Progressive Era

During the progressive era, rights of American’s were changing. Not only were women seeking new rights but so were african american’s and other immigrants. Women wanted not only to vote, but to also have a presence in their household, to be shown compassion, and to end prostitution just to name a few.  

    White women during the reforming movement had many goals. They wanted to vote. They also wanted to end what today would be consider human trafficking. Another goal was to raise the age of sexual consent. Women wanted to hold men to the same standards of sexual conduct as women were held to, and they also wanted to bring the idea of saying no to sex to the forefront. Birth control was also a controversial and important topic in this era.  In essence, women were fighting for their suffrage.

    African Americans were concerned with building within their communities. They wanted to bring education to their children. They created newspapers and circulated them amongst themselves. They spent a great deal of time writing about lynchings and bringing this topic to public light. The actions the african americans were exhibiting during the progressive era were setting the tone for the civil rights movement which had yet to come.

    In the 1920s, America was flooded with over 25 million immigrants. This brought a lot of change to our culture, society, and size. In 1917, America passed a law stating that any immigrant over 16 must pass a literacy test. at that time, most immigrants were coming from Europe or Italy and as a result, immigration quotas were being put into effect.

    The 1920s was a rapidly changing era for America to say the least. During this particular era in history, everyone was fighting for their rights and trying to make the most out of the new country.