1. Society of the 1950s

2. Post – WW II 15 million vets return
Increased income – savings, rationing
GI Bill – Servicemen’s Readjustment Act
government funded education for vets
low interest loans for home purchases
Baby boom
50 million born from 1945 to 1960

3. Integration of the Armed Forces
Executive Order 9981 – July 26, 1948
Truman orders the desegregation of the military
Significance: opened the idea to desegregation of other US institutions

4. Levittown – Long Island
17,000 mass produced, affordable homes
Sold for $7000 to $8000 (mortgage - $65/month)

5. The Sun Belt Americans began moving south Cheaper land, cost of living
Job availability
Retirees
Growth of southern cities
Charlotte, Atlanta, Research Triangle, Southern California, Dallas, Florida

6. Decline of US Cities (mostly in the North)
“white flight” – many middle economic class Americans left the cities for the suburbs (Black Americans in the middle class were only 2-3% of their total population, wealthy were less than 1%)
City property values decline
Business leaves the cities
Crime increased

7. Polio
Jonas Salk credited with developing the vaccine to cure it The vaccine created a 19% population growth

8. Television By 1960 – 90% of Americans owned a TV
Elections/Politicians – use of TV advertising
TV dinners invented
Quality TV programming dropped with its price – “idiot box”, “boob tube”

9. Mass Advertising Consumerism
Name brands
Plastic credit cards
Suburban shopping centers and Supermarkets
Car culture
Fast food, drive-ins, full service gas stations, motor inns
Planned Obsolescence

10. Conformity and Tradition
White collar jobs increase
“be part of the team”
Women – homemakers, moms
“Men are not interested in college degrees, but in the warmth and humanness of the girls they marry.”
- from a high school textbook on marriage

11. President Truman

12. Politics under Truman Post-war inflation – prices increased 25%
Resulting in strikes for increased wages
Taft-Hartley Act – gave the President the power to stop strikes

13. 1948 Presidential Election
Dixiecrats – Democrats in the South that left the party because of rising support for the Civil Rights Movement
Led by Strom Thurman
1957 Civil Rights Bill
24 hour 18 minute filibuster
Election

14. Truman’s Fair Deal Support for: National health care insurance
Federal aid to education
Civil rights legislation
Funds for public housing
Increased minimum wage (up to 75 cents)

15. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Presidency

16. “I like Ike” Dwight D. Eisenhower “Modern Republicanism”
VP Richard Nixon
“Modern Republicanism”

17. Modern Republicanism Goals Balance the budget
Continued New Deal programs
Opposed federal health care and federal aid to education
1956 Highway Act – interstate highway system
Purpose??

18. Poverty in America
Over 65 years old – 50% could not afford adequate housing or health care
Rural poor
Slow to recover from Depression
Urban poor
Cities were hurt by “white flight”
Mostly minorities
Housing Act was slow to build government homes
Problems overlooked
Why?