“Happy Days”/ The 50’s Lecture Test

Sidney Poitier- The first African American to win an Oscar. (Best Actor)
Benjamin Davis Jr.- The first African American general of the U.S Army.
Jackie Robinson- African American baseball player the broke the color barrier of the sport.
Brown V. Board of Education- A little girl sued to go to a white school right beside her house than to a black one across town, Earl Warren sided with her. This overturned the Plessy V Ferguson case, and said for all schools to integrate with all deliberate speed.
Earl Warren- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, supported affirmative action, and supported the civil rights movement with his decisions in favor of the protestors.
Effects of the Infrastructure- This allowed for people to move further out of the cities, allowed for long distance travel and vacations, it improved highway safety, made getting places quicker, it gave the economy a boost, and urban sprawl.
Soil Bank- The government would give farmers money for taking their land out of production, this didn’t work as planned and production and farm surpluses still rose.
Orval Faubus- Governor of Kansas, he sent the Natl. Guard in at Central High School in Little Rock to stop African American students from enrolling after Brown V Board of Education.
Rosa Parks- Sat on the Front of the Bus, wouldn’t move, got arrested, started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, won in an Earl Warren decision.
MLK Jr.- First came to prominence when he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference(a collection of southern black churches that led the civil rights movement), he also led lots of other major protests, he is now known as the civil rights figure of the 1960’s.
Voting Rights Act of 1957- Eisenhower signed the bill. It provided protection of black voting rights, sent federal referees to monitor polling places, encourage votes, and try to eliminate the obstacles of voting(poll tax, intimidation, etc).
Sit-Ins- First one was at a Woolworth's in Greensboro, NC. Several college students were refused service and would not leave until they were served. This was a very effective way of non-violent protests and shutting down segregation. This becam very popular and spawned “wade-ins”, and other ”ins”.
Residential Segregation- This happened when whites moved to the suburbs and left the African Americans in the downtown area. African Americans could not move to the Suburbs due to monetary or racial issues(the Realtor didn’t have a home at the time). The inner city area lost their tax base and began an urban decline where most residents are in extreme poverty and have bad schools.
Effects of the T.V.- It homogenized the U.S.(blended culture, dialects, and gave the same info the everyone(TV News)). It also gave an edge to the politicians that were eloquent and classy in their appearance. Gave the civil rights movement a national stage.
The Paperback- Revolutionized literature, this made books available to the extreme masses, you could get books almost anywhere. This made quick selling romance novel possible.
J.D. Salinger- Catcher in the Rye, this symbolized the youth movement of the 50’s, he criticized the need of conformity in that society society.
Chuck Berry- a guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and considered one of the pioneers of rock and roll music.
Ray Charles- A Rock and Roll/Soul star. He was blind, and played piano vey well.
John Foster Dulles- Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, he thought the containment policy was to easy on the communists, extended containment policy from Europe to the rest of the world. He was very hard of the Chinese for invading Taiwan’s islands.
Ho Chi Minh- Leader of the anti-French and Communist forces of Vietnam(North).
SEATO- South East Asia Treaty Organization, much like NATO but proved to be less effective and powerful.
Brinkmanship- he practice of pushing dangerous events to the verge of disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome. Seen mainlu in USSR VS the US in the cold war.
Khrushchev- The Soviet Premier after Stalin died. He condemned the “Crimes of Stalin”, and opened up more to the west.
Nasser- President of Egypt, seized the Suez Canal, played both sides for air(Soviets, and Nato). Almost went to war with Britain and France over the Suez crisis, but when the US would back them for fear of the soviets’ involvement they backed out.
Sputnik- The first satellite launched into space. This was done by the Russians. Sparked a massive push in math and science in the US to try to catch up with them.
U2 Spy incident- the soviets shot down a plane with an american spy in it over t russia day before Khrushchev and Eisenhower were to meet in Paris for an arms limitations conference. When this happened the Soviets backed out immediately and said that america didn’t trust the soviets.
Sherman Adams- Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff, involved in a scandal in Ike’s second term. He received an expensive coat from someone who was under investigation. A blemish on Eisenhower’s presidency.
Richard Nixon- Checkers Speech, Ike’s VP, he came to be known by investigating Communists on HUAC and Alger Hiss.
Cultural Developments of the 50’s- The strong counter culture movement began in the “young people”. This counter culture was fueled by the expendable income of their parent, the freedom that the highway and cars brought, and the ever growing popularity of Rock and Roll, which personified the angst and rebelliousness of the generation.