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Civil Rights and Counter-Culture

Civil Rights and Counter-Culture. 1950s: The “Age of Affluence”: unprecedented economic advancement The End of World War II: The G.I. Bill; creation of suburban America; new affordability of houses and more access to education

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Civil Rights and Counter-Culture

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  1. Civil Rights and Counter-Culture 1950s: The “Age of Affluence”: unprecedented economic advancement The End of World War II: The G.I. Bill; creation of suburban America; new affordability of houses and more access to education “Happy Days”: television paced 50s culture with images of America as successful, placid, even – Father Knows Best and the Andy Griffith’s Show

  2. 1950s: the Communist Menace • Successful detonation of a nuclear device by the Soviets in 1949 began the Arms Race • Arms manufacture in the US: Enormous role in the economic success of the 50s • Communism provided Americans with a powerful narrative of national identity • Renewal of faith in American Dream: individualism, hard work, opportunity, patriotism the only way to deflect the spread of communism.

  3. 1950s: the Critique of Complacency • “The Power Elite”: concentration of economic and political power in the hands of the few • Sexual Revolution: the Kinsey Report disclosed difference between public and private behavior • The Selling of Sex • The Pill

  4. 1950s: The Feminine Mystique • Friedan: attack on conservative vision of gender relations employed by both sociologists and popular “authorities” • Vision of contented women contrasted to reality of bored, frustrated women • Kinsey, the Pill, offered a new form of agency to women otherwise “mystified” by the conservative, 50s vision of the contented housewife and mother.

  5. The challenge of feminism • Feminism: women’s lives should not be defined by their function in society • “Functionalism”: suggests that women are not individuals because their “role” is so important to a contented society • Women should claim their individual worth on their own terms, rather than perform a social or political function

  6. Another Challenge: Civil Rights • Jim Crow and Legal Segregation • 1954: Brown vs. Board of Education • Little Rock: enforced de-segregation • Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott • “Freedom Rides” • JFK Election and Southern Democrats • 1963: March on Washington: August • 1963: Assassination of MLK: November • 1964: Civil Rights Act

  7. Black Power • New positive affirmation of black identity • “Black is beautiful” • Malcolm X: Violence is necessary • Watts riot (1965); Newark (1967); Detroit (1967)

  8. Black Power and Liberal Politics • Black activism of the 60s insisted on importance of race • Legal Racism no longer allowed; replaced with “Economic Racism” • American political culture could no longer pretend that race isn’t part of the nation’s political order.

  9. Role of Government in America • Old Debate: does the government exist to protect individual liberty, or rather to minimize the social problems created by capitalism? • Tension between individual liberty, and the government’s ability to check it. • Country split over Civil Rights not something radically new

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