Prosperity And Anxiety: The 1950s

Question 0

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Answer 0

Effort by blacks I’m Montgomery, AL to have the local bus co. End discriminatory seating and hiring policies
Started with Rosa Parks
Led by Rev. MLK Jr.

Question 1

Brown vs. Board of Education

Answer 1

Supreme Court stated that “separate but equal” schools for white and blacks were unconstitutional
Mandated desegregation of schools
Led to controversy over enforcement
Reversed the Plessy vs. Ferguson case

Question 2

Baby Boom

Answer 2

From 1947-62
Americans married and had children at a record pace
High point: 1957

Question 3

The Feminine Mystique

Answer 3

By Betty Friedan
Described the frustration felt by the suburban house women in the 1950s
Landmark for feminists in the 60s and 70s

Question 4

James Dean

Answer 4

Young actor whose character in Without a Cause inspired many rebellious round people of the 1950s

Question 5

Beat Generation

Answer 5

Literary movement of the 1950s
Writers rejected American materialistic culture
Ex. Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs
All about rejecting conformity, jazz, rock n roll, and drugs
Led to hippie era

Question 6

GI Bill

Answer 6

Authorized low-interest mortgage loans for ex-servicemen (as well as subsidies for education)
Encouraged the housing industry that was one of the many industries that took flight after the Eisenhower administration thanks to the “military-industrial complex”

Question 7

Levittowns

Answer 7

Prefabricated homes
Built in an assembly line practice
Est. by William Levitt in NY
Revealed shift to suburbs

Question 8

Taft-Hartley Act

Answer 8

Passed by confess over Truman’s veto (which was done for political reasons)
Stated that the president could call off dangerous strikes
Union contributions could not be used in federal elections
Made Union leaders take an oath of anti-communism
Infuriated Union members

Question 9

Fair Deal

Answer 9

Truman’s policy as an expansion of FDR’s New Deal
Called for national health plan and civil rights legislation
Wanted to repeal the Taft-Hartley Act
But Truman’s popularity stayed low (next election: Thomas Dewey vs. Truman- repub; Strom Thurmond- Dixiecrat; Henry Wallace- progressive)

Question 10

Consumer spending increased in the 1950s because…

Answer 10

1. Many Americans were buying appliances for their homes
2. Many families were buying cars
3. Many Americans were buying homes
4. Advertising had a major impact on consumerism

Question 11

The policies of President Eisenhower were most similar to….

Answer 11

Calvin Coolidge

Question 12

The most important impact of tv on viewers in the 1950s was that…..

Answer 12

It imposed a sense of conformity of American society

Question 13

Many Americans were especially fearful of rock and roll in the 1950s because….

Answer 13

Many of the musicians how played it were black