Roy Stryker: Reform Movements

Progressivism was a social movement before it was a political movement. The words that best exemplify this are by John D. Rockefeller whom stated that, “Failures which a man makes in his life are due almost always to some defect in his personality, some weakness of body, mind, or character, will, or temperament.” This statement will eventually lead to become an ironic statement for the middle-class workers of the 19th century. It seemed to echo in the minds of many as people would watch the rich leave behind frugality, self-discipline, and charity within their separate lives full of care-free, enticing enjoyment. It would seem that the beginning of the Progressive era began with John D. Rockefeller and his “observation” of the causes of human

Paul C. Light’s (2006) article, “The Tides of Reform Revisited: Patterns in Making Government Work, 1945-2002”, has revealed to the readers how the current landscape of administrative reorganization is and how the sphere is gradually being dominated by four major competing ideas, viz. scientific management, the war on waste, the watchful eye, and liberation management. Light (2006), has explained how at the very heart of the American reform policies lays the four tides of reform ingrained with four philosophies. Light (2006) has stated that “the Constitution contains harbingers of all four “tides,” or philosophies, of administrative reform that populate the federal statute books today. It spoke to the logical of scientific management by creating a single executive with tight day-to-day control over the officers and departments of government. It laid basis for future wars on waste by requiring an annual accounting of expenditures and revenue while reserving the appropriation power for Congress.” Light (2006) has also stated that, the Constitution also “emphasized the need for a watchful eye on government excess through an elegant system of checks and balances. And it invented future efforts to liberate government from excessive regulation by vesting all executive powers in the president.” It is noteworthy that, Light (2006) has tried to make the readers understand how in the recent decades, all the four tides have accelerated in pace and intensity and how such acceleration

The Progressive movement occurred after the civil war moving into the 20th Century and into the first World War. It focused on four main goals: Cleaning up politics, limiting power of big businesses, reducing poverty, and promoting social justice. In this paper, I will show some of the attempts to accomplish these goals, and some of the failures of the movements.

During the Progressive Era, many citizens attempted to stop the racism within former confederate states by exposing the horrors of the wrongdoings, through speeches, protests, literature and other means of expression, who were known as progressives. One progressive, Ida B. Wells. helped to expose lynchings and racial discrimination through the use of bold and clear literature. Another, Booker T. Washington, believed that blacks should become more economically independent, so that discrimination will eventually cease. W.E.B. Dubois, another progressive, wanted and expressed instant racial equality through the use of forming groups and classic literature.

The validity of the statement, “Reform movements in the United States sought to expand democratic ideals” can be assessed regarding many reformations in the time period of 1825-1850 including the American temperance movement, the women’s rights movement, and the abolitionist reform. All of which very much expanded core democratic ideology, such as equality, liberty for all, and the pursuit of happiness. All these reforms share the qualities necessary to attempt to make the United States a more civilized, utopian society. Social reform was a necessity when it came to expanding democratic ideals.

There are many different people who contributed to the changes. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. in 1960s he and his organization started more and more protest marches and

Between the years 1825 and 1850, the US underwent a series of social and political reforms which attempted to democratize American life. Reform movements during this period of Jacksonian Democracy attempted to dissolve disunity in the social ladder and pushed for equal rights among all citizens. Stemming from the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century, many of these reforms were backed by religious ideals over democratic principles. At the forefront of the cause, however, was the hope for a more democratic system in which there was not only popular sovereignty, but a sense of social leveling.

During the 1960’s, many movements rose such as the counterculture movement, the hippie movement, the environmental movement, the SCLC, the SNCC, the Native American movement, Women’s civil rights, United Farm workers, etc. During the 1960’s the American culture would start to change because of these movements. The United Farm Workers movement for example fought for the rights of Mexican americans. Their goal during the 1960’s was to get decent working conditions and more job opportunities. The United Farm Workers movement was led primarily by Dolores Huerta, Gilbert Padilla, and Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez coordinated the protests, and was at the time the President of the United Farm workers movement. Like Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez

While a number of the most important reform movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries grew out of efforts to combat the negative effects of industrialization, the main focus of their efforts was not the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the natural environment. Although some reformers, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, were deeply worried about the consequences of economic development on the natural environment, the most influential, most effective reformers were primarily concerned with the impact of the rise of big business on small businesses, industrial workers, and consumers, and with corruption in government that reformers believed resulted from the economic power of large corporations.

After the Civil War and during the Progressive Era there were the group of reformers that changed the landscape the United States. These reformers were mainly comprised of men and women from the large northern cities and rural religious communities of Wisconsin (Schultz, 2013). The industrial age created enormous amounts of wealth, but people were living in the worst conditions and working longer hours than ever before. The Social Gospel movement sought to improve the working conditions, restrict the child labor laws and fight for social justice (Fales, 2013). This methodology was directly against what the Industrialist believed. Which was a Darwinist attitude of the “survival of the fittest.”

Muckrakers were the term applied to the American journalists during the progressive movement. They exposed corruption in government, horrible living conditions, and the unsanitary of factories. These journalists were given the name “muckrakers” by Teddy Roosevelt. Muckrakers like Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell and photojournalist like Jacob Riis became the voices of reform. Upton Sinclair wrote the jungle exposing the unsanitary practices in the meat-processing industry. Undercover working for seven weeks in Chicago’s stockyard, collecting evidence before writing the jungle. Ida Tarbell exposed the unfair business practices of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company: which led to the breakage of its monopoly. Tarbell debited that Standard Oil was

John Flynn which was Australian Presbyterian was born on 25th November 1880 in Moliagul which is central Victoria. His father’s name Thomas, Rosetta and he was the third child for them. John’s mother died during childbirth after that john lived with his mother’s sister in Sydney. When John was five years old, he and his family was reunified with at Snake Gully which is near Ballarat. John graduated from secondary school and began as a school teacher in 1898. John joined the Ministry in 1903, he was studying theology at the University of Ormond in Melbourne. In 1907 in order to complete his study he worked in the church missionary all over Victoria as a missionary, John studied theology for four years at Melbourne’s University. Then he graduated

Some people have characterized the New Left as an era of youth revolts and radical movements. However, the New Left was a combination of everything that took place through the 1950’s to the mid 1970’s. It was an age that consisted of women and gays questioning their roles and rights in society to African Americans fighting to gain equal rights and ban segregation. Many people in the world today and back then would argue that there is no such thing as the New Left, but how could you not recognize something that changed history and the way the world viewed citizenship, equality, and human rights? I definitely believe that the New Left Movement existed and that all the people and

The 1960's was a decade of tremendous social and political upheaval. In the United States, many movements occurred by groups of people seeking to make positive changes in society.

4. What aspects of these images by Life photographer Charles Moore transformed American sensibilities regarding civil rights? How did people like Birmingham police chief Bull Connor and organizations like the Ku Klux Klan participate in changing the hearts and minds of many American’s, if not the right to sit together on a bus?