APUSH 8.4

White Flight

50's movement where middle-class white Americans fled to suburbs leaving inner cities to decay

Levittown

In 1947, William Levitt used mass production techniques to build inexpensive homes in surburban New York to help relieve the postwar housing shortage. Levittown became a symbol of the movement to the suburbs in the years after WWII.

Suburbanization

Movement of upper and middle-class people from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution as well as deteriorating social conditions (perceived and actual). In North America, the process began in the early nineteenth century and became a mass phenomenon by the second half of the twentieth century.

Dr. Spock

Was a 1950's doctor who told the whole baby boom generation how to raise their kids. He also said that raising them was more important and rewarding than extra $ would be. Encouraged mothers to stay home. Wrote the Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care.

Baby Boom

30 million people born in the US between 1946 and 1964; this post-war era allowed for better education, employment, peace and prosperity - increasing higher rates of both marriage and fertility.

Sunbelt

The southern and southwestern states, from the Carolinas to California, characterized by warm climate and recently, rapid population growth

Consumerism

The movement seeking to protect and inform consumers by requiring such practices as honest packaging and advertising, product guarantees, and improved safety standards

Military-industrial Complex

Eisenhower first coined this phrase when he warned American against it in his last State of the Union Address. He feared that the combined lobbying efforts of the armed services and industries that contracted with the military would lead to excessive Congressional spending.

New "Cult of domesticity"

the ideal woman was seen as a tender, self-sacrificing caregiver who provided a nest for her children and a peaceful refuge for her husband, social customs that restricted women to caring for the house

"Pink-collar Ghetto"

women are often encouraged to pursue low end jobs (secretarial, daycare worker, nurse, teacher) Lower paid, less room for advancement, take orders rather than give, more emotional work

Billy Graham

One of the most popular evangelical ministers of the era. Star of the first televised "crusades" for religious revival. He believed that all doubts about the literal interpretation of the bible were traps set by Satan. He supported Republicans and a large increase to money in the military.

Elvis Presley

United States rock singer whose many hit records and flamboyant style greatly influenced American popular music (1935-1977)

David Riesman

Wrote "The Lonely Crowd", a sociological study against modern conformity, which postulates the existence of the "inner-directed" and "other-directed" personalities. Riesman argues that the character of post WWII American society impels individuals to "other-directedness", the preeminent example being modern suburbia, where individuals seek their neighbors' approval and fear being outcast from their community.

John Kenneth Galbraith

Wrote "The Affluent Society," saying that the model for our society is growth and in order to grow we have to create WANTS.

Thurgood Marshall

American civil rights lawyer, first black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall was a tireless advocate for the rights of minorities and the poor. He argued in support of Brown v. Board of Education and won.

Brown v. Board of Education

1954- court found that segregation was a violation of the Equal Protection clause; "separate but equal" has no place; reverse decision of Plessy v Feurgeson

Martin Luther King, Jr.

U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize (1964)

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

An organization founded by MLK Jr., to direct the crusade against segregation. Its weapon was passive resistance that stressed nonviolence and love, and its tactic direct, though peaceful, confrontation.

Rosa Parks

United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama) and so triggered the national civil rights movement (born in 1913)

Montgomery Bus Boycott

In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.

Little Rock 9

incident in which troops (sent by president Eisenhower) helped integrate a high school by allowing nine black students to enter school peacefully and not be prevented by angry mobs.

Greensboro Sit-ins

At segregated Woolworth's counter in Greensboro, NC, February of 1960 black college students staged a sit-in to protest the segregation in public places. 8: 1941-1960

Interstate Highway Act of 1956

largest legally funded construction project in US history; built a network of controlled access highways. led to: "white flight"; "urban blight"; de facto segregation; motels, fast food, campers; expansion of dictionaries "smog"; automobile > mass transit; trucks > railroads, shopping centers/malls > d-town.

Tennessee Williams

The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire; famous American playwright in 20th c; one of the most filmed playwrights; homosexual

Arthur Miller

Wrote The Crucible in 1950s about Salem witch trials as a parallel to McCarthy's "witch hunt" for communists during the Red Scare

Ralph Ellison

United States novelist who wrote about a young Black man and his struggles in American society (1914-1994). He was the author of the Invisible Man (1952)

J.D. Salinger

wrote in the Catcher in the Rye of a prep school student, Holden Caulfield who was unable to find any are of society—school, family, friends, city - in which he could feel secure or committed.

Fulton Sheen

Catholic bishop who became a television personality through program "Life Is Worth Living"

William Whyte

Criticized the loss of old Protestant ethics in society to a new emphasis on teamwork and togetherness, which could only lead to conformity; author of The Organization Man (1956), based on suburban life he observed.

Norman Mailer

wrote "The Naked and the Dead" (1948), based on military experiences

Joseph Heller

wrote "Catch-22," a novel about war that denounced its stupidity and waste