Chapter 19 yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Tweed, William M.

"Boss" Tweed, a New York City commissioner, headed Tammany Hall, the city's powerful Democratic party machine. He was eventually tried, convicted, and jailed for fraud.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A Supreme Court case in 1896 that established the doctrine of "separate but equal" and upheld a Louisiana law requiring that blacks and whites occupy separate rail cars. The Court applied it to schools in Cumming v. County Board of Education (1899). The doctrine was finally overturned in 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

A federal law that forbade discrimination on public conveyances (transportation) and guaranteed African Americans "full and equal enjoyment" of such conveyances. It represented one of the last efforts on the part of the federal government to enforce civil rights

Civil Rights Cases

A group of cases in 1883 in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment barred state governments from discriminating on the basis of race but did not prevent private individuals or organizations from doing so. The ruling dealt a major blow to the Republican party's earlier efforts to provide protection for African Americans.

new immigration

America's "new" immigrants in the late nineteenth century came predominantly from southern and eastern Europe. They came in unprecedented numbers and were usually poor, non-Protestant peasants.

American Protective Association

American nativists, who disliked Catholics and minority groups, organized the American Protective Association in 1887. It tried to limit immigration and block the upward mobility of newly arrived "new" immigrants.

Bellamy, Edward

Bellamy wrote the utopian novel "Looking Backward" in 1887. The book envisioned America in the future as a completely socialized society where all were equal.

case workers

Case workers were a new class of professional social workers who emerged in the late nineteenth century. They were dedicated to studying and alleviating the conditions of the poor.

Mugwumps

Drawing their members mainly from among the educated and upper class, these reformers crusaded for lower tariffs, limited federal government, and civil service reform to end political corruption. They were best known for their role in helping to elect Grover Cleveland to the presidency in 1884.

Du Bois, W. E. B.

Du Bois was a more militant spokesman for blacks at the turn of the twentieth century than was Booker T. Washington. He disagreed with Washington's accommodationist posture and called upon blacks to insist on equal rights. He was a founder of the NAACP and editor of its journal, "The Crisis."

Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Founded by Francis E. Willard, this organization campaigned to end drunkenness and the social ills that accompanied it. The largest women's organization in the country, by 1898 it had 10,000 branches and 500,000 members. The WCTU illustrated the large role women played in politics and reform long before they won the right to vote

National American Woman Suffrage Association

Founded by Susan B. Anthony in 1890, this organization worked to secure women the right to vote. While some suffragists urged militant action, it stressed careful organization and peaceful lobbying. By 1920 it had nearly two million members.

Gladden, Washington

Gladden was the most influential preacher of the Social Gospel. In "Applied Christianity" (1886) he defended labor's right to organize and strike. Though he was not a socialist, Gladden nevertheless called for government regulation of industry and other economic and social reforms.

George, Henry

Henry George wrote "Progress and Poverty" in 1879. It was an attack on the maldistribution of wealth in the United States. He advocated a single tax on land as the solution to the growing gap between rich and poor.

Riis, Jacob

In 1890, journalist Jacob Riis wrote "How the Other Half Lives" to expose the unhealthy conditions of tenement life in New York City.

Addams, Jane

Jane Addams's Hull House in Chicago was the most famous settlement house in America. Like other settlement houses, it provided social services and practical education to those they served, most of whom were poor immigrants.

political machine

Late-nineteenth-century political "bosses" headed political "machines"—loose-knit neighborhood organizations headed by antireform and often corrupt politicians. They often provided useful services for their constituents, usually immigrants ignorant of democratic processes, in return for political support.

settlement houses

Located in poor districts of major cities, these were community centers that tried to soften the impact of urban life for immigrant and other families. Often run by young, educated women, they provided social services and a political voice for their neighborhoods. Chicago's Hull House, founded by Jane Addams in 1889, became the most famous of the settlement houses.

nativist

Many Americans reacted strongly against the flood of "new" immigrants from southern and eastern Europe after 1880. They were repelled by the "strangeness" of those in this new wave of immigration. Nativists also denounced Catholics and other minority groups, tried to keep them out of the best jobs, and discouraged their efforts to climb the social ladder

Moody, Dwight L.

Moody was a lay evangelist who urged slum dwellers to cast aside their sinful ways. He preached that faith in God would enable the poor to transcend the material difficulties of life.

social Darwinism

Natural scientist Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was adapted by some to apply to business and social relationships. The "fittest" business or individual would succeed if left unrestricted. Social Darwinism promoted the values of competition and individualism.

settlement houses

Settlement houses were community centers located in poor urban districts of major cities. Single, young, college-educated women usually ran them. They tried to Americanize immigrant families and provided social services and a political voice for their neighborhoods.

Sullivan, Louis

Sullivan, a leading architect of skyscrapers in the late nineteenth century, stressed the need for building designs that followed function. His works combined beauty, modest cost, and efficient use of space.

Sumner, William Graham

Sumner was an academic advocate of social Darwinism in the United States. He contended that government action or reform efforts to aid the poor or weak tampered with the laws of nature, interfered in evolution, and sapped the species.

Comstock Law

The 1873 Comstock Law prohibited the mailing or transporting of "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" articles. It was interpreted to apply to information on birth control, and birth control advocate Margaret Sanger was arrested for violating it

Social Gospel

The Social Gospel, preached by many urban Protestant ministers, focused on improving living conditions for the urban poor rather than on saving souls. They advocated civil-service reform, child-labor laws, government regulation of big business, and a graduated income tax.

Veblen, Thorstein

Veblen, a late-nineteenth-century economist, accused big business and government of corrupting higher education by stressing practical over humanistic values, and using universities for business and political purposes.

Washington, Booker T.

Washington was a former slave who founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1881. He believed blacks could advance by their own efforts and white help, and by accommodating white prejudice. Whites considered him a "reasonable" spokesman of black interests in America

precinct captain

a political leader of the ward, precinct, or neighborhood level, subordinate to the "boss."

behavioral

a school of social or psychological studies founded on facts of human behavior.

wards

administrative and political districts of a city

census

an official counting of the population and its constituent groups

philanthropy

charitable donation or action

land-grant institutions

colleges and universities established with large tracts of land granted to states by the federal government under the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862.

mores

customs of a group or society that are considered so important that they usually have legal sanction

dogmatism

insistent support for principles treated as truths

common law

law based on court decision and custom, as opposed to written, statutory law.

chattel

movable, personal property

"boss"

one who controls a political organization

Victorian

pertaining to reign of England's Queen Victoria (1837-1901) or to its stuffy, prudish morality

mortality

the death rate, usually expressed as a ratio of the number of deaths to the total population

nuclear family

the immediate family of father, mother, and children