Urban Problems and Reform

Do Now: Read about the Great Chicago Fire and answer questions about urban reform. (10 minutes)

Introduction

The US population growth: swamped municipal services caused terrible housing and sanitary conditions aggravated class differences and conflicts

The physical deterioration, ethnic diversity, and social instability alarmed native-born reformers who tried to clean up cities and quickly “Americanize” immigrants.

Migrants and Immigrants

In the late 19th century, “new immigrants” from southern and eastern Europe arrived Italians Slavs Greeks Jews Armenians (from the Middle East)

By 1890, the foreign-born and their children accounted for 4/5’s of the population of Great New York

Slums and Ghettos Neighborhoods deteriorated into

slums landlords packed more and more

people into their buildings The poorer the residents, the

greater the crowding and the faster the area declined

Ethnic slum neighborhoods became ghettos when discrimination and law kept members of the minority group from obtaining housing elsewhere. Black ghettos in Chicago and

Philadelphia Mexican in Los Angeles Chinese in San Francisco

Fashionable Avenues and Suburbs

In contrast to slums, grand millionaires’ mansions lined Fifth Avenue in New York, Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, and fashionable boulevards in other cities.

The wealthy and the middle class also moved to newer, more desirable suburbs on the edges of the old, compact cities.

American cities became increasingly segregated along class as well as ethnic and racial lines.

Middle-and Upper-Class Society and Culture Manners and Morals

The 19th century Victorian worldviews preached to make personal and national progress an individual must: work hard exercise self-discipline display good manners cultivate an appreciation of literature and the arts

Battling Poverty

Middle-class reformers also set out to relieve poverty.

They often tended to blame: the problem on character flaws of the poor “self-destructive” cultural practices of the

immigrants Reformers concentrated on moral uplift

and Americanization campaigns among the needy.

Battling Poverty (cont.)

Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations offered rural young people arriving in the cities temporary housing, recreation, and moral strictures against alcohol and other vices

New York Children’s Aid Society Charles Loring Brace Founded dormitories, reading rooms, and

workshops for indigent boys Sent thousands of them to live with and work for

families in the Midwest

New Approaches to Social Reform By the 1880’s, the Salvation Army and

Charity Organization Society (COS) joined the fight against poverty

COS preached a tough-minded approach to charity Insisted that the needy must meet the

standards of responsibility and morality set by the COS’s “friendly visitors” to receive aid

Critics charged that the COS was more interested in “controlling the poor than in alleviating their suffering”

The Moral-Purity Campaign

Middle-and upper-class reformers attacked what they considered urban vice

Crusaders demanded that city officials close down gambling dens, saloons, and brothels and censor obscene publications Anthony Comstock and Charles Parkhurst

The Social Gospel

The Social Gospel movement developed in the 1870’s and 1880’s among a small group of Protestant clergymen.

It was founded by Washington Gladden who was a Congregational minister.

The movement preached that urban poverty was caused in part by actions of the rich and well-born.

“that true Christianity commits men and women to fight social injustice head on, wherever it exists”

The Settlement-House Movement Settlement-House founders blamed

poverty not on the poor but on social and environmental causes.

Leaders believed that middle-class relief workers must reside among the immigrant masses and learn what services they needed.

Firsthand experience

The Settlement-House Movement (cont.)

Jane Addams Founded the Hull

House in Chicago It provided:

Day-care nursery Legal aid Health aid Helped find jobs Offered classes in

English and other subjects for immigrants

The Settlement-House Movement (cont.) Settlement-house workers also published

studies of the terrible housing and corrective laws

By 1895, more than 50 settlement houses in various cities were training a young generation of students Many would become state and local govt.

officials Applying the lessons they had learned Florence Kelly became a factory inspector for IL

in 1893

Group Activity

You are the mayor of a major American city. You experience many problems that come with the growth of a city during the late 18th century and early 19th century. Your groups will get a scenario and will have to decide how to solve an urban problem. Choose someone to present the following: 1. A summary of your group’s scenario 2. Your group’s solution to the problem 3. A flyer to alert the public about the problem and

educate them on how to be a part of the solution

Homework

Tomorrow we will be learning about political bosses. In preparation you will be reading about the most famous political boss of the 20th century: Boss Tweed.

Study for your quiz tomorrow and make a notecard.