Chapter 8 Life at the Turn of the 20 th Century. Science and Urban Life.

Chapter 8

Life at the Turn of the 20th Century

Science and Urban Life

Technology and City Life

• SKYSCRAPERS

• Two factors that helped design taller buildings• Invention of elevators• Development of

internal steel skeletons

• Skyscraper• The Flatiron Building

• ELECTRIC TRANSIT

• Changes in transportation• Electric streetcars • Elevated trains• Subways

• AIRPLANES

• Orville and Wilbur Wright design a biplane• December 17, 1903

– the flight took place in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

• Covered 120 feet and lasted 12 seconds

Expanding Public Education

Expanding Public Education

• SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN

• 1865-1895 – states require 12 to 16 weeks annually of school attendance by students between the ages of 8 and 14

• Patterns in public education differed sharply for white and black students

• THE GROWTH OF HIGH SCHOOLS

• Economy – demands advanced technical and managerial skills• 1900 – half a million students attend high school

• Vocational courses prepare graduates for industrial and office jobs

• RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

• African Americans – mostly excluded from public secondary education• 1890 – less than 1

percent of black teenagers attended high school

• Two-thirds of the students went to private schools

• EDUCATION FOR IMMIGRANTS

• Immigrants are encouraged to go to school• Free public schools “Americanize” immigrants• Private Catholic schools

• Night school for adults• Learn English• Qualify for American

citizenship

Segregation and Discrimination

African Americans Fight Legal Discrimination

• VOTING RESTRICTIONS

• Southern states impose voting restrictions and denied legal equality to African Americans• Literacy test• Poll tax

• The grandfather clause

• JIM CROW LAWS

• 1870s and 1880s, Southern states passed racial segregation laws• Separate white and

black people in public and private facilities

• Racial segregation in schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems

• PLESSY v. FERGUSON

• U.S. Supreme Court tests the constitutionality of segregation

• 1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson• Separation of races in

public accommodations was legal and did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment

• “Separate but equal”

Turn-of-the-Century Race Relations

• VIOLENCE

• Lynching's

• 1882-1892 – 1,400 African-American were shot, burned, or hanged without trial

• DISCRIMINATION IN THE NORTH

• African Americans migrate to the North in search for a better life• Segregated

neighborhoods• Discrimination in the

workplace

• New York City race riot of 1900

Discrimination in the West

• MEXICAN WORKERS

• Mexicans construct rail lines in the Southwest

• Mexicans were vital to mining and agriculture in the Southwest

• Debt peonage

The Dawn of Mass Culture

American Leisure

• AMUSEMENT PARKS • Large cities establish

space for outdoor enjoyment• The roller coaster

and Coney Island• The first Ferris

wheel – at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893

• BICYCLING AND TENNIS

• 1885 – first commercially successful “safety bicycle”• Emancipated women

across America

• Tennis • Originated in North

Wales in 1873• Became a popular

middle class sport

• BASEBALL

• 50 baseball clubs in the mid-1860s

• Formation of different leagues• The National League in 1876• The American League in 1900

• African-American Leagues

The Spread of Mass Culture

• MASS CIRCULATION NEWSPAPERS

• American newspapers use sensational headlines• Joseph Pulitzer and

the New York World

• William Randolph Hearst and the New York Morning Journal

New Ways to Sell Goods

• URBAN SHOPPING

• The nation’s first shopping center opened in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1890• Four levels of

jewelry, leather goods, and stationery shops

• THE DEPARTMENT STORE

• Marshall Field of Chicago brings the department store concept to America

• Field’s motto • “Give the lady what she wants”

• THE CHAIN STORE

• Retail stores offering the same merchandise under the same ownership• 1870s – F. W. Woolworth sells for a very low price• 1911 – 596 stores

sell merchandise worse more than a million dollars

• ADVERTISING

• Medicines accounts for the largest number of advertising lines

• Newspapers and magazines used to push products

• CATALOGS AND RFD

• Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck• Ward’s catalog• Sears catalog

• 1910 – 10 million Americans shop by mail

• Rural free delivery