The 1950’s

By Kaleb Sargent

Brief intro

• The 1950’s began after WWll.• It brought in a sense of family values being

important causing a rapid growth in the suburbs.

• The first color televisions were being made• Civil rights movements began to slowly

make progress with the first schools becoming mixed interracially.

Technology

• The first color televisions were made• Spudtnik was the first satellite into space

launched by the Russians in 1957.• Plastic was being used more, and the first

fiber glass car was made.• Also the technology for nuclear arms

became known by more countries , leading to the cold war.

Celebrities

• Elvis Presley made his debut and became one of the worlds most renowned singers.

• Buddy Holley, who was in the rock band the Crickets singing songs such as peggey sue.

• Chuck Berry was a very popular musician with his instant hit Johnny be good.

• Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean.

Televison shows/ leisure

• I love Lucy• The honeymooners• Leave it to Beaver• The twilight zone• Superman• Howdy Doody Time• Lassie• And the comic strip peanuts was published.

Way of life

• Life in the 50’s was more centralized around family, every mom in america was trying to be the “June Clever” of the house hold.

• Kids were listening to rock music and becoming a little more rebellious.

Civil rights

In the mid 50’s schools had to start allowing african americans and other racial groups to attended their school.

Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were very famous for standing up for their natural rights, and were both renowned as civil rights heroes.

The Cold war

• After WWll the Soviet Union and the U.S. were having a nuclear arms race.

• America was afraid of communism spreading and when china feel to communism many people were scared.

• The McCarthy case was a very important political and social matter.

The Korean war

• The Korean war was a product of the cold war, because communist North Korea invaded South Korea.

• It was a 3 year war resulting in 157,530 and 1.3 million total causalities and north and south Korea being divided at the 38th Parallel.

Political cartoon

Questions

•  By the end of the 1950s, televisions were present in approximately what percentage of American homes?

• 25% • 50% • 75% • 90% • 99%

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a Supreme Court decision that

• (a) was a forerunner of the Kansas-Nebraska Act• (b) established free public colleges in the United States• (c) declared racially segregated public schools inherently

unequal• (d) established free public elementary and secondary

schools in the• United States• (e) provided for federal support of parochial schools

Joseph McCarthy’s investigative tactics found support among many Americans

because• (a) evidence substantiated his charges against the army• (b) there was widespread fear of communist infiltration of

the United States• (c) both Truman and Eisenhower supported him• (d) he worked closely with the FBI• (e) he correctly identified numerous communists working

in the State Department

Consumer spending increased in the 1950s because of all of the following except

• many Americans were once again purchasing stock

• many Americans were buying appliances for their homes

• many families were buying automobiles • many Americans were buying homes • advertising had a major impact on the American

consumer

How did their experiences in the Great Depression and World War II affect the generation who began

to raise families in the postwar era?

• They turned inward to family for comfort. • They were likely to want to give their children many of

the things they had not been able to have. • Interested in consumer goods, they would be likely to

buy many things on credit. • A and B above. • All of the above.