3. CONTRASTS
Most prosperous period in U.S. History
In 1959 two out of three Americans listed “Atomic War” as nation’s
most urgent threat
White Americans and prosperity
Black Americans fight for opportunity
“I Like Ike” & Moderate Republicanism at home
Cold War adventures abroad
5. DYNAMIC CONSERVATISM
“Conservative when it comes to money and liberal when it comes
to people”—Eisenhower
Expanded Social Security to white collar professionals, domestic workers,
farm workers and members of the armed forces
Interstate Highway Act & St. Lawrence Seaway
Increased minimum wage
Low income housing projects
VP: Richard Nixon
Early career: anti-Communist activism to expose left-wing “subversives”
Containment = appeasement
6. ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
1953: U.S. = 6% of world population and produced 2/3 of world’s
manufactured goods
Construction of highways, bridges, airports and ports
Military related research stimulated growth of chemical, electronics and
aviation industries
Oil boom in Texas, Wyoming and Oklahoma
Lack of foreign competition
Demand for consumer goods driven by two decades of consumer
conservation during the Great Depression and WWII
1945; 40% of Americans owned homes
1960: 60% of Americans owned homes
Between 1948 and 1952 the number of TV sets jumped from 172,000 to 15.3 million
7. GI BILL
1944 Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill of Rights)
Unemployment pay for 1 year
Preference for Federal government jobs
Loans for home construction, starting a business
Access to government hospitals
Generous subsidies for education
5 million veterans bought new homes
1949: Veterans = 40% of college enrollments
Most African Americans, though entitled to benefits could not take advantage
of benefits
Majority of white colleges refused to admit blacks
Black veterans prevented from buying homes in white neighborhoods
9. SUBURBIA
Levittown, PA
Homes of exactly the same design
All cost $6,200
Trees planted every 20 feet
Homeowners must cut grass 1/week
No sales to Blacks
10.
11. THE GREAT MIGRATION PART 2
After 1945 more than 5 million African Americans moved from the
rural South to cities in the North
As blacks moved to urban cities, whites moved out to suburban
developments where blacks were not permitted despite 1948
Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kraemer which held that racial
restrictions in planned communities were unconstitutional.
By 1960 more blacks lived in urban areas than rural areas
Since blacks made less money than whites, the tax base in urban
cities decreased making it more difficult for cities to fund
infrastructure or support quality public schools
After Brown v. Board of Education in 1952, which overturned Plessey
v. Ferguson decision of separate but equal, many white school
children went to private, usually Christian schools.
12. MEXICAN AND PUERTO RICAN
AMERICANS
Bracero program renewed by Congress
By 1960 Los Angeles had the largest Mexican American
population in the U.S.
Between 1940 and 1960 nearly a million Puerto Ricans moved to
the U.S.
Mexican American and Puerto Rican and other Latino veterans
received the same benefits under the GI Bill.
13. WOMEN
Go back home and take care of your man!
House Beautiful 1945
“Your veteran, is head man again…your part in the remaking of this man is to fit his
home to him, understanding why he wants itthis way, forgetting your own
preferences. “
In 1956 ¼ of all white college women wed while still in school.
Average age when women wed was between 16 and 19 years old
14. YOUTH CULTURE
Baby Boomers 1945-1964: 76 million American babies born
In 1957 1 baby was born every 7 seconds
Surge in Consumer demand
Reinforced notion that women’s place was in the home.
15. LITERATURE AND THE BEATS
Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man (1956)
J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye (1951)
John Updike, Rabbit Run, (1961)
John Cheever, short stories
John Keats, The Crack in the Picture Window (1956)
“miles of identical boxes are spreading like gangrene” “gimme kids”.
The Beats: Writers, poets, painters, musicians
John Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Neal Cassidy
Rebellious, reckless, experimental, risk takers, drugs, sexuality and lifestyle
16. ROCK N ROLL
Distinctive teen sub-culture among the first group of baby
boomers who became adolescents in the 1950’s.
Juvenile Delinquency
Cars
Booze and Sex
Alan Freed 1951: White teenagers buying black R&B artists rather
than white covers of the same song, began playing black R7B
artists and called the music Rock n Roll
Elvis: Rockabilly- blend of gospel, country & western and R & B
Dancing
17. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT: THE EARLY
YEARS
Eisenhower
Desegregated public facilities in Washington DC and military bases in VA and
South Carolina
Appointed 1st African American to an Executive office
Preferred state/local action to federal involvement
Passive attitude and lack of leadership in Congress led to Supreme Court taking a
more active role as the NAACP continued to press for civil rights in the courts
Appointed Earl Warren and William J. Brennan to the court
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas (1952). Separate is
NOT equal
1956: 101 members of Congress (Southern Democrats) signed the
“Southern Memo” denouncing Supreme Court decision as “clear
abuse of judicial power”
3 Southern Democrats refused to sign, including Lyndon B. Johnson
18.
19. MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT
December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for white
passengers when asked to do so by the bus driver
She was arrested
She was secretary of the local NAACP chapter
The next night, Black community leaders met in Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the pastor
75 of the riders of the Montgomery bus system were black. They were
forced to move further to the back of the bus if the white section filled
up—so a white person would not stand while a black person was seated.
Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Dr. King unless Montgomery bus system
changes this law, blacks will not ride the bus.
381 days; December 20, 1956 U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
segregation on public facilities like busses could no longer be enforced.
