The 1950s: Eisenhower's America and the Modern Civil Rights Movement

1. Eisenhower and the 1950’s McElhaney APUSH

2. The 1950s A. Emergence of the modern civil rights movement B. The affluent society and “the other America” C. Consensus and conformity: suburbia and middle class America D. Social critics, nonconformists, and cultural rebels E. Impact of changes in science, technology, and medicine Eisenhower and Modern Republicanism Domestic frustrations; McCarthyism Civil rights movement The Warren Court and Brown v. Board of Education Montgomery bus boycott Greensboro sit-in John Foster Dulles' foreign policy Crisis in Southeast Asia Massive retaliation Nationalism in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America Khrushchev and Berlin American people: homogenized society Prosperity: economic consolidation Consumer culture Consensus of values Space race

3. Domestic Developments Republican Take the presidency McCarthyism continues then dies American Economy develops Baby Boom- more kids are born than ever before Housing boom -suburbs and Levvit begin a new form of urban development Beat Generation Commercialism/Materialism-”buy, buy, buy…” Popular culture-Rock and roll Civil Rights Movement Desegregation of Schools- Central High, Little Rock Martin Luther King comes on the scene with Montgomery Bus Boycott Cold War Develops Korean War/Peace Arms Race/Arms Build up (H-Bomb) Problems with Vietnam develop (Domino Theory) Cold War Moves to the Middle East- Egypt and Iran Central America- Guatemala CIA grows as a Cold War institution Trends in the 1950’s

4. Affluent Society • The 1950’s can be seen as a time of prosperity and growth for many Americans • 52 million jobs- return of defense spending • New appliances • Home buying/building explodes with easy credit • Social Security covered more Americans • Stock Market grew and attracted middle class investors • Television/Advertising/Consumerism • Family incomes rise 30% and GNP 37% increase • 3/4ths of Americans own automobiles- 1 in 6 own two • Unemployment 4% • Sports/Education/Magazines/Leisure activities explode • Labor gains benefits and protections • Women encouraged to be house wives and mothers

5. Origins of Korean War • 1945 August the Soviet Union declared war on Japan • When Japan surrendered Soviets controlled North part of Korea- installed Communist government- Kim Ill Sung • US forces controlled Southern part of Korea • Installed pro-US government- corrupt- Syngman Rhee

6. Korea Kim Ill Sung- wanted to unite the peninsula and Soviets supported the attack but would not send troops to help. North Koreans Invade June 1950 South Korean forces are overwhelmed US sends troops and equipment Truman authorizes MacArthur to fight in Korea United Nations votes to support assistance to Korean Aggression (Soviets were boycotting proceedings)

7. Korea • MacArthur lands at Inchon and saves the South Korean Army • US forces push north to the Border of China, Yalu River • Chinese do not want to see North Koreans conquered- • Send 200,000 troops and push Americans back to the 38th parallel and stalemate occurs • MacArthur wants to bomb China with nuclear weapons and widen the war and Truman said no and MacArthur is fired.

8. Korea • Stalemate continues until Eisenhower is elected and threatens China with nuclear weapons. • Armistice is agreed to: July 1953 • 1 million Americans served in Korea, 34,000 US casualties • Good example of the Truman Doctrine and Containment Policy

9. Landslide Election Ike vs. Stevenson Popular War Hero Eisenhower and Modern Republicans

10. From Midwest “The Man from Abilene” Vowed to go to Korea to end the war Promised to keep essential elements of New Deal 1952 Republicans Won both houses of congress Ike won 1952 and 1956 Landslides Against the same candidate IKE vs. Stevenson

11. Balanced Budget Keep some of the New Deal programs End war in Korea No deficit spending Wanted to reduce the size of the federal government Limit federal power Return power to the states Reduce defense expenditures Reduce agriculture subsidies Opened wild life preserve to oil and gas leasing Ike and the Republicans“Middle Way”

12. The Rosenbergs • HUAC followed up on a spy captured by the British Claus Fuchs (worked on the Manhattan project and was giving information to Soviets) • Fuchs gave information regarding Ethel and Julius Rosenberg • They were convicted of Treason and executed in 1953

13. McCarthyism 1954 • McCarthy continued his abuse and reckless attacks until he goes against the Army • He pushed too far and lost favor with the American public • Because of the spectacle and atrocious behavior the Senate condemned his actions and he will later die in disgrace.

14. Ike was not a great supporter of Civil Rights Believed that law could not change people’s minds about race- Blacks continue to move North and West (2 million) By 1950’s; 40% of Blacks live outside of the South Life in the North Crowded in cities “Ghettos” Whites moved to the suburbs Discrimination in lending and housing practices limited opportunities Federally organized housing projects begin for the poor “The Projects” Skilled labor unions discriminated Some progress is made in the United Auto Workers Union IKE and Civil Rights

15. Civil Rights Progress in Eisenhower Administration • Conditions were ready for change • Returning veterans • Black Urban Middle Class grows • Educated black leaders • Support the beginning of change

16. Warren Court • Earl Warren- moderate Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice • Appointed by Eisenhower (Eisenhower later regrets this appointment) • Brown v. Board ruling ends segregation in public schools. • Ordered the states to create public school systems free of racial discrimination with “All deliberate speed.”

17. Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court “Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group...Any language in contrary to this finding is rejected. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. —

18. Desegregation of the Schools Brown v. Board of Education (1954) (web site) • Civil Rights attorneys wanted to end segregation in the schools • Supreme Court ruled in 1896= Plessy v. Fergesun that segregation was constitutional if equal (Brown Case overturns Plessy) • Schools were clearly unequal (money per pupil and conditions) • Thurgood Marshall- the lead attorney attacked the concept of “Separate but equal” • Worked for NAACP- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (created by W. E. B. Dubois 1909) • Case was Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas • Marshall argued “Segregation saddled blacks with permanent sense of inferiority.” Caused ambition and self esteem to drop

19. Marshall • Thurgood Marshall • Will later be appointed • First African American to • Supreme Court 1967 President Johnson nominated Marshall for Supreme Court Justice

20. Central High, Little Rock Arkansas • Court order in Little Rock • Central High must be integrated • Governor Orval Faubus-tried to prevent- citing public safety • Angry white mobs try to prevent integration- some of the worst racial hatred displayed • Eisenhower dispatches 101st Air Born to protect African American students

21. “Massive Resistance” • Massive obstruction of Brown Ruling • Ignoring the ruling in the south

22. 1955 Montgomery Bus BoycottAlabama • Everything was segregated in Alabama including buses • Rosa Parks, a trained member of the NAACP, was on a bus and refused to move back and give up her seat to a white man. • Action caused her arrest and a spontaneous boycott movement of the bus company • Martin Luther King Jr. was a prominent leader in the Montgomery community, and takes the lead in the city bus boycott. • Protested inequality of treatment and injustice with Non-Violent Resistance and Civil Disobedience • SCLC

23. MLK and Boycott • Boycott lasts 13 months • 1956 Supreme court ruled that segregation of busses was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment (Civil Rights) • Through the boycott: • MLK was Arrested, his house was bombed • The leading African American Civil Rights group emerges: Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) MLK president 1957

24. MLK Leads MLK in Montgomery AL Dexter Avenue Baptist Church start of the Montgomery bus boycott... “If you will protest courageous and yet with dignity and Christian love, in the history books that are written in future generations, historians will have to pause and say, "there lived a great people- a black people, who injected a new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization." this is our challenge and our overwhelming responsibility."

25. Images of Montgomery

26. 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina • Students in North Carolina • Stage a massive Sit in- at Woolworth Department store lunch counter in a effort to integrate this private establishment • Student activists create Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) • Similar protests developed throughout the south.

27. Civil Rights Bill 1957 • 1957 • Congress Passed 1st Civil Rights Bill since reconstruction • Created Civil Rights Commission and Civil and Rights Division of Justice Department • Focus was voting rights

28. Mexican Americans Hispanic population grows Puerto Ricans-move to NYC 1 million by 1960 BraceroProgram temporary workers from Mexico Illegal immigration grows 1950 5 million immigrants deported to Mexico Native Americans 1960 ½ million people still lived on reservations Arizona and New Mexico now allowed Indians to vote Eisenhower supported a movement to terminate the reservations and relocate Indians to urban areas Many Indians didn’t want the move The program was terminated in 1958 People Left Out of Affluence and Prosperity

29. Teen Culture (The “Alienated” Teen) The “Beat” Generation: * Jack Kerouac --> On The Road * Allen Ginsberg --> poem, “Howl” * Neal Cassady * William S. Burroughs “Beatnik” “Clean” Teen

30. “Rock N Roll” • Metaphor for Sexual intercourse • Bill Haley and the Comets • “Rock Around the Clock” • Represents teen generational conflict. • Mainstream America White Teenagers embrace the African American Musical culture.

31. “Rock N Roll Themes” • Dancing and partying all night long • Teen Relationships- love and Promiscuity • Teen problems • Parent teen relationships • Love and fighting teens • Teen angst • Teenage Heart-break

32. Interstate Highway Act 1956 • $27 Billion plan to build • 42,000 Miles of highways • Ike supports this great public works project. • National Security Purposes

33. IKE’s Sec. of State John Foster Dulles • Strong, • Wilsonian- moral leadership, anti-communist • Created the idea of Massive Retaliation- • Using Nuclear weapons instead of conventional forces to counter Communist threats throughout the world • Supported the Arms Race- build up of Atomic weapons and the missile program to deliver weapons • All used as a Deterrence to soviet Aggression and surprise attack (Idea was to deter any attack against the US)

34. Ike and the Cold War • Begun under Truman • Ike continues containment • Supported strengthening of Germany and Japan to counter communists- both countries begin to rebuild industry in this period. • US Fleet protects Taiwan • Supports anti-Communists • Southeast Asia, Middle East • Arms Research= Hydrogen bomb

35. Hydrogen Bomb • Part of the emerging arms race- each country develops an arms program • US detonates a Hydrogen Bomb- November 1952 • August 1953, Soviets will detonate H-Bomb

36. Examples of the Arms Race • The United States after WWII collected German scientists working on rockets (V-2 bombs) • US began to build missiles in order to fire against Soviets • Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) missiles able to reach Russia from US • Atlas, Minuteman, and Polaris are developed • Nuclear Submarines equipped with missiles are developed to sneak up on Russians • U2-Survelliance Planes are developed to spy on Russians

38. Space Race • Soviet Scientists send a satellite into space • Sputnik • Really about sending developing missile technology for delivering Nuclear Weapons • US responds by creating NASA • National Aeronautics and Space Administration

39. The Nuclear Age • Nuclear Tests cause fear of “Fallout” or radiation contamination • Groups call for Test Bans- this results in some agreements (bans tests in the atmosphere but not underground)

40. US and Vietnam • Vietnam-French Conflict-post WWII • American Support

41. Southeast Asia • Ho Chi Minh- Communist Nationalist- sends insurgents into South Vietnam to unite country- “Viet Cong” • 1954 Dien Bien Phu battle- • French are defeated and country is split in Two North (Communist) South • Pro-American leader Ngo Dinh Diem • Americans aid the South $ and military advisors

42. Middle East-Cold War • Iran-CIA-Shah- • 1953- US CIA sponsors the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government • Places new Shah (King) in charge of Iran<dictator> • Reflected the Cold War • US will support all non-communist • Leaders video

43. Egypt-Nasser-Russians

44. U2 Incident • U2 Spy planes • High speed, High Altitude • Surveillance/Photography • Used to gain info on Soviets • Plane is shot down • Pilot is captured put on trial • Francis Gary Powers • Cyanide pill not taken