Cobblestone American History and Current Events for Kids and Children April 2017

Eric Arnesen, vice dean for faculty and administration, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, and James R. Hoffa Professor of Modern American Labor History, The George Washington University, is also the co-chair of the Washington History Seminar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. A specialist in the history of race, labor, politics, and civil rights, he is the author of two award-winning books, Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality and Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class, and Politics, 1863–1923, and the editor or co-editor of four other books. His scholarly articles have appeared in the American Historical Review, Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, Labor History, and other journals. He was a regular contributor to the Chicago Tribune, and…

At this moment,” declared President Theodore Roosevelt in April 1906, “we are passing through a period of great unrest—social, political, and industrial unrest.” Few Americans would disagree. Since the end of the Civil War (1861–1865) just four decades before, the nation had experienced enormous changes. It faced rapid industrial growth. It accepted large numbers of immigrants into the country. It saw the rise of huge corporations. It grappled with corruption scandals and waves of labor unrest. All these things made Americans uneasy about the future. But what could be done to address the nation’s many problems? And was it the government’s responsibility take action? On the answers to those questions, Americans disagreed. Roosevelt had no doubts about the matter—and for a national politician, his views were unusual. He insisted that…

For African Americans, the Progressive Era was anything but progressive. Decades earlier, the end of the Civil War in 1865 had promised emancipation in the United States. But as newly freed slaves discovered, abolishing slavery did not mean full equality. African Americans found themselves discriminated against, particularly in southern states, which upheld racial segregation. Former white slaveholders remained in control of the land and the economy in the South. Although the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870 had guaranteed black men the right to vote, white southerners stripped them of that right. They used terrorism and intimidation at polling places and established state “ disfranchisement ” laws. In his history of the decades that followed the Civil War, the black scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois summarized the process…

While Jane Addams was on a trip abroad in the 1880s, she was horrified to watch the sale of decaying fruits and vegetables to the poor. After visiting Toynbee Hall, the world’s first settlement house located in an impoverished section of London, England, she was inspired by the progressive work being done there. Addams realized that America had its share of poverty-stricken areas. In her home state of Illinois, the city of Chicago had grown quickly in the second half of the 1800s. Its rapid industrial growth had attracted large numbers of immigrants. Many of the newcomers lived in overcrowded conditions. With her friend Ellen Gates Starr, Addams decided to establish a residence in which privileged young women like her would get to know and assist working-class immigrants by living…

By the mid-1800s, Americans were consuming alcohol and hard liquor at alarming rates—at least according to some people. Also around that time, a religious revival swept across the nation. Its supporters, who hoped to define correct moral behavior, saw intoxicating liquor as the major root of the country’s many social problems. In response, many communities started temperance societies. At first, members signed pledges agreeing to limit the amount of alcohol they drank. As the reform movement grew in the 1840s, society members promised not to drink any alcohol at all. At the time, husbands and fathers were often a family’s sole wage earner. When men began to spend more time and money consuming alcohol, it created hardships for their families. A wife had no legal protection for herself or her…

When Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States in 1901, he used the power of the federal government to support an important movement in the Progressive Era: the protection of America’s natural resources. For most of the 1800s, moving westward and settling the nation’s western territory had been important to the growth of the United States. In that century, the nation seemed to have a limitless supply of natural resources. Large industries in lumber, mining, and hunting were established. Those businesses benefited from unchecked access to those resources. By the late 1800s, however, wasteful practices threatened to destroy the nation’s unique places and the wildlife and plants native to them. Environmentalists worried that the country’s natural spaces were disappearing. As a sportsman who appreciated the wilderness, Roosevelt was…