all right this is openstax u.s history chapter 21 section 3 new voices for women and african americans uh so recall that one of the goals of the progressive movement was to expand democracy and probably one of the biggest constituencies in the country that are excluded from the democratic process certainly not the only ones but one of the largest ones are women who at this time most women still cannot legally vote uh and so this the progressive movement had its influence on a women's movement which had already existed in the country in fact the seneca falls convention of 1848 is often cited as the start of the u.s women's rights movement right so this is all the way back in 1848 this is before the civil war whereas the progressive era stretches roughly from 1890 to 1920ish is where we're talking about here and at the seneca falls convention the declaration of sentiments which was the proclamation that was issued at that meeting in 1848 where you had pioneers like susan b anthony and elizabeth cady stanton so these are the pioneers of the we'll call it women's rights movement they issued the declaration of sentiments which essentially stated that the goal of the women's rights movement was suffrage that was you know equality cannot be achieved without the right to vote since you know for you know 1848 up until 1920 for 70 years you had organizations that were dedicated to the women's rights movement here you see the women's suffrage headquarters here that were dedicated to getting women the right to vote and so when the progressive movement came along it kind of put wind in the sails of that movement one thing that sparked off you might say renewed interest in this debate was the 15th amendment which was universal male suffrage purposely again this was during reconstruction this was designed to get black men the right to vote this specifically did not include women so this excluded women and for some you know they viewed the 15th amendment as a good thing in that it was kind of like a stepping stone that once black men got the right to vote then you know white women would be next um but some viewed it as just kind of complete disregard for a movement that had been there already for 70 years and so some women's rights advocates broke away from the suffrage movement and you you had women's rights groups that supported the 15th amendment and women's rights groups that did not support the 15th amendment however when it comes to voting voting is done on state laws so states get to decide who gets the right to vote and as the country moves more and more westward frontier states or states in the west made women's suffrage legal and there are reasons for this this was as early as the 1870s places like wyoming nevada they had laws that allowed women's women to vote one of the reasons why many of those westerner frontier states legalized women's suffrage was because those states didn't have a lot of women there that a lot of people who traveled out to the west were young men and uh you know granting women the right to vote would be kind of a way of alluring women to those western territories but it put a lot more pressure on the states in order to or the states that had already existed to reform and pass laws organizations like the national american women's suffrage association or nawsa who is led by carrie chapman cat we can call this the leader of course this was one of the principal organizations uh dedicated to trying to get women the right to vote uh you had other more radical uh reformers alice paul maybe more radical created the silent sentinels which use things like picketing uh hunger strikes more or less wanted to gain media attention all right so these were more you know kind of more extreme measures uh in order to bring attention to this particular issue and because this uh movement first started off on a local level you began to see states again frontier states had women's suffrage which was already legal then some existing states began changing the law california is a good example uh but in 1920 the 19th amendment was finally passed which gave women the right to vote everywhere right everywhere in the u.s and this came in 1920 so that really was the grand achievement of the women's rights movement but it was done in part due to the progressive movement and those forces combined allowed for the 19th amendment to be possible and with that you had possibly the greatest constituency in the country than who was enfranchised to allow their political voices to be heard similarly the progressive movement in some ways although maybe not as directly also gave inspiration to the civil rights movement although for the most part the progressives were pretty uh blind i would say to the issue of race in the country they didn't really do a lot to address it but uh you know people who were trying to improve society this was not lost upon the african-american population who was experiencing unique sets of discrimination uh particularly racial discrimination both in the north and the south but more extreme in the south organizations like the ku klux klan which used terror in order to roll back or revert the changes brought by radical reconstruction in the south yet jim crow laws these were state laws which sanctioned segregation might be worth mentioning here the supreme court case of plessy v ferguson which put forward this principle of separate but equal right and recall you know the 14th amendment to the constitution during reconstruction had put out the idea that there was equality before the law that you couldn't have a certain set of laws for white people and you couldn't have a certain set of laws for black people that everybody had to be equal under the law well the supreme court case of plessy versus ferguson which comes around 1896 i want to say says well you can have separate facilities you can segregate or separate white and black citizens as long as they are equal and of course this idea of uh you know institutions being equal was just equal on paper when the reality was not the case the most maybe not the most infamous but the most clear example of this is when you look at things like schools so for example they'd be schools that were all black schools schools that were all white schools legally speaking on paper they were quote unquote equal but the reality was that was not the case there was obviously more funds and resources available for the white schools whereas there weren't for black schools and the system of segregation we call these laws the jim crow laws essentially created society in the former confederate states the southern states in which there are you know you take any institution from restaurants to hospitals to schools to uh you know even bathrooms and drinking fountains and there's separate ones for whites and they're separate ones for blacks and so you had new leaders emerge uh facing this post-reconstruction reality where a lot of the promises of reconstruction 13th 14th and 15th are being rolled back on a you know on a state level uh two important voices uh one of them booker t washington and w e b du bois they have two different sort of perspectives on how african americans should challenge discrimination booker t washington emphasizes economics and to a lesser degree says you know save political and social action for later right so essentially what booker t washington says and this is him giving a speech right here uh you know he's telling blacks to work hard make money buy property uh get an education and become rich and once you achieve a certain economic threshold then the political and social rights will come don't consume yourself too much with getting the laws changed focus more on essentially learning skills gaining an education making money owning property etc etc he establishes the tuskegee institute in alabama this is an all black college where you can learn skills and hopefully get a job and his speech the atlanta compromise speech more or less states what his position is so this is a speech again encouraging maybe economic advancement uh w.e.b du bois meanwhile he has a very different view he says fight for political and social equality now right he disagrees with washington he says you know that's foolish you need to fight for your political and social rights you need to fight to overturn plessy versus ferguson you need to fight to overturn the jim crow law so they have different movements he uh he and other reform-minded advocates meet in niagara falls canada to form the niagara movement which is dedicated to fighting for political rights for african americans you can see the niagara falls in the background right here w.e.b duoy says that the talented tenth so this will be a you know one-tenth of the african-american population who will be you know what he says quote-unquote talented highly educated will will be able to fight for social and political rights on behalf of all african-americans so this is like the elite group uh will lead the fight he outlines these uh ideas in the declaration of principles and the crisis is a newspaper in which he was an editor dedicated to the fight for civil rights again when you think about civil think civilian and of course this is coming at a particular time where if you're african-american you have different civil rights than your white counterparts and so this newspaper really was dedicated to fighting for those rights w e b dubois is also responsible for establishing perhaps the most well-known and impactful civil rights organization in the country and that is the naacp which i want to say was established around 1903 so very early on the naacp today still exists as a civil rights organization and in fact has has been there really for over a hundred years fighting on whatever battle lines um you know that time period called for and whatever issues were presented at that time so w.e.b du bois was one of the founders of the naacp