Unit 5:
Name: _________________________
Era of Social Change
Period: _________________________
1950s Americana
Notes
Baby Boom-dramatic increase in population during and after WWII. Retirement of
this generation is creating a shortage in Social Security funding.
Nuclear Family-2 married adults with children; example of conformity in the 1950s
Suburbia-White middle class suburb housing
GI Bill of Rights



Boom in Education and homes
GI Bill of Rights passed to benefit WWII veterans
o Low cost mortgages
o Low-interest loans
o Education benefits
Effects:
o Helped create a middle class
o Increased racial inequality (benefits weren’t given to A.A.)
Television—spread the common culture of the 1950s



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
Consumerism—1950s, is due to the growth of media, suburbs, and personal wealth
 TV became the center of consumer culture
The Beat Movement



Expressions of nonconformity by artists, poets and writers
Beatniks: lived nonconformist lives
o Free, open and loose
o Shunned by popular culture, did attract media attention as well as college students—Pre
counterculture
Rock and Roll-Rebellion music
Polio Vaccine-1950s cure for the Polio disease
President Eisenhower
Interstate Highway System—Due to civilian and military growth, 1950s President Dwight Eisenhower,
approved the Interstate Highway System
o Significance-Further connects the nation
President John F. Kennedy
1960 Election



Democratic nominee-John Fitzgerald Kennedy=Senator from Mass.
Publican Nominee-Richard Nixon=Vice President under Ike
Two Factors that helped JFK win-TV and Civil Rights
JFK



Well-organized campaign
$$ backed by large, wealthy family
Obstacles:
o Age: Only 43
o Religion: Roman Catholic
Televised Debate
 1st televised debate ever between presidential candidates
 Nixon: Expert on foreign policy
o Wanted to use the debate to expose JFK’s weakness.
 JFK-Cool and calm
 Significance= “Image replaced the printed word.”
 The Presidential election of 1960 was the closest in American History.
o JFK won popular vote by slim margin of 100,000 votes.
o Nixon won more individual states than Kennedy, but it was Kennedy who prevailed
by winning key states with many electoral votes
Kennedy and the King
 MLK and 33 demonstrators arrested in Atlanta at a segregated lunch counter
o No concern from Ike
o JFK showed concern
 Bobby K. convinced the judge to have MLK released on bail
Camelot
 JFK, wife Jackie, son John Jr., daughter Caroline
o Represented a Camelot mystique
JFK Takes Command
 Warned against supporting the French in Indochina
 JFK’s policy of Flexible Response
o Build-up of the nation’s conventional forces (non-nuclear forces)
 Created an elite branch of the Army
o The Special Forces or The Green Berets
Berlin Crisis
 Citizens from E. Berlin flocked into W. Berlin
o Better economy
 N.K. Constructed the Berlin Wall to separate the two (Aug. 1961)
o Sign of Communist oppression
New Frontier-JFK’s domestic programs targeting poverty and space program
Space Race-JFK vows to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s; he invests in NASA
o Apollo Program- lands Neil Armstrong on the moon. Armstrong-“One small step for man, one
giant leap for mankind”.
JFK Assassination
o Nov. 22, 1963-Dalles, TX-JFK arrived to mend political fences with members of the state’s
Democratic Party
o Dallas police charged Lee Harvey Oswald with murder-palm print found on rifle used
o Conspiracy theories:
o Oswald acted as part of a conspiracy with 2 shooters
o Anti-Castro Cubans
o Communist-sponsored attack
o Conspiracy by the CIA