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His 122 ch 26 affluence and anxiety in the 1950's
- 1. AFFLUENCE AND ANXIETY IN THE 1950’S Chapter 26
- 2. 1959 HONEYMOON IN A BOMB SHELTER
- 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
- 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
- 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.