MR LIPMANS APUS POWERPOINT CHAPTER 37 THE 1950s

MR. LIPMAN’S APUS POWERPOINT CHAPTER 37 THE 1950’s

KEYS TO THE CHAPTER Ø Economic Prosperity Ø Mc. Carthyism Ø Civil Rights Era begins Ø Cold War Escalates Ø Space Race begins Ø Election of 1960

Economic Prosperity Ø Single Family Homes and Suburbs Ø Technology changes employment sector Ø Unions down & “white collar jobs” up Ø “Cult of Domesticity” returns for women Ø Women move into office employment

expansion of middle class and consumer culture l Easy credit, fast food, new forms of recreation • 1948 – first Mc. Donald’s • 1949 – first credit card • 1955 – Disneyland opened • Rock and Roll and Sex part of consumer culture

The Television Revolution

Ø Election of 1952 – Republicans l Nominate Dwight D. Eisenhower • General during WWII l Richard Nixon nominated as vice president Ø Election of 1952 – Democrats l l Weak because of Korea, Truman’s clashes with Mac. Arthur, inflation, seeming spread of communism Nominate Adlai Stevenson

Ø Nixon’s “Checkers Speech” l l Speech on national TV to confront $ allegations, made himself seem like a “regular guy” with a family and dog (Checkers) Will lose race for President in 1960 but come back from the dead and win presidency in 1968

Ø Senator Joseph Mc. Carthy {a quick rise and fall} l l Ø Elected in 1946 to US Senate from Wisconsin February 1950 – accused State Department of knowingly employing 205 Communist party members Failed to produce evidence of even 1 Americans believed communists infiltrating gov’t and initially approve of Mc. Carthy’s tactics Mc. Carthy and the Republicans l Eisenhower was afraid to confront Mc. Carthy, even though he disagreed with Mc. Carthy’s tactics

Mc. Carthy Making Accusations

Ø Spring of 1954 – Mc. Carthy attacked US Army l 35 days of televised hearings December 1954 – Senate censures him Ø 1957 – Mc. Carthy died of chronic alcoholism Ø Ø Effects of Mc. Carthyism l Mc. Carthyism – okays practice of publicizing accusations despite insufficient evidence l Damaged traditions of free speech l Careers of many ruined

Civil Rights Movement Begins Ø Life for blacks in the South in the 1950 s l l 15 million blacks lived in US and 2/3 rd in South Lived under segregation (Jim Crow laws) • Isolated from whites, economically & politically powerless • Separate schools, toilets, drinking fountains, restaurants, waiting rooms, train and bus seating 1947 Jackie Robinson breaks the baseball color barrier l 1950 – Sweatt v. Painter • Separate Professional schools ruled unequal

Ø 1954 – Brown v. Board of Education l Segregation in public schools was “inherently unequal” and therefore unconstitutional Decision reversed Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Desegregation must occur “with all deliberate speed” l “massive resistance” in Deep South l l • 1956 -100 southern Congressman signed “Declaration of Constitutional Principles” pledging resistance to segregation • Some states used public money to set up private schools • 1964 – only 2% of eligible blacks in desegregated classes

It is only after the 1964 Civil Rights Act that actual desegregation begins in the schools

The Montgomery Bus Boycott -------December 1955 – January 1957

Ø 1957 – Congress passed first Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction l l Eisenhower is reluctant to act quickly Authorized federal injunctions (court orders) to protect voting rights 1957 – Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) 1957 - Little Rock, Arkansas confrontation

The “Little Rock Nine” Escorted by Federal Troops

“The Problem We All Live With”

Ø February 1, 1960 – “sit-ins” begin in Greensboro, North Carolina l l Four students demanded service at whites-only lunch counter in Woolworth’s and were refused End of the week – over 1, 000 students had joined sit-ins in Greensboro Sit-in movement then spread across South April 1960 – Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced “snick”) begins

Ø IKE SPENDS BIG ON MILITARY DEFENSE AND THIS CREATES ECONOMIC PROSPERITY Ø Interstate Highway Act of 1956 l l l Public works project much bigger than New Deal $27 billion to build 42, 000 miles of interstates Effects • • Many new jobs Suburbanization of US Air quality problems and Increased energy consumption Railroads hurt by competition from trucks and cars

Defense Spending as a Percentage of GDP, 1950 - 1997

Ø Problems with “massive retaliation” l {more bang for the buck theory} l 1956 – Hungary rose in revolt against USSR • USSR used troops to put down rebellion • Revealed that nuclear weapons were overkill for a small incident like Hungary l l Long-range planes and nuclear weapons more expensive than Eisenhower first believed Fear of Nuclear War makes threats less believable against conventional weapons

Main US Highways, 1930 – 1970

Highway Construction in the 1950 s

The Vietnam Nightmare Begins Ø US helps France battle the nationalists l To oppose communism as well as gain French support for rearming of West Germany By 1954, US paying 80% of costs of French army Ø 1954 – French surrounded at Dienbienphu but Ike refuses to use bombers to help

-------Following 1954 Geneva Agreement that USA doesn’t sign --------17 th Parallel

Cold War Crises in the Middle East Ø The Suez crisis l October 1956 – Britain, France (with Israel) launch assault on Egypt but failed to tell IKE l Britain and France forced to withdraw l The Eisenhower Doctrine (1957) Military and economic aid promised to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression OPEC is formed in 1960 and becomes a power in 1970 s when it cuts off oil exports

Sputnik I and Sputnik II 1957 The Race is On

Ø Effects of Sputnik l Ø American superiority in science, military, and education questioned and NASA established l 1958 – US put satellite in orbit l By 1960, US had developed its own ICBMs US education criticized for being too easy l Drive to replace electives with math and science courses

Federal gov’t gets involved in Education

Ø U-2 incident May 1, 1960 l Gary Powers (CIA pilot) shot down while spying in Soviet airspace • US denied he was spying, but USSR brought out proof l l Summit ruined when Khrushchev stormed out Tensions remain high between countries and now Cuba becomes a problem

Ø The Cuban Revolution l l l January 1959 – Fidel Castro carried out revolution and deposed Batista Castro seizes property from Americans to carry out land distribution Castro allied with USSR when US cut off sugar imports • US threatened to enforce Monroe Doctrine, but did not when Khrushchev threatened war

Nixon and Kennedy Debate: Election 1960

Ø Election of 1960 – results l Kennedy won, narrowly • Margin of only 118, 574 votes (out of 68 million cast) {“the Chicago factor”? } • First Roman Catholic, and youngest ever elected • Received strong support in big cities, from workers, Catholics, blacks l Democrats won both houses of Congress

Ø Accomplishments under Eisenhower l US was extremely prosperous • With pockets of poverty and some farm problems l l Some Civil Rights victories (but hated Warren pick) Controlled military through decade with USSR • Warned of “military-industrial complex” in farewell address in 1961 l Reality was Eisenhower a strong president despite critics; gained greater reputation as time has passes

POST WAR LITERATURE Ø In fiction, some prewar realists continued l l l Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea (1952); killed himself in 1961 John Steinbeck: East of Eden (1952) and Travels with Charley (1962); Norman Mailer: The Naked and the Dead Joseph Heller: Catch-22 Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse 5

Post War Playwrights Tennessee Williams wrote of psychological misfits trying to hold it together in modern life • A Streetcar Named Desire; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof l Arthur Miller’s plays about American values • Death of a Salesman (1949); The Crucible (1953) l l Lorraine Hansberry: A Raisin in the Sun Edward Albee: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) • exposed the darker side of middle-class life

Ø Bestselling books by black authors l l l Richard Wright: Native Son (1940) Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man (1952) about blacks’ search for identity James Baldwin: The Fire Next Time (1963) explored racial questions