Key Vocabulary Terms from American History in the Early 1900s

1. Muckrakers- a name given to American journalist in the first decade of the 20th century. It’s originally derived from the name “muckrake” used in former President Theodore Roosevelt’s speech in 1906. Roosevelt saw them as irresponsible and that they raked in trash. After he made it known that one in particular stirred up trouble and lies through his writings, they were known to cause turmoil and scandal through yellow journalism, which distorted and exaggerated information in order to get more people to read the articles and attract their attention. Their attentions weren’t always bad. They made the print in articles more powerful than they previously were because they used writing as an outlet to express what they felt Congress needed to change.

2. 19th Amendment- ratified in 1920 and added to the U.S Constitution, guaranteed American women the right to vote. It was first bought to Congress’s attention in 1878. This amendment made it so citizens of America weren’t denied their right to vote based on gender. This amendment is also known as women suffrage because prior to 1920 women were denied their right to vote. It wasn’t until the Seneca Falls convention, which was held by Elizabeth Cady Stanton along with other activists in New York, in the year 1848, that there was a push for women’s rights and women’s equality. That convention brought attention to the right that women deserve the right to vote just as much as men do.

3. Niagara Movement- beginning in 1905, tired of racial oppression, a group of African Americans, including W.E. B Dubois, who was the first African American to graduate from Harvard University, held a meeting in Niagara Falls. They wanted economic equality among races and equal educational opport...

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...t of them and have them help the country. Roosevelt believed that the CCC would not only help the economy but the environment as well. It put three million men to work all across America. The men worked in parks and forests. They maintained roads, planted trees and conserved federal and private land. The men were paid $30 a month and the checks were sent to the parents back home. They lived on a campus and were disciplined as if they were in the military. There were also classes offered to them in the evenings when they weren’t working. Many men who didn’t know how to read or write learned because of those classes. In 1942 the CCC came to an end because the economy started to improve after the Great Depression and men found higher paying jobs. Also America’s attention began to focus more towards the war. However, it was one of the most successful New Deal programs.