1950's Culture.

The 1950’s saw America in a paradox. It saw the existence of suburbia and Jim Crow simultaneously. It was the combination of the existence of a large amount of nuclear families and poverty found in urban plus rural communities. It saw the explosion of musical expression, especially among black artists, but also the massive co-option (or what we call cultural appropriation) of black music by numerous white artists too. Therefore, the 1950’s witness cultural growth in terms of literature and the Beat movement along with other events that showed the imperfections of the United States of America in general at the same time. Back then, many reactionaries promoted the stereotype that men must work and women must stay at home and take care of children. This was the time of the explosion of television. More spending and consumerism came about. With an expanding economy, Americans brought more cheap items. Median family income rose from $3,319 to $5,417. America was more prosperous than the 1920’s. Buying on credit was advanced by General Motors and other companies. More appliances were common place in American households like refrigerators, ranges, dryers, and electric washing machines. This decreased the burden of people to do certain tasks in houses. Suburbia saw a boom of shopping malls. By the end of the 1950’s, 90% of American households had at least one television.

As for women, millions of women were working in factories during World War II. As high as 25 percent of all workers in the wartime auto industry were women in 1943. After the war, most women, who were in the factories, worked at home as homemakers. Many women worked in the 1950’s too. Many conservatives back then promoted the nuclear family which was made up of a mother, a father, and children. This agenda wanted women to be solely homemakers. TV shows promoted this idea including movies like The Tender Trap from 1955. The lie that a woman must have children and be married in order to validate her womanhood was a common perspective back then. So, there is nothing wrong with nuclear families, extended families, and other types of families either. Also, children were cared for in many families. One scholar was Dr. Benjamin Spock. His book, “Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” promoted a balance of discipline and nurturing children in order for children to exist as functional, strong adults. Spock was a progressive and would oppose the Vietnam War, ally with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and supported socialism. Spock wanted children to be respected. Many parents spent tons of money on children. Religion expanded during the 1950’s too. Revivals, TV religious shows, and an expansion of church attendance were real. 80 million people came to church in 1958 as compared to 50 million in 1940. The evangelist Billy Graham was the most popular preacher back during the 1950’s with his worldwide sermons. He met with Presidents, international leaders, and other human beings. Roman Catholic bishop Fulton Sheen showed his message. This religious fervor and anti-Communist sentiments in America caused Congress to add the words “In God We Trust” to the dollar bill and “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance back in the 1950’s. These policies came in response to the Red Scare and some believing in the threat of what they deem atheistic communism. Scientific achievements grew too. Dr. Jonas Salt worked on a vaccine against polio in 1954. Many children were killed before to the development. The vaccines and antibiotics increased longevity and saved the lives of millions of people. Penicillin is a known antibiotic. Television entertainment evolved to a complex array of news, comedies, dramas, thriller, and other aspects of human expression. The 1950’s saw Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy, Beat the Clock, The Lone Ranger, Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones, and other classic shows. Mickey Mouse Club and Leave It to Beaver existed. Many of these shows expressed the views of the people during that time period. One weakness of mainstream TV shows of the 1950’s is that most of them lacked African American characters. Also, these shows omitted the real life issues of alcoholism, racism, poverty, depression, and mental illness. Ironically, many family TV shows didn’t show the total components of family problems in honest terms. You can't sugarcoat reality. Reality must be shown without filter.

By 1952, presidential candidates used TV to advertise their ideologies. By the 1950’s, music was exciting with the growth of gospel, R&B, jazz, bluegrass, country, and ultimately rock and roll. By the summer of 1951, rock and roll music was promoted by the DJ Alan Freed. Rock music came from black people in America. Rock and roll came from the rhythm and blues music from African Americans in the South. Many black Americans came from the south into the north to spread culture and music. Many companies promoted rhythm and blues music too. Chuck Berry was an originator rock music innovator. Even Elvis Presley was inspired to show his rock music by watching African Americans in Memphis performs. Blues players like B. B. King had their music shown by Sam Philips. Philips allowed Elvis to be promoted. Heartbreak Hotel was his first hit. Then, Elvis was everywhere from Ed Sullivan to other shows. Back then, America was a much more conservative nation. So, Elvis’ dancing and lyrics had objections from ministers and some politicians. Some members of Congress accused rock and roll of being subversive. To this very day, certain types of music have been debated about its content and other aspects of its components. Little Richard was another popular rock and roll innovator. Additionally, racism was abundant during the 1950’s. Claude Brown, who was a black man, touched on these issues from his novel Manchild in the Promised Land. Many people criticized the culture of the 1950’s as too conformist. The quality of life in America wasn’t beneficial to millions of African Americans and the poor. Suburbs, shopping malls, and new equipment readily saw materialism and this malaise of excessive materialism including conformity is what intellectuals criticized also. Sociologists David Riesman and Nathan Glazer in The Loney Crowd book didn’t want conformity to replace individualism. Many authors wrote about the alienation that some felt. Sloan Wilson wrote about such feeling in his bestseller The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Movies like Rebel Without a Cause outlined teenage angst and it was starred with the actor James Dean. Beatniks or Beats existed as a social movement who wanted to fight back against the materialism and cultural conformity of the 1950’s. Many of them were writers and artists. One was Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg is not representative of all Beats as Ginsberg is a wicked person (by supporting a pro-pedophile organization. He was right to oppose the Vietnam War and on other issues, but he was dead wrong to support a pro-pedophile group).  Other Beat scholars included Ira Cohen, Ed Dorn, Josephine Miles, and other human beings. It is true that many in the middle class back then concerned themselves more with the status quo than freedom and justice for all people. Urban and rural poverty was huge back then. Poverty was widespread in the midst of suburbs, malls, highways, and gated communities. Michael Harrington in his The Other America book from 1962 documented how poverty existed in the communities of African Americans, Mexican Americans, poor white people, etc.

As early as the 1950’s, when African Americans came into the cities from rural areas, many whites traveled from the cities to the suburbs. Cities in many areas saw their populations decline. Many middle class persons moving into the suburbs caused a decline of tax revenues which caused economic problems. Suburbs gained political power and a more conservative Congress were hesitant in investing in urban and rural communities in the billions of dollars. Cities saw a lack of public services from street repair to recycling. The inner city saw poverty and crime. Many inner cities had inadequate schools and dilapidated housing. The federal government used urban renewal to address this problem. The problem with urban renewal is that in tons of causes, neighborhoods are destroyed in the process to make highways, and other expensive housing. This caused poorer people to move into more crowded areas. Many people lost their homes in urban renewal projects from New Jersey to East Harlem, New York. The federal government created public housing in order to end the shortage of affordable housing. At first, many people loved public housing being inexpensive, having running water, etc. The problem is that many forms of public housing were concentrated in the midst of poverty and no subsequent plans existed to help the poor or integrate the poor in communities filled with a diversity of income levels. Many public housing areas were filled with fences and other confining architectural arrangements. Today, that is why people are creating solutions to solve poverty.

Rural poor areas had issues too. Mississippi Delta sharecroppers suffered a great deal. Rural residents experienced mayhem in many cases. Miners in Appalachia and other people experienced corporate exploitation. Large farmers dominated farm production. Independent farmers suffered. Some farmers moved into the cities and some stayed. Other Americans experienced injustices too. Puerto Ricans came heavily into New York City after World War II. Many of them served in WWII. Some of them experienced poverty and housing discrimination. They had little political power back then. Many of them organized into organizations to fight for better services, education, and an end to discrimination. Mexican Americans fought for their rights too. The bracero program was the usage of Mexican labor to deal with agricultural services in America. Mexican immigrants had temporary visas to do the action. Many workers were exploited and cheated by employers. Mexican workers worked in crops throughout the Southwest. The migrants were so exploited that one U.S. Department of Labor criticized it. That is why Mexican American Ernesto Galarza worked to organize unions for Mexican farm laborers. Native Americans saw the termination policy. This wanted to end tribal government and relocate Native Americans to the cities (and it ended the federal responsibility for the health and welfare of Native Americans). Some criticized this policy as creating more burdens for Native American people. The 1950's culture was diverse and multifaceted in its arrangement.



By Timothy