Post WW2,1950s America, and the Civil Rights Movement
Economics after WW2 People worry about return to depression Initial years after WW2 GNP slumped Price controls relaxed prices skyrocket, inflation Epidemic of strikes Government reinstitutes controls Unions lose power Taft-Hartley Act Outlaws closed shops Union membership begins to decline
Economics after WW2 Economy recovers why? Cheap energy low cost of petroleum Productivity cold war spending, marshall plan 1950-1970 long economic boom National income doubles in 1950s and again in 1960s Middle class doubles Agribusiness - mechanization
GI Bill of 1944 15 million returning veterans Encourage veterans to get an education Unemployment benefits Loans for homes, farms, businesses
Elections 1948 Truman v. Dewey v. Thurmond Truman-- Whistlestop campaign country wide train campaign against do nothing congress Thurmond Dixiecrat (anti-civil rights, pro states rights) Thomas Dewey Republican (gov. of NY) 1952 - Eisenhower (R) v. Stevenson (D) Eisenhower middle of the road approach Pledged to personally go to Korea to end war Nixon s checker s speech
Eisenhower TV commercialized campaign Modern Republicanism middle road Conservative with money Liberal with people Raised minimum wage, extended Soc. Sec., public housing, etc.
Video Clips I Like Ike! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va5btg 4kkUE Checkers Speech (start at 3 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4uev _jjpl0
Prosperity of 1950s/1960s Result of colossal military budget, govt funded high tech industry, and R and D Cheap energy US controlled oil Highways, air conditioners, etc. Higher productivity better educated and better equipped Increased standard of living Agribusiness mechanized farming More workers shift to industry/white collar Middle Class doubles to 60% of pop n Own cars, TVs, washing machines
Suburban Living FHA/VA low interest loans Tax deductions for mortgage payers 1956 Interstate Highway Act By 1960, 25% of Americans live in suburbs By 2000, the percentage goes up to 50% White Flight Middle Class white Americans left the cities Moved to the suburbs Cities lose income Poor suffers education, police, fire
Suburban Living The American Dream 1949 William Levitt produced 150 houses per week. Standardized plans, factory assembled frames $7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.
Consumerism 1950 Introduction of the Diner s Card Modern advertising
Baby Boom It seems to me that every other young housewife I see is pregnant. -- British visitor to America, 1958 1957 1 baby born every 7 seconds Largest generation in US history Increase in school enrollments, canned food. Leads to a youth culture
Baby Boom
Teen Culture In the 1950s the word teenager entered the American language. 1951 race music ROCK N ROLL roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, country, folk, gospel, and jazz Juvenile Delinquency
Teen Culture The Beat Generation: rejection of mainstream American values celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity Jack Kerouac On The Road Allen Ginsberg poem, Howl Neal Cassady William S. Burroughs
A Changing Workplace Automation: 1947-1957 factory workers decreased by 4.3%, eliminating 1.5 million blue-collar jobs. By 1956 more white-collar than blue-collar jobs in the U. S. Computers Mark I (1944). First IBM mainframe computer (1951). Corporate Consolidation: By 1960 600 corporations (1/2% of all U. S. companies) accounted for 53% of total corporate income. WHY?? Cold War military buildup.
A Changing Workplace New Corporate Culture: The Company Man 1956 Sloan Wilson s The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Women lose factory jobs in the post war period, but gain service sector jobs pink collar sector secretarial work Pop culture still glorifies the housewife and the cult of domesticity Betty Friedan and NOW reject this image Feminine Mystique
Well-Defined Gender Roles The ideal modern woman married, cooked and cared for her family, and kept herself busy by joining the local PTA and leading a troop of Campfire Girls. She entertained guests in her family s suburban house and worked out on the trampoline to keep her size 12 figure. -- Life magazine, 1956 The ideal 1950s man was the provider, protector, and the boss of the house. -- Life magazine, 1955
The Culture of the Car Car registrations: 1945 25,000,000 1960 60,000,000 2-family cars doubles from 1951-1958 1956 Interstate Highway Act largest public works project in American history! Cost $32 billion. 41,000 miles of new highways built.
The Culture of the Car America became a more homogeneous nation because of the automobile.
The Culture of the Car The U. S. population was on the move in the 1950s. NE & Mid-W S & SW ( Sunbelt states) 1955 Disneyland opened in Southern California. (40% of the guests came from outside California, most by car.)
Television 1946 7,000 TV sets in the U. S. 1950 50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S. Mass Audience TV celebrated traditional American values. Television is a vast wasteland. Newton Minnow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, 1961
Television in the 1950s and 1960s Leave It to Beaver 1957-1963 Father Knows Best 1954-1958 The Ozzie & Harriet Show 1952-1966
Religious Revival Church membership: 1940 64,000,000 1960 114,000,000 Television Preachers: 1. Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen Life is Worth Living 2. Methodist Minister Norman Vincent Peale The Power of Positive Thinking 3. Reverend Billy Graham ecumenical message; warned against the evils of Communism.
Progress Through Science 1951 -- First IBM Mainframe Computer 1952 -- Hydrogen Bomb Test 1953 -- DNA Structure Discovered 1954 -- Salk Vaccine Tested for Polio 1957 -- First Commercial U. S. Nuclear Power Plant 1958 -- NASA Created 1959 -- Press Conference of the First 7 American Astronauts
The 50s Come to a Close 1959 Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate An entire house was built that the American exhibitors claimed anyone in America could afford. It was filled with labor saving and recreational devices meant to represent the fruits of the capitalist American consumer market.
Civil Rights Movement post WW2 through 1960s Civil Rights Act of 1875 -- Outlawed segregation Supreme Court overturned it in 1883 Plessy v. Ferguson separate but equal did not violate the 14 th amendment (equal treatment) Allowed Southern states to pass Jim Crow laws (separating the races) Allowed restrictions on inter-race contact WW2 set the stage for the civil rights movement Opened new job opportunities One million African Americans served Came home and fought to end discrimination During the war, civil rights organizations fought for voting rights and challenged Jim Crow laws Truman ends segregation in civil service, armed forces
Civil Rights Movement Campaign led by the NAACP Focused on inequality between separate schools that states provided Thurgood Marshall argued many of these cases 1950 Sweatt v. Painter Separate professional schools are not equal 1954 - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Marshall s most stunning victory Supreme Court struck down segregation in public schools as a violation of 14 th amendment 2 nd case - To be implemented with all deliberate speed
Civil Rights Movement 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott African Americans were impatient with the slow speed of change Took direct action 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and was arrested JoAnn Robinson suggested a boycott of the buses Leaders of the African American community formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Elected 26 yr old Martin Luther King to lead Dr. King made a passionate speech and filled the audience with a sense of mission African Americans boycotted the buses for 381 days and filed a lawsuit Organized car pools Walked long distances 1956 Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation
Civil Rights Movement 1957 Little Rock 9 - State had been planning for desegregation Governor Faubus ordered the National Guard to turn away the Little Rock Nine the 9 African American students who would integrate Little Rock Central High A Federal judge ordered Faubus to let the students attend the school Eisenhower placed the National Guard under federal control to watch the 9 attend school A year later, Faubus shut down the high school
Civil Rights Movement Civil Rights Act 1957 Establishes Civil Rights Commission to investigate violations 1957 Southern Christian Leadership Conference established (SCLS) Mobilize black churches for civil rights 1960 Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed 1960 Sit-in movement focus on segregated lunch counters 1 st Greensboro, NC
Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders Civil Rights activists would ride busses to test the Supreme Court decision that banned segregation on buses and in bus terminals Provoking a violent reaction to force the JFK administration to enforce the law Riders were tormented and beaten Newspaper coverage and the violence provoked JFK to send federal marshals to protect the riders Segregation in all interstate travel facilities was banned
Civil Rights Movement 1962 Integrating Ole Miss Air Force Veteran James Meredith won a federal court case that allowed him to enroll in the all-white University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) Governor Ross Barnett refused to let him register Kennedy ordered federal marshals to escort Meredith Riots broke out and resulted in 2 deaths Federal officials accompanied Meredith to class to protect him
Civil Rights Movement Birmingham Strictly enforced its segregation Reputation for racial violence Reverend Shuttlesworth, MLK, and the SCLC tested their non-violence MLK and others were arrested during a nonviolent demonstration MLK wrote Letters from a Birmingham Jail With MLK out of jail, the SCLC planned a children s march in Birmingham Police Commissioner Bull Connor arrested them Later, the police met the marchers with high pressure fire hoses and attack dogs TV cameras captured the scene Birmingham officials finally ended segregation Convinced JFK to write a civil rights act
Civil Rights Movement 1963 - March on Washington To show support for JFK s civil rights bill, a march on Washington was formed Aug. 28, 1963, 250,000 people assembled in Washington MLK gave his I have a Dream speech Appeals for peace and harmony Two weeks later, 4 girls were killed in a Birmingham church Two months later, JFK is assassinated LBJ pledges to carry out JFK s work Passes Civil Rights Act of 1964 Prohibited discrimination Gave equal access to public accommodations
Civil Rights Movement 1964 24 th Amendment abolished poll tax 1964 Freedom Summer - CORE and SNCC worked to register as many African-American voters as possible push for voting rights bill 1964 - SNCC organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to give African Americans a political voice Fannie Lou Hamer spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 1964 Support poured in for the MFDP Civil Rights leaders compromised with the Democratic Party (MFDP got two seats in Congress)
Civil Rights Movement 1965 - SNCC led a voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama After a demonstrator was shot, MLK organized a 50 mile march to Montgomery Mayhem broke out and TV crews caught police beating and gassing marchers Johnson presented a voting rights act and gave marchers federal protection Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminates literacy tests, allows federal officials to oversee registration, voting * end of nonviolence *
Civil Rights Movement Malcolm X Began as militant black nationalist Black separatism Went on Hajj, moved away from separatism Assassinated in 1965 Black Power Black Panther party Stokely Carmichael leader of SNCC began to preach black power 1966 Exercise political and economic rights to speed integration Emphasized their distinctiveness 1968 MLK assassinated