Postwar America: Nuke Tests, Suburbs, Civil Rights

AEC

Atomic Energy Commission; worked alongside government to misinform people about deadly affects of nuke tests to try to lift their mood

1950 Nevada Testing Site

Chosen for nuke tests to avoid major cities in the downwind current

"Downwinders"

Nickname for people who were affected by nuclear pollution thanks to debris from the detonation of test bombs carried to them by wind

Conformism

Criticism by rich people of the era who thought middle-class was being lazy and could become more wealthy if they wanted to (not actually lazy, they were happy)

How were soldiers demobilized at war's end in WWII?

According to a points system, you get more points by spending more time in combat, having more kids, etc. More points = get to go home faster (demobilized!)

National Health Act of 1946

Made to deal with all the psychologically troubled veterans returning from war

How did demobilization affect American jobs?

There was a brief spike in unemployment as people got laid off in the defense industries that were no longer aiding the war effort

GI Bill 1944

Gave veterans unemployment benefits, low interest loans for home buying or starting a business, and stipends to cover college entry + living expenses. It was meant to stagger the veterans' entry into the workforce.

Veterans Administration

Organization put in charge of enforcing the GI Bill. They enforced it badly.

How did veterans get into middle-class culture?

When going to college using their GI Bill benefits, they found other people from different backgrounds and developed a unified middle-class culture there

How did veterans help the economy?

By getting a higher education and getting good jobs

How did civilians help the economy?

Spending money on things they could not have previously due to WWII rationing

Baby Boom

Refers to the high birth rate in America from 1946-64

Housing Crisis

1950s Problem arising as baby boom and returning vets need more housing than is available (new housing wasn't made since 1920s)

What are some reasons people moved to suburbs?

Escaping noise of the city, political influence, controlling their child's education, owning their own home

1947 William Levitt

He helped mass produce many nearly identical "Model T" 4.5 room houses to alleviate the housing crisis

FHA

Federal Housing Administration, they helped give vets low interest mortgages and loans to get them into their new house

1956 Highway Act

Built 42,500 mile interstate highway system, this new transportation improvement helps suburban families live farther away from their city jobs

How were women affected by returning vets?

They were pushed out of their jobs to allow vets to have employment

Redlining

Practice of denying neighborhoods with minorities $ loans because they were deemed "high risk"

How did Truman approach WWII domestic reconstruction?

He wanted to keep things liberal by guaranteeing citizens gov help and aid

1946 Full Employment Act

Made mechanisms to help gov control economy. Truman planned to also raise minimum wage and guarantee jobs to ppl able/willing to work in the public sector, but these generous policies were blocked by Congress (Republicans and Southern Democrats) so the act did not do much.

What happened for a short time after the war, economically?

There was a period of high inflation as the Truman administration struggled to get a hold of the economy as it transitioned from wartime to consumer production.

What was the issue with strikers and how did Truman respond?

Strikers were disrupting the economy with their constant strikes, and people blamed the Democrats partly for them. Truman denounced them and threatened to draft into the military any striker going on with a strike in an industry deemed "critical for national security" after being issued a presidential order to stop

1947 Taft-Hartley Act

Restricted union power by allowing states to pass laws outlawing the requirement of closed shops and placed an 80 day cooldown before another strike on an important industry could take place. Truman tried vetoing it but Congress passed anyway.

Why was Truman having such a hard time?

He was inexperienced, had to manage a complete economic shift from war to consumer goods, deal with an inflation, and had opposition in Congress

1948 Election

Republicans thought this election would be easy as the Democratic party was splitting off into different factions, but Truman won nonethless

Thomas Dewey

He ran for the Republicans

Henry A Wallace

Running for the newly formed 1948 Progressive Party comprised of Democrats mad w/Truman and campaigning for friendly Soviet relations, desegregation, and nationalization of basic industries

Strom Thurmond

Nominee of the Dixiecrats, who were white racist Democrats fighting against the pro-civil rights stance of the Democrats in the 1948 election

Truman

Democratic candidate in the 1948 elections who won despite his party's fragmentation as he appealed to black voters and won their votes

Fair Deal

Truman's goals of giving civil rights, national health care, and fed aid to education during his new term. All of these efforts were defeated by Congress, who did not like these radical changes.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)

Elected in 1952, he was previously a five-star general for the US in WWII and he was a moderate conservative. The first Republican president in a while.

Dynamic Conservatism

Eisenhower's efforts to reach a middle-ground between liberals and conservatives of his day. He said he would be, "conservative when it comes to money, liberal when it comes to human beings"

1954 Social Security Legislation

Includes 7.5 million more people who are able to get the benefits of Social Security

Why was Dynamic Conservatism flawed?

Eisenhower actually ended up needing to spend lots of money and reaching into deficit spending to manage the recessions and Cold War fighting that took place during his term

Military-Industrial Complex

Scary trend acknowledged by Eisenhower in his farewell speech. He warned the nation that if the military and associated gov interests continued to expand at the rate he had seen during his term, it would be a threat to democracy.

What was the mood of the era towards communism?

People were very scared and paranoid about it

Verona

Secret US project destroying 3,000 Soviet telegraph lines and rooting out spies from US programs

1949 Soviet Nuke

Worries American people as they realize they can be hit on their own soil

"Security Risks"

Anyone with normal issues that could be seen to be a communist. The government began firing these people out of fear.

1938 HUAC

House Un-American Activities Committee. They investigated individuals suspected of communism, but many were witch hunt cases.

Hollywood Ten

Ten actors who were thrown in jail for not giving up names of other suspected communists.

Blacklisting

Lists of actors that were suspected communists and excluded from Hollywood films

Joseph R. McCarthy

Wisconsin senator who reached fame by asserting that many communists has infiltrated the government, his rampant accusations were proven wrong in 1954

McCarthyism

Refers to the excesses of persecuting alleged communists during this era. People were so scared of spies that they mistrusted everyone around them.

1950 Internal Security (McCarran) Act

Required members of "communist-front" organizations to register w/gov and they were also banned from international travel

1954 Communist Control Act

Outlawed membership in communist organizations

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

Husband and wife who were convicted and executed as Soviet spies in 1953.

How did McCarthy use the newspapers to get famous?

He would make wild claims shortly before the papers were due to be published, giving his statements little time to be verified by the editor. Even if they were caught, revisions were in the back of the paper where no one looked, so his statements landed in the headlines. This worked for both parties as McCarthy got famous and newspaper companies got rich off sales due to the shocking headlines.

Army-McCarthy Hearings

In this case, McCarthy accused the entire army of conspiring to shelter communists in their ranks. This case was televised live and the public got to see how clearly drunk and crazy McCarthy was, and some prominent army figures also denounced him ("have you no decency, at last?"). This lead to the Senate denouncing him in 1957 but not firing him, his fall from fame, and later his death due to alcohol abuse.

Why was the civil rights fight double sided?

It was in the gov's best interest to desegregate so as to appeal to third world nations and get capitalist influence over them in the Cold War under the promise of true equal treatment, but others accused the civil rights leaders of being communists.

What organization was revived during this time to resist the new wave of civil rights leaders?

KKK

What was Truman's stance on civil rights?

He genuinely believed African Americans had a right to equal treatment. He also felt he owed his help to them as a favor for their part in helping him win the election of 1948.

1946 President's Committee on Civil Rights

Established by Truman's federal order, this group organized ways to help achieve civil rights for African Americans such as encouraging the passage of antilynching bills

1948 Executive Orders

Issues a policy of "fair employment" for African Americans and rapid desegregation of military.

In what form did local victories come for the civil rights movement?

Many small court battles were won across the country in favor of civil rights

NAACP Legal and Educational Fund

Helped deliver big national legal victories to topple the doctrine of "separate but equal" facilities segregating whites and African Americans

Thurgood Marshall

A leading lawyer in most big NAACP legal cases, like the huge victory of Brown v. Board of Ed

1944 Smith v. Allwright

Outlawed whites-only primaries for Democratic party in some southern states

1946 Morgan v. Virginia

Desegregates bus transportation in Virginia

1948 Shelley v. Kraemer

Outlaws private deals among white homeowners to not sell to African American buyers

1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Ed

Big legal victory for the civil rights movement that destroyed the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Fergueson by bringing to light the bad materials offered in African American schools

Were schools across the nation integrated immediately after Brown v. Board of Ed?

No, the South resisted integration

1955 Rosa Parks

NAACP member who refused to give her seat up to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. She was arrested for this.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Minister and civil rights leader who was successful in advancing the ideals of the civil rights movement through nonviolent protest and religious preaching.

Montgomery Bus Boycotts

Planned w/MLK as leader, it was a continuation of what Rosa Parks had started with her brave act. It went on for a year and the busses lost so much money that SCOTUS yielded to the community's wishes to desegregate them.

1955 Emmett Till

Young man visiting the south from Chicago. He was killed for speaking "rudely" to a white woman. The murderers were acquitted by an all-white jury.

White Citizens' Councils

Created to resist African American integration into schools by cutting their funding and boycotting integrated schools

What was Eisenhower's response to the civil rights movement and why?

He chose to stay silent on the issue because he feared losing what little Republican support had been built up in the South to the white racist Democrats who held majority there. He also believed desegregation should begin at the local level with the community, not at the federal level with him.

1956 Southern Manifesto

Doc written/signed by 101 Democrat Congressmen condemning the Brown v. Board of Ed decision and encouraging states resist "forced integration" as they claimed it was a violation of their states' rights

1957 Little Rock Nine

Refers to the incident when nine African American kids were blocked from entry to the newly integrated Little Rock Central High by Arkansas gov Faubus' National Guard forces. Eisenhower later acted directly against the racists by bringing the National Guard under his command and guarding the nine students for the rest of the year to assure their safe education. Unfortunately Faubus closed the schools next year in response

1957 Civil Rights Act

Created the United States Commission on Civil Rights, which served to investigate cases of systemic segregation

What was emerging in society throughout the nation?

A shared, homogenous, white, middle-class culture

Economically, how was middle-class life becoming an option for many?

The economy was growing in response to all the consumer spending. Additionally, gov spending during the Cold War (researching weapons, etc) creates more jobs. Finally, a big tax on the wealthy brought even more money into the market.

How were unions helping the economy?

Unions like the United Auto Workers reached deals with big businesses like General Motors, ensuring them benefits like health insurance, pension plans, and cost of living adjustments (COLAs). This was a win-win as employers could make more money off of seamless production (less strikes interrupting them) and employees enjoyed new benefits.

1950 Treaty of Detroit

Gives GM workers a 5 yr contract tying their paychecks to company performance. This unified the workers and managers in one goal: make money.

Sunbelt

Southern and Southwestern states region getting a flood of new residents as a result of their rapid economic development during this time

Why was the Sunbelt having such economic prosperity?

The government gave industry here generous tax breaks, financial aid, and the states allowed right-to-work laws (no closed shop requirement = more workers!)

Suburbs

Areas outside the city where many whites moved to during this time. Here, regional cultures mixed and became the homogenous middle-class culture that was spreading throughout the nation.

Television

Helped instruct people on how to act appropriately middle-class (setting a dinner table, etc). Most TV was white because shows were run off ad support, and sponsors would only sign on if they felt the show was not controversial enough to lose support quickly.

Consumer Spending

Increased dramatically during this time as citizens were fresh out of the rationing years and excited to get their hands on the newest things on the market (consumer debt also increased)

Churches

Many joined for comfort from worrying Cold War tensions and sense of community. Because of such large membership numbers, this became a core part of being "middle-class"

How did marriages and family life change?

People were getting married early, sometimes for autonomy, and wanted a large family (average was 2 kids). Also, divorce rates went down

What were the gender roles of the time?

Men were supposed to go to work to support the home financially, while women were supposed to stay at home all day to take care of kids and other household duties. These roles were justified by "essential differences between the sexes"

Dr. Benjamin Spock

Author of Baby and Child Care, which was the best-selling book on how to raise kids during the baby boom era

Why did women work?

To try to make some extra money on the side for big purchases like a new car. Their work was often lower paying and less available than men as they could only work in certain jobs like teacher or maid. They also had to manage their household chores on top of all this work, so they could usually only hold on to part-time jobs

Crisis of Masculinity

Idea that men were having their natural desire for adventure suppressed by the conformity they had to display in working at a modern workplace for money (as opposed to doing something "manly", like hunting). Believers in this were also hypocritical, as if a man did not work they criticized him.

Dr. Alfred Kinsley

Published controversial studies showing that more Americans than expected were breaking sex rules, like being homosexual or having premarital sex.

Hugh Hefner

Helped battle the strict moral standards of sexual behavior in American society by creating the Playboy magazine in 1953

Youth Culture

Kids that grew up in the baby boom to have a culture of their own. They were really into things like Barbie, movies, slinky, and as a result drove the economy up as they spent lots on them. Their parents often worried about the affects of this new media they were consuming

Elvis Presley

Popular rock n' roll musician, showed how strong of a force music was in the new Youth Culture.

Juvenile Delinquency

Rises as young "rebels" seek to make their mark through nonviolent but devious "status crimes" (drinking underage, etc)

Beat Generation

Group of writers frustrated with the homogenous culture of the day. Their works focused on noncomformity and they were often judged by their peers, but came to influence "counterculture" in the '60s and '70s

How did homogeneity affect most people?

It was good as most were lifted up into the middle-class from their poorer origins. They were able to reach higher living standards and existed happily.

What were some reasons for homogeneity in society?

Larger businesses take out smaller local stores, suburbs mix people into one culture, consumer culture, and less ethnic/wealth gaps between people

Wasteful Consumerism

Includes products designed to be quickly replaced by the next release, use of cheap plastic/non-biodegradeable materials, use of pollutants as fuel, diverting water to populated Sunbelt cities, and waste infecting the environment near factories

What happened to service jobs?

They grew as machinery replaced manual labor, and more people were pushed into the service sector of jobs. This was kind of bad as pay was lower here, and unions were nonexistent (only for manual labor jobs)

Why were minorities "out of the picture" at this time?

Most whites did not even take into account the struggles of minorities as they did not encounter them in every day life, TV, or anywhere else. There were only a few minorities and they were not equally spread across the nation.

Where was poverty concentrated?

Among minorities and the elderly