ABSTRACT
During the Progressive Era most southern blacks lost the right to vote. Because the United States was becoming major world power, the successes and failures of Progressive movement affected not only Americans but also people around the world. Not until relatively late in the Progressive Era did reformers turn to federal legislation, and then they met with only partial success. Populists had sought for most part to improve conditions in the countryside; Progressives devoted considerably more attention to political and social problems in the cities. They assumed that society was malleable and devoted their energies to molding it in the proper way. The United States became highly urbanized as it became highly industrialized. The first women's clubs, formed after Civil War, had been devoted to cultural projects. Theodore Roosevelt's contribution to Progressivism, one historian has said, was "to infuse reform with respectability". The Square Deal reached a culmination in Roosevelt"s second term with enactment of three major pieces of legislation.
