The Baby Boom and Culture of the 1950’s

The Affluent Society

Unprecedented economic prosperity. Defense spending Little competition as a major supplier of

industrial goods. Americans went on unrestrained buying

sprees. Homeownership increased by 50%!

“The Affluent Society” book written by John Kenneth Galbraith gave the era this label that stuck.

Negative Aspects

Attitude went from “work hard” to consumption.

Consumerism and Advertising Appliances, Autos and homes were marketed to

consumers both on television and in magazines. Credit card companies encouraged “keeping up with

the Jones” by promoting buying on credit. Rise of franchises like McDonalds appealed to the

nations sense of conformity. Consumers could eat the same meal in their home town as they could while vacationing.

Families began to eat out more often as their affluence increased.

Advertising continued…

Baby BOOM!

Fertility rate ( # of birth’s per 1,000 women) peaked at 123 in 1957. An American baby was born every 7 seconds.

Why? More men in society due to end of WWII. GI bill allows men to start a family. Married at a

younger age then their parents ( 1 in 3 women married by age 19)

Medical science improved increasing the survival rate of babies.

Prosperous economy encouraged parents to have babies sooner. ( no fear of loosing a job and not being able to support the family)

Families

Television celebrated the American family

Only the bible outsold Dr. Benjamin Spock’s book: Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946)

He urged mothers to not work outside the home, comfort crying babies so that they wouldn’t feel rejected, and encouraged less spanking and scolding to create a “democratic” family.

Television continued…

Shows like Leave it to Beaver, and I love Lucy portrayed a perfect family life and not the reality of everyday homes. Moms were always pretty

and doing domestic things

Children were adventurous but obedient

Dads never worked late,never lost their temper and knew all the right answers.

Television

TV ownership rose as the cost of owning them dropped.

In 1952 TV Guide outsold every other magazine.

The TV Dinner was introduced in 1954 and altered America’s eating habits.

TV became the center of consumer culture.

Figure 27.3: The Television Revolution, 1950–1994

Role of middle class women.

Popular culture glorified marriage and parenthood more then any other era.

Women were told to be “helpmates” to their husband’s and full time mothers to their children “A woman isn’t a woman until

she is married and had children.” (The Tender Trap)

Working women were called “a menace” (Esquire)

The ideal wife was married at 16, raised 4 children, cooked and sewed, headed the PTA and exercised to keep her size 12 figure(Life)

Women’s roles continued…

Education continued the “gender roles” trend. Girls learned typing and cooking while boys

took carpentry and business courses. Guidance councilors cautioned women to not

“miss the boat” of marriage by pursuing higher education.

2/3 of college women failed to get a degree. Common joke was that they dropped out to get their M.R.S. degree or their Ph. T (Putting Hubbie Through)

Major Victory

· African Americans continued their struggle for equality, which became known as the civil rights movement.

· In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional.

Challenging the law:

A Sign at the Greyhound Bus Station, Rome, GeorgiaSeptember 1943. (Esther Bubley, photographer)

"The Rex theater for Negro People." Leland, Mississippi, November 1939.Marion Post Wolcott, photographer.

"A cafe near the tobacco market." Durham, North Carolina. May 1940.

" People waiting for a bus at the Greyhound bus terminal." Memphis, Tennessee. September 1943.

Esther Bubley, photographer.

· With help from the NAACP, the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka reached the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of Plessy v. Ferguson.

· In the case, Oliver Brown challenged that his daughter, Linda, should be allowed to attend an all-white school near her home instead of the distant all-black school she had been assigned to.

Oliver Brown was a welder for the Santa Fe Railroad and a part-time assistant pastor at St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Linda Brown was in the third grade when her father began his class action lawsuit.

· Brown’s lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, argued that “separate” could never be “equal” and that segregated schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee to provide “equal protection” to all citizens.

Standing outside a Topeka classroom in 1953 are the students represented in Oliver Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, From left: Vicki Henderson, Donald Henderson, Linda Brown (Oliver's daughter), James Emanuel, Nancy Todd, and Katherine Carper.

* In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Brown family, and schools nationwide were ordered to be desegregated.

George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit, following Supreme Court decision ending segregation.

Linda Brown and her new class mates after Court decision.

Thurgood Marshall(1908-1993) Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court.

Integrated schools:

· In Little Rock, Arkansas, Gov. Orval Faubus opposed integration.

· Gov. Faubus was violating federal law.

· In 1957, he called out the National Guard in order to prevent African Americans from attending an all-white high school.

Bottom Row, Left to Right: Thelma Mothershed, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Gloria Ray; Top Row, Left to Right: Jefferson Thomas, Melba Pattillo, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls, Daisy Bates(NAACP President), Ernest Green

· Therefore, Pres. Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock where, under their protection, the African American students were able to enter Central High School.

African American students arriving at Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas, in U.S. Army car, 1957.

Members of the 101st US-Airborne Division escorting the Little Rock Nine to school

Objective: To examine the causes and effects of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Top: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Right: E.D. Nixon

Left: Rosa Parks; Below: Rev. Ralph Abernathy

· In December of 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Voices of Montgomery

Rosa Parks is arrested:· As in many southern states, Alabama’s Jim Crow laws required that blacks give up their seats on buses to whites.

· Without black riders, white owned bus companies stood to lose a lot of money.

Dr. King:

· The NAACP, with the help of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., organized a bus boycott in Montgomery.

Listen to Dr. King and Ralph Abernathy discuss the importance of the boycott (1:53)

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from left, at a press conference. (May 26, 1963)

An empty bus passes by during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1956.

· King insisted that his followers follow civil disobedience, or nonviolent protests against unjust laws.

· King was arrested, his house was bombed, yet the boycott continued.

Martin Luther King, Jr., arrested, Montgomery, Alabama, 1958.

(Photograph by Charles Moore)

"Martin Luther King Jr. was

photographed by Alabama cops

following his February 1956

arrest during the Montgomery

bus boycott. The historic mug

shot, taken when King was 27,

was discovered in July 2004 by

a deputy cleaning out a

Montgomery County Sheriff's

Department storage room. It is

unclear when the notations

'DEAD' and '4-4-68' were

written on the picture.”

Police started harassing the car pool, threatening to arrest

drivers, revoke their licenses, and cancel their insurance

policies.  On January 26, King was arrested for speeding and

taken to jail (for driving 30 in a 25 mph zone).  A few days

later his house was bombed.  Soon King was receiving

dozens of hate letters and threatening phone calls every day. 

In February an all-white grand jury indicted 89 people,

including twenty-four ministers and all drivers in the car

pool, for violating an obscure state anti-labor law that

prohibited boycotts.  King was the first to be tried.  The judge

found him guilty and sentenced him a year of hard labor or

a fine of $500 plus court costs. 

· Therefore, the Montgomery bus company agreed to integrate their buses and hire black bus drivers.

A hard-won battle:

· In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional.

Dr. King and his wife, Coretta, at the conclusion of the boycott.

Dr. King and Reverend Ralph Abernathy riding a bus on the first day for desegregated buses in Montgomery, AL. (December 21, 1956)

Religion

Renewed interest in religion Church membership increased from 50 to

over 60% “Our government makes no sense, unless it

is founded in a deeply felt religious faith-and I don’t care what it is.” Eisenhower

Congress added “In God We Trust” placed on the U.S. currency.

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peal, a leading liberal Protestant minister was a best seller in the 1950s.

Ecumenical Movement

A movement for uniting all nominal Christians. Goal was to promote greater unity among professing

Christians, ultimately resulting in one great church to which all Christians would belong.

Result uniting of different bodies with similar denominational backgrounds

• Ex: American Methodists united with the Evangelical United Brethren to from the United Methodist Church

World Council of Churches: international ecumenical body

National Council of Churches primary body in the United States.

Compromised truth for unity.

Cont.

Charles E. Fuller: hosted the “Old Fashioned Revival Hour” radio program. Huge audience despite the fact that the

major networks would not carry his broadcasts.

Youth for Christ: large evangelistic outreach.

Billy Graham: full time evangelist for Youth for Christ.

GI Bill. Created June 24, 1944 Created to help ease

soldier back into every day life.

Gave job priority to to veterans, 52 weeks of unemployment benefits, monthly allowance, and low interest loans.