Progressive Movement Dbq

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, a large and diverse number of Americans claimed the political label “Progressive.” Progressives all shared a common fundamental belief of developing methods to counteract against the political and social issues of the time. They thrived in tackling some of the most crucial issues of society, as they were able to improve the conditions of the urban environment, increase the democratic influence of citizens, and sap most corruption out of the government. However, as the Progressive Movement successfully managed to cover those areas, it was limited to solving the issues of only white Americans, failing to represent the minorities, especially African Americans.
The first major area of reform

The profound effects of Progressivism had done little for African Americans, with very few that managed to gain a foothold by services and products to the black community. Especially in the South, where racism was much more prominent, and where many more white Americans possessed the ideology that blacks were inferior to whites. W.E.B. Du Bois was the very first African American to receive a PhD, and he published several books and essays, describing in great detail the numerous hurdles they were presented with. In his own journal, The Crisis, he displays an example after World War I, explaining the lack of recognition African Americans received for fighting “gladly and to the last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideals” (Document I). African Americans were kept extremely busy with “lynching, disenfranchisement, caste, brutality, and devilish insult” (Document I), fighting to protect and secure the rights they had already worked so hard to achieve. In a National Negro Conference he attended in 1909, from which ensued the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, that would be a primary group in the war against racial adversaries. After World War I, there was also ample criticism of Woodrow Wilson and the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles as well as the failure of the League of Nations. Walter Lippmann and Herbert Croly were two main people who had attacked the actions of Woodrow Wilson, even holding him accountable for bringing an end to the Progressive movement. They questioned him, asking, “How many sincere progressives follow him in believing that this legislation has made the future clear and bright with the promise things?” (Document F). With the false promises of Wilson, and the seemingly false hopes of many African Americans, the Progressive Movement had not been widespread