Read the passage and answer the questions.
Several people were active in social reform and leaders of civil rights during this time.
Among those were “muckrakers” who used their journalistic ability to expose social injustices and corruption.
Upton Sinclair (1878-1968)
Upton Sinclair, an author whose novel, The Jungle, showed the horrid conditions of the meat packing industry and immigrants strife in America. This novel awakened a public outcry which helped to lead to the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Meat Inspection Act of 1919.
Susan B Anthony (1820-1906)
Susan B Anthony was a leading women’s activist, an abolitionist, lecturer and author. She is best known for her stance of granting women the right to vote and own property. Anthony was the leader of the National American Suffrage Association. (In 1979, she became the first non-fictitious woman to be on US currency.)
Ida B Wells (1862–1931)
Ida B Wells, born a slave in Mississippi, was aleader for women’s rights and social reform. She was an African-American journalist, editor, and civil rights leader. Some of her writings included factual accounts of lynchings done to blacks including those who had supposedly committed rape and robbery. She lectured in Europe to raise awareness regarding the racial injustices that were occurring in the United States.
