

• Twenty-three individual civil suits were brought against the owners of the Asch building. On March 11, 1913, three years after the fire, the owners settled. They paid 75 dollars per life lost.

• This tragedy led to a push for comprehensive safety and workers compensation laws.

Final Survivor• Rose Freedman• 18 years old

(2 days away)

• Died February 2001 at the age of 107.

• Escaped by climbing up onto the roof

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:– Development of the FDA– Conservation of land

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 for review amendments for

a Federal income tax and the direct election of Senators

1912 Election

Woodrow Wilson

• Democrat

• Prohibits child labor.

• Calls for an eight-hour day for railroad workers.

• Eventually supports Women’s Suffrage.

Our Progressive Presidents