Conformity, Civil Rights, and Expansion: 1950s America

1. 1950’s • Objectives • Analyze the extent and causes for Conformity in the 1950’s by identifying 3 lifestyles that became common in the 1950’s • Explain the causes and impact of the early Civil Rights Movement by explaining 2 major incidents or people from the 1950’s • Explain the expansion of role of government by explaining 2 new ways the government was seeking to make the US a world leader and greatest country in the world

2. ID: Ozzie and Harriet (884) • Summary 1: How does this family look and what issues do they deal with? • White, Middle Class (family issues of middle class. Suburban America- girls, school, neighbors, growing up? • Is that a real reflection of Americans?

3. OI- Affluence and Its Anxieties • 1)How many homes were built in the 1950’s and what percentage were built in the suburbs? • 1 in 4 built in 1950’s, 83% in suburbs • Suburbs- new neighborhoods just outside of cities that provided simple, similarly built, affordable homes and neighborhoods (very white, middle class) • Levittown- suburb in New York ($5000 for house, Pre-Fabricated housing- made off site (assembly line) and assembled at site

4. 2) How did the nature of work change in the 1950’s? (White collar vs. blue collar) • White collar (businessmen) outnumbered blue collar (factory workers) • 3) What type of life did television depict? • Suburban families w. working father, stay at home mother, and two children • What was missing from TV?

5. 4) What did Betty Freidan write and why was that book important? • Feminine Mystique (stated that women were unhappy as housewives, launched women’s rights movement) • Why would women feel unhappy with all their wealth and materialistic goods?

6. ID- The Golden Arches (885) • Summary 2- What was McDonald’s the model for creating? • Franchises- restaurants and stores that were identical no matter where they were • How do you feel stores and restaurants were different before franchises?

7. Consumer Culture in the Fifties • 4) By 1960 what household item did nearly every American own that they did not have at the beginning of the decade? • Television (7 mil. In 1951, everyone home had one by end of 50’s • 5) Who moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1958? • Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants (1st professional baseball teams outside of Northeast) • Why do you feel the Dodgers and Giants moved to CA?

8. 6) What did Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe have in common? • Overt sexuality • Elvis Presley- popularized Rock n’ Roll (1st white singer to sound black, GOOD looking, swung hips while singing • How does Marilyn Monroe make the role of women in the Fifties even more unbearable? • 7) What did books like The Organization Man and The Man in the Grey Flannel suit critic? • Working for large corporations (materialism over quality of life, fitting in to what the company wants over individualism)

9. A Black Woman described the day in… (890) • Summary 3- What right is being denied this women? • Equality (being free to go where you please and treated with dignity) • Desegregating American Society • 8) What was the major problem in regards to blacks voting in the south? (%?) • Not registered to vote (only 20%, 5% in Miss. Where blacks were over 50% of population • How is registering to vote even more important than voting? (What is the difference b/t voting and being registered)

10. 9) Identify 1 example of racial progress in the North • Jackie Robinson broke color barrier in baseball • Emmett Till- 14 year old child kidnapped, murdered for whistling at white woman, two brothers accused of killing Emmett and found innocent, sold story to magazine about how they killed Emmett to a magazine (5th Amend.) • How does Emmett’s murder spark the Civil Rights movement?

11. 10) What new group of African-Americans refused to “suffer in silence” and “generated new militancy”? • NAACP (challenged segregation laws in court • Thurgood Marshall- NAACP top lawyer who was black and represented blacks across the south (became 1st black supreme court justice)

12. 11) What person emerged from the Montgomery Bus Boycott as a new civil rights leader? • Martin Luther King Jr. • 12) Montgomery Bus Boycott- 1yr. Af/Am. In Montgomery Alabama refused to rife bus • What is so particularly unfair about having blacks ride the back of the bus? (Think economic difference b/t whites and blacks?) • Rosa Parks- instigator of boycott, refused to move from her seat • Churches- center of the boycott (organized people to support strike • Why are churches so important to the AF/Am community? • Actions (blacks)- carpools, • whites- arrests for illegal boycotts, bombed MLK house

13. Summary 4- Integration at Little Rock (894) What hardship does the Af/Am. Confront and how are they protected • A white population that does not want blacks to go to school w. whites, Army sent in by Pres. Eisenhower • Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution • 12) What did Brown vs. Board of Education establish? • Desegregation of schools • Stated that segregation in schools was unfair and harmful to black children and thus unconstitutional

14. 13) What court case and idea did Brown overturn? • Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal) legalized segregation in 1896 • Little Rock 9- schools in South were desegregating as slow as possible • LR9- 1st nine black students to attend central high school in Little Rock • Public was appalled that blacks and whites were going to school together

15. 14) How did the Governor of Arkansas, OrvalFaubus, and President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, both react to integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.? • Gov. Faubus sent National Guard to keep students out of school • Pres. Eisenhower sent Army in to escort and protect the students to and from school • What has changed as far as the Federal Governments response to Civil Rights? • Why do you think President Eisenhower decided to get involved? (What has changed in 50’s to allow northerners to want to help?)

16. 15) Who founded the SCLC and what apparatus did it use to organize blacks? • MLK (churches) MLK’s organization for Civil RIghts • 16) What type of protest began in Greensboro, NC? What organization grew out of the sit in? • Sit in (students would sit at a segregated counter and wait to be served, store would close, students come back next day) • Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

17. Summary 5 Operation Wetback (896) What is happening to the young man and who is helping and hurting the young man? • He is being pulled into Mexico and USA by officilas on both sides • 17) Eisenhower Republicanism at Home Define “Dynamic Conservatism” in your own words? • Balanced approach to government where Gov. still helps people in need but tries to save money where it can (Rep.)

18. 18) What was Operation Wetback? What program did it nullify? • Round up of guest worker Mexicans and sent back to Mexico • Bracero Program- allowed Mexicans to come to US temporary since WWII • 19) What did the Interstate Highway Act create for the US? • Interstate Highway System- allowed cars to move across the US in days (invention of freeways) • Meant to help Army move troops across the continent • What was the road people took across US before?

19. Summary 6- The Helicopter Era (901) What is the critique of IKE’s second term? • That we was out of touch and would rather play golf • Round Two for Ike • 20) What was Sputnik? • 1st satellite into space (sent by soviets)

20. 21) Why did Sputnik shock Americans? • How could the Soviets beat us into space? Weren’t we the greatest country on earth? • US felt uneasy and lost confidence • 22) How was the National Education Act a response to Sputnik? • Gov. loans almost $900 mil. For students to go to college and study science and math • This generation invents the internet and American’s dominance in computers today!!!