America conformed in the 1950’s transferring, by the end of the decade to 25% of America, into the suburbs. Americans moved into tract-housing, or cookie cutter homes. These places were neighborhoods in which all the houses were the same, crab grass front lawn, all the houses looked the same, some people couldn’t even tell the difference between their own houses and others, sometimes getting lost. This time period of moving also came with a Baby Boom. Loved ones were reunited after the several wars that had been saddening the country for over 25 years and the sense of security and “chill” was increasing, everybody wanted to relax and didn’t want to be involved in anymore wars or national crisis. While many wanted to relax and therefore moving to the suburbs, they also grew economically. During the 1950’s the middle class propelled because of the huge economic boom after WWII that continued for years. More Americans were classified as middle class and that meant more spending money, which meant more eye-catching consumer goods. Because of this conforming to one another became a very popular practice in America. Everybody wanted “to be like the Joneses” which in America meant everybody basically just wanted to be like everybody else. For example, if your neighbor bought a new TV, you bought a new TV, if somebody else had something, you had to get it. That is how society worked, and many would argue still works today.
But of course, like in all societies around the world, while some were thriving, others were still stuck in the slums. “Despite the emerging affluence of the new American middle class, there was a poverty, racism, and alienation in America that was rarely depicted on TV” (ushistory.org) African American poverty rates doubled those of the whites and the segregation in schools (even after the Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court case), lack of a political voice, and longstanding racial prejudices that were just part of American culture and had been for so long, smothered the economic advancement among the Black American communities. Though Jim Crow was allegedly gone in America, its legacies were still dwindling and they were strong, especially among the White Americans in the South. The bus system was a huge part of the American transportation system, especially because cars weren’t as popular as they are today. Black Americans were allowed to ride the buses but of course, like most other things in American society, their place was designanted, and in the case of the bus system, that was the back of the bus. The first person to change this was Rosa Parks, who on December 1, 1955 refused to move for a white passenger. Though Rosa was elected, whispers of this incident spread throughout America over night, and enraged many Black Americans, eventually starting a peace movement lead by Martin Luther King Jr. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was “the initial phase of the black protest activity in the post-Brown period…The boycott lasted more than a year, demonstrating the unity and determination of black residents and inspiring blacks elsewhere” (history.com) Though at this time many Americans were not ready to let go of segregation, Black Americans finally realized that they weren’t going to give up fighting and they weren’t going to back down any longer until they got what they deserved. Much of the “Civil Rights Movement” that we know today didn’t happen until the 1960’s but Rosa Park and the beginning of the MLK Jr. era were its definite predecessors.
Black Americans weren’t the only ones suffering, the Latino Americans suffered as well. The Latino’s were weakened in urban American “barrios” and the Eisenhower Administration did nothing to help them, eventually producing a program (Operation Wetback) to deport millions of Mexican Americans. Though America stood for equality and freedom, “Ethnic minorities-Jews, Italians, Asians, and many groups-all struggled to find their place in the American quilt” (ushistory.org)
1950’s video in
Cold War notes
Part of the reason why the civil rights movement sprung up when it did was because of Eisenhower's limited support of civil rights. He urged desegregation to go slowly, because he believed that integration required a change of peoples' hearts and minds. He was sympathetic to white southerners when they complained of change. The civil rights legislation that he did sign was weak, and it didn't allow most blacks to be able to vote.
ReplyDeleteSource:
http://millercenter.org/president/biography/eisenhower-domestic-affairs