Progressive Era (1890-1920)
|
The Provident Hospital was a progressive reform that aimed to improve the medical rights of African Americans. "The early 20th century was an era of business expansion and progressive reform in the United States. The progressives, as they called themselves, worked to make American society a better and safer place in which to live". -Library of Congress
|
Progressive Political Cartoon (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
|
Medical Reform - The Flexner Report
Adam Flexner's Report in 1910 revolutionized the American standards in medical education, "Out of all the reviews and reports made concerning the inadequacy of an obsolete medical educational system in the early part of the 20th century, the Flexner Report is by far the best known and most influential. Why is this? Flexner’s approach and complete disclosure of issues gave his report an edge over others. The recommendations Flexner made were well grounded and direct in a way that allowed medical schools and medical boards to understand and adhere to his suggestions". -AMSA
Results of the Flexner Report
"There were 160 medical schools in America in 1905, 133 in 1910, and by 1920 only 85 remained open (no Canadian medical schools were deemed inadequate after the publication of the Flexner Report and thus none were closed as a result of its publication). After the implementation of Flexner's reforms, the remaining 85 medical schools had higher entrance requirements, longer terms, and better resources to offer. Only a decade after the Flexner Report was published, 77 out of the 85 medical schools required a minimum of two years of college before admission to medical school. Part of what made the Flexner Report so influential was its potential for practical implementation". -AMSA
Black Reform - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
|
"The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and resting place of President Abraham Lincoln. Appalled at the violence that was committed against blacks, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both the descendants of abolitionists, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln's birth". -NAACP
|
NPR (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
|
"NAACP members marching to the Capitol during legislative session - Tallahassee, Florida," -Florida Memory (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
|
"Founded Feb. 12. 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization. The NAACP's principal objective is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice". -NAACP
|
Article from The Bystander, April 12, 1918 (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
|
Article from The Bystander, April 12, 1918 (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
|
Excerpt From Eyes on the Prize (1987) From PBS
