1950s America

1950s America: “The Golden Age of Capitalism:

- Large-scale “Baby Boom” → Post WWII (1946) ~ 3.6 million
babies born… Rough Estimate has it.. Between 1954-64, ~4
million babies born annually
- Economy Boom → Spending… lots and LOTS of spending…
Why? What influences spending?
- Suburb Boom → The end of WWII, the turn of development…
- Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (G.I. Bill) → Dept. of
Labor notices lots of future unemployment encroaching as WWII is
going to end… Resolve!
- G.I. Bill → To help veterans returning home → Go to college, aid
with hospitalization, loans for homes and businesses…
- Racial Issue? → Not all veterans benefit from the bill… African
American / Black veterans more often than not DID NOT receive
loans, and many turned away from buying homes in suburbs
 House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) (1938)
- Comes from the growing Cold War between
U.S. & U.S.S.R. :
- Threat perceived → Communists are inside the
United States (Red Scare)
- Tasked with investigating supposed disloyalty /
Rebellious activity against America.
- Those investigated could be: private citizens,
public employees and organizations
- “Un-American”
- Ties in with the concept of McCarthyism in the
1950s…
- McCarthyism is the next step → Govt.
Employees and other organizations.
McCarthyism:
- Formed from Senator Joseph McCarthy.
- From 1950-1954
- “The practice of accusing Federal Government
employees of having affiliations with communism
and leaking information.”
- Govt. Employees could be put on a blacklist:
- Being they weren’t seen as trustworthy or were deemed “Any man who has been named by a
“Un-American” / Communist. either a senator or a committee or a
congressman as dangerous to the
- A wedge in America…
welfare of this nation, his name
- Civil Liberties & National Security blurs… should be submitted to the various
- Army-McCarthy Hearings (1954) intelligence units, and they should
conduct a complete check upon him.
It’s not too much to ask.”
Let’s Take a Music Pause…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5IKpHTEuY0

- In small groups with the Lyrics you were given work on the following:

1) What are the lyrics about? What’s being described?

2) How do the lyrics relate to life in the 1950s?
3) Which lyrics stand out in terms of applying this song to the 1950s? And why?
 Levittown & Suburbs in
the 1950s
- Part of the Suburb Boom following WWII…
- Established in Pennsylvania during the 1950s
- An approach to reach the new market: Suburbs.
- “Utopia” Suburb:
- Affordable housing, as well as “Picture Perfect”
controlled community
- Designed to appeal to new and upcoming homeowners
with new technology and simplistic housing design to
appeal to the masses that looked for housing.
- Discrimination within “Utopia”:
- Bill Levitt → House sales…
- Exclusion of other races… William & Daisy Myers
- “Americanism” to justify racial exclusivity..
Levittown Document Questions:
Directions: in small groups, answer the following questions. Make sure to be ready to
share out.

Questions:
1) What is your document about?
2) What is occurring within your document?
3) Who is impacted by / within the document?
4) Would you classify what’s happening in your document / what your document is
about as “American” or “Un-American”?
5) How much influence does McCarthyism have within your document?
6) HUAC Influence on your document?
One Last Question to End Class… Actually a Couple
1) What is America’s response to Communism at home?

2) How did consumerism impact the 1950s?

Urbanized Cities V.S. Suburbs:

What About the Urban Cities? Do Suburbs impact them?

How do we see Suburbs impact Urbanized areas?

 Let’s Take a Closer Look: Chicago, IL

- We attribute the common

automobile as a great success,
and it is…
- But for the urbanized cities it
causes displacement.
- The shifts in daily life is very
heavily attributed to the
widespread “Family Car” as
meaning of traversing the United
States from Urban areas to Rural
and upcoming suburbans..
Let’s Take a Closer Look: Chicago, IL
Let’s Take a Closer Look: Chicago, IL
Automobile: Lifelong Influence
Expressways:

- Built to deal with the congestion that comes with the boom of the Automobiles
throughout America
- The idea was to ease the traffic flow going into cities / going out…
- Where does the space come from for these Expressways?
- Costly Costly Costly…
- Economically: Expensive… ~6.2 Million $$ per Square Mile.
- Socially: Displacement of Homes and Jobs
- Who is affected by this?
Expressways & The Effect on Urban Populations:
https://americanhistory.si.edu/america-on-the-move/city-and-suburb
 Expressways & The Effect on Urban Populations:
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA): Means of public
transportation that struggled dearly approaching the
1950s…

- Given limited funding, rising expenditures, and the

dramatic change of patterned use
- By 1959 → Many buses and trains are replaced
with one of the first median-strip rapid-transit line.
- 1950s = Increased ownership of automobiles…
- Increase of Traffic Jams & Expensive Parking
Garages = Public Transportation having greater
usage within Urbanized Cities..
 Suburbia Overthrows Urbanization…
Suburbs are Responsible for the shift of White
Culture…

-What do we know about suburbs regarding

Race in America so far?

- With the move towards Suburbs, American

economy shifts → Growing “Sunbelt” as
well as shift from Urban Cities to more rural
and less developed / developing areas of the
United States… Midwest
Suburbia Overthrows Urbanization…
Suburbs take economy with them…

- Urbanized areas are restricted to minority groups at this point in time… Like
Levittown, many suburbs in appeal with both “Picturesque” as well as to avoid
McCarthyism / notions of Communism avoid inclusion of African American families
within suburbs…(They fight it, but doesn’t stay this way forever).
- Retail and big industry declines in Urban cities… because the larger portion of the
market moves to Suburbs!
- Trains becoming obsolete → Shipping trucks rise!
- Newly established highways, again, cut into urban cities and disperse the populace.
 Let’s Reflect:
Discussion Questions:
1) It’s 1950, and you’re coming back from WWII as a Veteran. You get a loan for a house in a suburb.
Are you going to have a successful life? Why?
a) What if you were an African American / Black war Veteran? Would the same apply to you?
Why?

2) Similar to question 1 in that you’re coming back from WWII, but you are living within an urbanized
city. Are you going to have a successful life? Hardships? Why is your situation different from the
first scenario?

3) How would you fix the issues presented between questions 1 and 2?