An Affluent Society

1953 – 1960Chapter 24

BUSINESS Per Capita Income: Average income per 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  Television1955 the average family watched TV 5 hours a dayI Love Lucy, American Bandstand, Mickey Mouse ClubRaised 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

Tutti Frutti

Johnny B. Goode

Hound Dog

Blueberry Hill

Shout

Cash

Yakety Yak

Twist

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 1950s•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 101st 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