Post WW2,1950s America, and the Civil Rights Movement

1. Post WW2,1950s America, and the Civil Rights Movement US History AP Chapters 36 and 37

2. 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

3. 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

4. GI Bill of 1944 • 15 million returning veterans • Encourage veterans to get an education • Unemployment benefits • Loans for homes, farms, businesses

5. 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

6. Eisenhower • TV – commercialized campaign • Modern Republicanism – middle road • Conservative with money • Liberal with people • Raised minimum wage, extended Soc. Sec., public housing, etc.

7. Video Clips • I Like Ike! • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va5Btg4kkUE • Checkers Speech (start at 3 min) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4UEv_jjPL0

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. Consumerism • 1950  Introduction of the Diner’s Card • Modern advertising

12. 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

13. Baby Boom

14. 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”

15. 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

16. 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.

17. A Changing Workplace • New Corporate Culture: “The Company Man” • 1956 Sloan Wilson’sThe 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

18. 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

19. 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.

20. The Culture of the Car • America became a more homogeneous nation because of the automobile.

21. 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.)

22. 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

23. Television in the 1950s and 1960s • Leave It to Beaver1957-1963 • Father Knows Best1954-1958 • The Ozzie & Harriet Show1952-1966

24. 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.

25. 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

26. 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.

27. 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 14th 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

28. 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 14th amendment • 2nd case - To be implemented “with all deliberate speed”

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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 • 1st – Greensboro, NC

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

36. Civil Rights Movement • 1964 – 24th 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)

37. 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 *

38. 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