1. Business
Work back
1950s Quiz
Thurs Mar 16

2. Homework 1950s Popular Culture assignment
Read pages in textbook
Complete worksheet (front and back)
research/find an example of 1950s pop culture
TV show/commercial, movie trailer, comic, etc)
Due Tuesday March 14

3. Life in the 1950s

4. In what ways were there “Two America’s” during the 1950s?
What was life like in the “Other America?”

5. Roots of “Other America”
Slavery- ~
Millions in bondage- no opportunity, literacy, success
Reconstruction
Freed blacks kept in poverty by laws, discrimination
Limited opportunity for success
Birth of KKK

6. Segregation as a System
Plessy v Ferguson, 1896: “Separate but equal”
Federally legalized segregation
Housing, education, public works, employment, etc
Jim Crow laws
De facto vs de jure segregation

7. Literacy Tests Towns/states gave black Americans “literacy tests”
“If you can’t read, you shouldn’t vote”
Justification to keep blacks away from polls
24th amendment- taxes outlawed but practice continued
Could you vote?

8. Anti-Black Prejudice KKK, lynchings Ex: Emmett Till
All over country, but more often in Southern states
Ex: Emmett Till
14-yr old black boy, accused of flirting with white woman in Mississippi
Beaten to death by two white men, found not guilty

9. Life in the 1950’s- Urban Poverty
White flight- millions of middle class white Americans left cities
Took economic resources
Isolated from other races / classes
Rural poor migrated to cities
Urban poor suffered

10. Life in 1950’s- Urban Renewal
Proposed solution- tear down rundown neighborhoods & construct low-income housing
Not enough new housing was built for all displaced people
Urban removal

11. Poverty Causes Activism
Mexicans-
Longoria incident
Native Americans-
1953- termination policy eliminated federal support
Failed- poor training, racial prejudice
Black Americans-
Civil Rights era

12. Segregation in Education
“Black schools” and “white schools”
White schools had:
Better trained teachers
Better and newer facilities
More and better resources- books, desks, chalkboards, toys, etc
Smaller classes

13. Resistance to Educational Segregation
Brown v. Board of Education, 1954
8-year-old Linda Brown
Supreme Court unanimously struck down school segregation

14. Arguments against Integration
“They haven’t received the same education and will bring down the whole population- why should my child suffer for a political agenda?”
“They will be a bad influence on my kids- they’ll bring disrespect, crime, drugs.”
“I do not want my child to go to school with black people.”

15. Reaction to Brown v. Board
Many areas resisted desegregation
Little Rock 9
AK governor sent National Guard to turn away 9 African American students
Eisenhower sent troops

16. Montgomery City Codes
Read three city codes (laws) from Montgomery, Alabama
Answer the questions

17. Resistance to Segregation
Montgomery, 1955
Rosa Parks
MLK-led bus boycott
1956- Supreme Court ended bus segregation

18. Segregation in America
The follow series of photographs show what life looked like for African Americans in the 1950s
Take notes on each picture and the key topics of segregation that are discussed

19. Picture #1

20. Picture #2
Picture #2

21. Picture #3
Picture #3

22. Picture #4

23. Picture #5

24. Picture #6
Gerrymandering

25. Exit Slip
On the top half of a sheet of notebook paper, answer the following questions:
This lesson is called “Two America’s.” What does this mean?
How did segregation affect the daily life of African Americans in the 1950s?
Why do you think the Civil Rights movement started to gain momentum at this time? (What changed in the minds of Americans in the 1940’s?)