An Affluent Society 1953 1960 Chapter 24

An Affluent Society 1953 – 1960 Chapter 24

BUSINESS Per Capita Income: Average income person; increased from $1526 to $2788 Business Conglomerates: a large corporation that owns many smaller companies that produce different goods & services (ATT owned Avis, Sheratons, Banks) Franchises: opening a restaurant using a parent company’s brand name & system

TECHNOLOGY Television § 1955 the average family watched TV 5 hours a day § I Love Lucy, American Bandstand, Mickey Mouse Club § Raised money through commercials LABOR White Collar Jobs: held by a majority of Americans in 1956; encouraged by good conditions; “power elite” 1955 AFL-CIO Merger: 25% of all Americans were unionized

SUBURBS & HIGHWAYS Baby Boom: birthrate increased to 25 per 1, 000 people – due to better jobs and pay Suburbs: areas surrounding major cities where growing families sought new houses Levittown: communities outside major cities built with mass-production technique by developer William Levitt; used pre-cut, preassembled materials Cars • Growth of suburbs = increased dependence on cars, less on public transit • Began introducing new designs every year • Resulted in need for better roads • Interstate Highway Act: provided $26 billion to build an interstate system more than 40, 000 miles long (original purpose was for mass evacuation in nuclear attacks) • Sparked tourism, drive-in theatres & restaurants

CONSUMERS Credit Cards: allowed people to charge gas purchases when they were on the road; lending companies picked up the idea – American Express, Visa; buying was attached to status/success CULTURE Men • Go to school, find jobs to support wife/kids • Worked, made important political, economic, social decisions • Judged by what they could buy Women • Reluctant to give up wartime jobs • Not in public sphere, supportive of husband • Kept house, cooked meals, raised children • Life Magazine: 1947 “The American Woman’s Dilemma” to 1956 “Busy Wife’s Achievements” • Democratic Presidential Candidate in 1952: told college girls “the assignment for you, as wives and mothers, you can do in the living room with a baby in your lap or in the kitchen with a can opener in your hand”

Rock & Roll Revolution Blueberry Hill Tutti Frutti Johnny B. Goode Twist Yakety Yak Shout Hound Dog Cash

CHALLENGES TO CONFORMITY Hollywood: James Dean, Marilyn Monroe Rock & Roll: Clevland, OH, 1953, music grown out of rhythm-and-blues tradition. Elvis Presley: flamboyant style, good looks – adults feared promotion of immorality Beatniks: “Beat Generation” writers, artists, stress spontaneity & spirituality instead of conformity

EISENHOWER PRESIDENCY Election of 1952 • Republican Candidate: “I Like Ike” • Scandal: papers reported accused Ike’s running mate, Nixon, of receiving illegal gifts from rich supporters Nixon went on TV to deny it, said they got the family dog, “Checkers” as a gift Administration • Modern Republicanism: cutting govt spending, reducing taxes, and balancing the national budget, limit the President’s power • Favored big business – as cabinet members, Secretary of Defense was GM president • New Deal Extention: Soc Sec extended to 10 million more workers, minimum wage was raised from 75 cents to $1 • National Defense Education Act: reaction to the launch of Sputnik (Russian satellite) – in 1958 law was designed to improve science and math instruction

THE EARLY CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT Segregation in the 1950 s • Poverty – 50% of black families, lack of job security • In South – colleges, hotels, restaurants, housing, performers • In North – 28 million kids in segregated schools Brown v. Board of Education (1954) • Schools were not equal – no running water, no toilets, no busses • Oliver Brown sued Topeka Board to allow 8 year old daughter Linda to attend a closer white-only school (had to walk 6 blocks) • Argued by lawyer Thurgood Marshall • Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled “separate facilities are inherently unequal” • “separate but equal” was no longer ok in public education • Court ruled all schools to desegregate “with all deliberate speed”

Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955 • Began with Rosa Parks in December – refused to move, was arrested and stood trial • Organized a boycott – called for African Americans to refuse to use the entire bus system until the company agreed to change its policy • 26 year old Baptist minister became the spokesperson for the protest movement • Movement went on for 1 year – 50, 000 walked, biked, or car pooled • Supreme Court ruled bus segregation was unconstitutional • Southern Christian Leadership Conference: coalition of black ministers, civil rights activists focused on desegregation

Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957 • Reaction to Brown v. Board – whites hostile, 82 Congressmen opposed the ruling • Governor Orval Faubus said he could not keep order if he had to enforce integration • Faubus placed AK National Guardsman at high school who stopped black students • Direct challenge to Constitution • Eisenhower used the 101 st airborne to protect black students Election of 1960 • JFK – 43 years old, Roman Catholic from Massachusetts • Cold War outlook – U. S. needs to rally, respond to Sputnik • Claimed Republicans lied about the “missile gap” • Jacqueline K. – “Will & Kate effect” • Nixon-Kennedy TV debate • Kennedy won by only 120, 000 votes • Ike’s farewell: don’t get too trigger-happy, beware of the military-industrial complex