Met Gala 2022: The Persistence of Power

This year's Met Gala theme was "The Gilded Age." From Blake Lively's sweeping copper gown to Alicia Keys' dazzling silver dress adorned with the New York City skyline, celebrities paid tribute to "the era of extravagance." The period between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century has come to be known historically as "The Gilded Age," as it was an era of immense tumult hidden beneath a shiny gloss of progress and prosperity.

Just as the Met Gala is a spectacle designed to entertain and distract, the presentation of this era as "The Gilded Age" does the same. This paper seeks to examine the veiled truth of the era in all of its disparate elements and facets of change, including the rise of big business and the labor movement, the growth of both segregation and the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement, and the government's shifting role as an arbiter of justice. I think that this era can be classified in one way: the persistence of power.

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The Persistence of Power

The decades immediately following the Civil War and Reconstruction were ones of immense change for the nation. America underwent explosive expansion; droves of people migrated westward in search of new land and opportunities, the growth of industry engulfed the country, and technology advanced at a rapid pace. At the same time, the societal inequalities and power dynamics that had existed prior to this period intensified just as rapidly. As different groups within society strove to adapt to their swiftly changing circumstances, it was clear that this time period- historically coined “The Gilded Age”- would be one of immense social, political, economic, and racial conflict. Each group responded to their unique circumstances within varying constraints, in ways that were seemingly incongruent. However, a unifying thread woven through the disparate elements of this time period was the consolidation of power by different groups, as they each attempted to advance their own causes. This unifying theme provides a way to tie all the pieces of this era together in all of its different facets of change.

The late 19th century’s currents of change truly built a new America from the ashes of the Civil War. New modes of production revolutionized the United States, as rapidly growing industrialized cities combined urban consumers and rural producers into a single, integrated national market. Cities teemed with millions of people depending on industry, transportation, and commerce for their livelihood. Underpinning all of this development was the rise of big business, a key component of this era. First seen with railroads, companies marshaled unprecedented concentrations of capital that demanded the creation of innovative new corporate organizations. For example, Taylorism, which subdivided manufacturing tasks, dramatically accelerated production to meet the demands of the industrial age and yielded immense profits for the corporations. These corporations further amassed wealth and power with political persuasion and legal mechanisms, such as the new incorporation laws passed during the market revolution, to consolidate vast amounts of capital from investors while limiting their liability. The consolidation of power by large corporations didn’t stop there; in what is known as “The Great Merger Movement,” four thousand companies were consolidated into competing firms. Forty one consolidations controlled over 70% of the market in each of their industries, becoming the first ever monopolies. Because these monopolies created unparalleled fortunes, they in turn created unprecedented inequality in American society. By 1900, the richest 10% controlled 90% of the nation’s wealth. New ideas arose to morally justify this immense consolidation of power by a few, while many others suffered in poverty. Social Darwinism, for example, applied Charles Darwin’s scientific ideas to humans; “survival of the fittest” justified the wealth gap in society as a natural order. With economic, social, moral, and legal protection, big business consolidated unequaled power that would spur a new era of labor conflict in the nation.

Because monopolies skewed the power dynamic heavily, laborers understood that they would have to consolidate power themselves in order to fight back. Rapid industrialization went hand in hand with labor unrest, as workers recognized their diminishing power in the new industrial order. Skills were hardly significant in a mass producing economy; with the new technological innovations of Taylorism and the assembly line, workers were as expendable as unwanted parts. Faced with long hours, dangerous working conditions, and meager wages, industrial laborers struggled to obtain a piece of the wealth that raised the living standards for elites and a growing middle class to extraordinary levels. Galvanized by the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, laborers realized the need for institutionalized unions in order to enact change. Founded in 1869, the Knights of Labor was created “for the purpose of organizing, educating, and directing the power of the industrial masses.” The union, which welcomed all laborers, enjoyed considerable success in the 1880s; by 1886, as many as 750,000 workers had joined. The Knights envisioned a producer-oriented society that rewarded labor, not capital, in which all workers would be able to reap the fruits of their labor. They sought to ensure all citizens’ independence by demolishing the dependence of wage labor, which was exacerbated by the inequalities of industrialization. Despite their utopian vision, the Knights of Labor also focused on practical gains. Among others reforms, they called for laws that applied equally to capital and labor, abolition of child labor, and the establishment of cooperatives. Through mass media, public demonstrations, and national strikes, the Knights of Labor achieved a widespread influence beyond just its immediate membership. Despite its eventual collapse, the Knights of Labor demonstrated the power of a “national combination among workmen” and nurtured a culture of resistance. They raised crucial questions about the morality of capitalism and the compatibility of democracy with the industrial system, offering answers that deeply challenged those that industrial elites provided.

Labor unrest did not only exist in the industrialized North; Southern farmers felt just as disenchanted with the new economy as their counterparts in the North. Farmers were hit hard by industrialization, as technological improvements and expanding markets decreased commodity prices. Farmers were now forced to depend on a national economic system subject to rapid price fluctuation and unequal gains. As a result, the majority of farmers fell into debt, forced to either become tenant farmers or move north to join the urban working poor. While mass production and business consolidation created giant corporations that reaped unprecedented profits, farmers felt their autonomy dissipating rapidly. Thus, frustrated farmers attempted to reshape the fundamental structures of the nation’s political and economic systems which unequally enriched the elites. Groups such as the Farmers Alliance took form, agitating for laws such as railroad restrictions and rights including better education. The Alliance pushed a series of farmers’ cooperatives which enabled farmers to negotiate higher prices for their crops and lower prices for goods that they purchased. At its peak, the Farmers Alliance had 1,500,000 members. Though it eventually collapsed, the Farmers Alliance left a spirit of resistance with the farmers to continue to fight for change.

Refusing to surrender to defeat, farmers turned to politics to fight for their liberty and equality. They formed the National Populist Party in 1892, hoping to consolidate power in the political sphere by building upon their previous movements. The party adopted the Omaha Platform, which funneled prior alliance cooperatives into a clear political vision. The Omaha platform called for reform in land, transport, and money; among others, it sought to secure a graduated income tax, the nationalization of railroads, free and unlimited coinage of silver to alleviate debtors, the end of protective tariffs, and the direct election of senators. Combined, these efforts would work to re-center the skewed economic and political power dynamic. As articulated by populist writer Ignatius Donelly, populists believed that if society stayed as it was, then “it forebodes terrible social convulsions, the destruction of civilization, or the establishment of an absolute despotism.” The Populist platform challenged the long accepted “laissez-faire” ideology, while calling for government intervention for ordinary people. It represented an immense challenge to the conventional views of the Republican and Democratic parties, establishing itself as a true “party of the people” with honest politicians who would not be co-opted by elites. Populists sought to counter the excess of power of monopolistic capitalism with a strong federal government, proposing an unprecedented expansion of federal power to protect the rights of ordinary people. The party was remarkably successful in its first few years; in its first national campaign in 1892, James Weaver, the party’s presidential candidate, received over one million popular votes, representing almost 10% of the votes cast. In the 1894 elections, populists elected six senators and seven representatives to congress. Like the Farmers Alliance, the Populist Party was unable to overcome the power of the industrial system and eventually was co-opted by the Democratic party.

However, its influence did not dissipate. The Populist Party was the first major political force to channel the frustrations with the inequality of industrial capitalism into action. The Party’s tenacious spirit of resistance planted the seeds for later reform, as the following “Progressive Era” passed many of their visionary policies into law.

Just as economic, social, and political tensions were stretched tightly during this time period, so too were racial tensions. In the post-reconstruction south, both white southern democrats and the formerly enslaved worked to consolidate as much power as they could. The beginning of reconstruction basked the future of southern blacks in a hopeful light with the ratifications of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. However, this extension of African American rights was met with violent pushback from southern whites, who made it their mission to “redeem” the south by purging all blacks from positions of power and restoring a stronghold of white supremacy. As white southerners took back control of state and local governments in the subsequent decades, they used their reclaimed power to disenfranchise African Americans and begin to carve the path towards Jim Crow. In addition to intimidation tactics such as physical threats towards black voters, whites implemented unjust disenfranchisement laws that required taking literacy tests or paying poll taxes in order to vote, which denied many blacks the ability to partake in their constitutional right. Whites further consolidated their power in the legal sphere, as the Supreme Court whittled away at the rights of blacks. A series of discriminatory Supreme Court cases paved the way for Plessy Vs. Ferguson, which ruled that “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional. Simultaneously, white terrorist groups increased in number drastically, as groups like the KKK lynched 2500 black men and women between 1882 and 1886. Racial segregation and white supremacy was therefore free to solidify themselves into the inner workings of the “New South.”

But just as whites consolidated power to attempt to strip away the rights of blacks, segregated black communities came together to preserve their culture and resist total oppression. Organized political groups, such as the Afro-American National League and the Colored Farmers Alliance pushed for reforms and social change. The National Association of Colored Women, which attacked the image of inferiority associated with black womanhood, grew rapidly in size and support. The first institutes of black higher education, such as the Tuskegee Institute, were established. But the most important institution for the preservation and development of black culture- what Historian Leslie H. Fischel Jr. stated was truly the tie that bound the African American Community together- was the church. Churches were the largest economic, social, and political institutions organized by African Americans during this time. Black religious worship was a blend of African tradition and the African-American experience, giving blacks the ability to perpetuate their history in a society that desperately tried to erase it from the American narrative. Churches also went beyond the religious sphere through secular education, fundraising, and political activity. Churches, therefore, served as the vehicle for organizing black communities, celebrating black culture, and keeping the spirit of resistance alive. African Americans’ unbreakable spirit persisted in spite of the overwhelming oppression and brutality that they faced, and would eventually erupt into a powerful movement in the coming decades.

The current of change that accompanied industrialization came barreling in like a railroad, completely transforming American society. The change manifested as a “double edged sword,” coupling immense progress and prosperity with immense inequality and oppression. The constituents of the era held differing visions of what American society should look like as they attempted to consolidate power to see their ambitions become a reality. Each group harnessed their own strengths to try to augment their gains in this changing economic system. The unequal distribution of power forced them to adopt distinct agendas that often were at odds with those of the others. Industrialists found favor in the existing political and economic systems. Laborers, on the other hand, resorted to strength in numbers to push for their reforms. Southern whites usurped power to subjugate blacks and recreate the pre-war power structure, while blacks, who had no real political power, organized themselves in institutions like the church that preserved their culture and set the foundations for a powerful civil rights movement in the decades to come. As conflict erupted across the nation in many different forms, it was inevitable that an arbiter would be needed to re-center the skewed power dynamic. The government took up this key role of balancing competing interests, attempting to enforce systems that benefited the economy while simultaneously protecting ordinary citizens’ rights. The responses to the conflicts in this era would set the stage for the developments of the next, as the contours of the future political fights were shaped by the power struggles of this period.