Power and Change

[Writer`s Name]

[Institute`s Name]Power and Change

Introduction

The Progressive movement that swept across the United States at the turn of the twentieth century brought changes to many of the nation's social and political institutions, including those in Louisiana. Yet, as it was in much of the South, Progressivism operated in the Pelican State in the face of prevailing social and political mores that proved, in the end, to be remarkably enduring. Thus, while Progressive reformers brought changes to the landscape in Louisiana, many of their triumphs had the dual purpose of maintaining familiar assumptions in a modern age.

Discussion

Broadly defined, the Progressive movement - both as a grass-roots reform program and as a political organization - emerged at the turn of the twentieth century out of a growing popular belief in the need to address some of the late nineteenth century's grossest abuses. The type of individuals most likely to embrace Progressivism were members of the white middle class, whose education and political inclinations led them to believe that society's ills might be best solved with the rational application of scientific management. In concept, at least, the Progressives hoped to forge a more just republic; one that was responsive to the needs of its citizens and placed checks upon the unbridled power of corporate wealth, corrupt urban machines, and labor radicalism. In the social sphere, Progressives hoped to improve the lifestyles of groups as diverse as the nation's recently arrived immigrant masses, Appalachia's poor, and child laborers.

At its heart, Progressivism was a revolution by the middle class to reshape the rest of the nation in an idealized image of itself. While what constituted a Progressive issue varied from region to region, nobody could doubt the political success of the movement. By the time America had entered a new political paradigm in the 1920s, the Progressives appended four amendments to the U.S. Constitution, including the imposition of a national income tax, direct election of U.S. Senators, prohibition, and women's suffrage. Moreover, both the Presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson endeavored to shape both national and diplomatic policy based in Progressive principles.

Just as it had in the rest of the nation, Progressivism in Louisiana had built upon the foundations of earlier efforts to address social and political ills. Most, but not all of these movements had originated in New Orleans, where a reform element had hoped to impose white middle class values upon the electoral system by imposing literacy and other qualifications designed to purge illiterate, and in the reformers' minds, unqualified voters from the rolls. This “good government impulse” for “electoral reform” culminated in the state constitution of 1898. Often known as Louisiana's “disfranchisement” constitution, its newly imposed restrictions prevented most of the state's black electorate from registering to vote. Yet in the mind of those who sought more sweeping reform, the document did not go far enough as it made provisions for the state's poor whites through the so-called “grandfather clause” and had a special provision that exempted naturalized citizens so ...