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Home List of Themes Model - Articles of Confederation

**Theme:** Reform **Topic: How legislation and judicial decisions helped African Americans, farmers, and workers between 1880 and 1920.** **Free Response Question**: Analyze the ways in which state and federal legislation and judicial decisions, including those of the Supreme Court, affected the efforts of the following groups to improve their position in society between 1880 and 1920. African Americans Farmers Workers Introductory Paragraph **Setting:** Between 1880 and 1920, the effects of state and federal legislation and court decisions were seen on the efforts for improvement of African Americans, farmers, and workers. The legislation and decisions were either meant to help or hurt the efforts of these groups in times of discrimination, economic hardship, and difficult working conditions. **Basis for Analysis**: A government that is effective and represents its people will pass legislation and make decisions in order to give aid to them and improve their lives and society as a whole. **Partitions**: Between 1880 and 1920, the U.S. government needed to prove its representation of its people through state and federal legislation and judicial decisions regarding African Americans, farmers, and workers. **Thesis:** Government legislation and court decisions between 1880 and 1920 were divided: some helped the people of the U.S., while others were against the efforts of African Americans, Farmers, and workers. This ultimately proves that at the time, the U.S. government was mostly effective in representing farmers and workers, but not African Americans. **Partition 1:** Federal legislation FARMERS -Interstate Commerce Act in 1887: passed by Congress to create the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to regulate and investigate railroad companies that participated in interstate rail trafficking. However, the ICC lacked enforcement, and therefore did not end up helping farmers much. -Elkins Act in 1903: gave the ICC more power to prohibit companies from giving rebates and kickbacks. -Hepburn Act in 1906: allowed ICC to regulate maximum rates railroad lines could charge. This ended the long-haul/short-haul pricing that had hurt farmers so much. -Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890: forbade the creation of trusts that were designed to restrain trade. Failed because of no means of enforcement and didn't specify the difference between beneficial and harmful trusts.

AFRICAN AMERICANS -Not specifically legislation, but President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order to segregate federal buildings.

WORKERS -Underwood Tariff Bill in 1913: reduced tariff rates and kept the price of manufactured goods low.

<span style="background-color: #808000; color: #e1ff00; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">**Partition 2:** State legislation FARMERS -Granger laws were passed in many states, which regulated the rates farmers could be charged for shipping by rail or using grain elevators.

AFRICAN AMERICANS -Jim Crow laws: segregated public facilities. -Grandfather clauses: allowed a man to vote only if his grandfather had voted in an election before 1865 (before Reconstruction). -Literacy tests: As the name implies, used to test someone's literacy to see if they are qualified to vote. (Most African Americans were not literate at the time). -Poll taxes: As the name implies, a tax to be paid before voting.

WORKERS -New York factory reforms in 1911: these happened after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory incident and were made to reform conditions in garment factories. <span style="background-color: #0000ff; color: #00ff00; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">** Partition 3: ** Judicial decisions FARMERS
 * -**Munn v. Illinois in 1887- Supreme Court ruled that a state had the right to regulate the practices of a business if that business served the public interest. This applied to railroad transportation, so states could regulate railroad rates. This helped farmers by lowering shipping rates.
 * -**Wabash v. Illinois in 1886: overturned decision in Munn v. Illinois by deeming corporations "citizens", which basically prevented state governments from regulating corporations.

AFRICAN AMERICANS -Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896: Supreme Court used "separate but equal" doctrine to basically give permission to the South to discriminate on the basis of color in public places.

WORKERS -United states c. E.C. Knight in 1895: Supreme Court interpreted the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to exclude manufacturing, which prohibited Congress from regulating businesses and trusts. <span style="background-color: #800080; color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 23px; text-align: left;">General Information: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">-Federal government traditionally held a laissez-faire policy with businesses and trusts. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">-Lynchings of African Americans were mainly going on in the South. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">-NAACP created in 1908. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">