Time Periods: Progressive Era

Chicago’s Influence on Jazz Music

Jazz music began in New Orleans, Louisiana. The musical genre has roots in European traditions, blues, and ragtime. It also derives from work songs sung by slaves on southern plantations. Jazz was not a popular musical genre until the 20th century when African Americans moved to Chicago during the Great Migration to escape the Jim […]

Daily Life in Chicago Tenements

Overcrowded, poorly built, and unsanitary, tenement housing was one of the worst places to live, yet for so many it was their only choice. Newly settled immigrants as well as working-class families struggled to make a living and had to do so in deplorable conditions. There would be those that tried to change the situation, but their successes would only be temporary. Low-income housing is still a struggle for many today, and the roots of the issue can be traced back to those early days when tenements were the only option.

Italian Immigrants in Progressive Era Boston

Italian immigrants emigration to the United States affected Americans, especially in Boston. The racial and ethnic prejudices and discrimination by American and Bostonian society, was a factor in the Sacco-Vanzetti Case that proved monumental in Italian ethnic relations in the United States in the twentieth century. How the press handled and covered these Italian ethnic relations and the case was a major factor in the development of the racial and ethnic tensions at that time.