1 / 11

Challenge & Change in the 1950’s

This chapter explores the major events and societal shifts that occurred in the United States during the 1950’s, including the election of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Red Scare and McCarthyism, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Space Race.

lrichards
Download Presentation

Challenge & Change in the 1950’s

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Challenge & Changein the 1950’s Chapter 27, Lesson 5

  2. Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) is elected President in 1952

  3. Americans returned home from WWII and started families • Economy does very well when “Ike” is in office • Lives of most Americans improved during this time

  4. Americans are still worried about nuclear war • Cities set up air raid warning signals • People built bomb shelters in their back yards • Air raid drills done in school

  5. MCCARTHYISM • RED SCARE • Government workers during Truman & Eisenhower’s presidencies who were thought to be “security risks” were forced to resign or were fired • Senator Joe McCarthy used this fear to grow his own political power • Accused educators, journalists, entertainers, etc. • McCarthy investigates the Army looking for communists • Investigation seen on TV turns public opinion against him • He loses his power in the Senate as a result

  6. Civil rights movement • Brown vs. Board • Young black girl must travel through a dangerous rail yard to get to her all black school – her father sues for the right to send his daughter to the closer by all white school • Thurgood Marshall • First African-American Supreme Court Justice works on the case • Rosa Parks • Parks refused to give her Montgomery Alabama bus seat to a white person and was arrested

  7. Civil rights movement • Martin Luther King Jr. • Montgomery Bus Boycott • Non-violent protest • This drew attention to the racial discrimination against blacks in America • 1957 Civil Rights Law • First civil rights law since the end of reconstruction • Little Rock Nine • Arkansas governor tries to prevent 9 African-American high school students from attending an all white school • National guard is called to keep students out • US Army troops arrive to protect the 9 students (101st Airborne) • Eventually the governor backed down

  8. Life in the 1950’s • More products, more jobs, higher standard of living • “Family” and “Home” became symbols of American life • Husbands were “breadwinners” and women were “housewives” • Women did have jobs, but those jobs were seen as temporary until they had children • Eventually, women begin to question the narrow role assigned to them by society • In the early 1960’s, the women’s movement would begin

  9. Life in the 1950’s • Interstate highway system

  10. Life in the 1950’s

  11. Space Race • Soviets launch Sputnik on 10/4/57 • First satellite • Concern grows over the Soviet Union being able to do something that America could not • Sputnik II carried a dog into space – before the Americans got there • Explorer I – 1/31/58 • The following October NASA is born

More Related