Conformity In The 50's

Historians portray the 50’s as a prosperous time for Americas, also a time of conformity and consensus while the 1960’s are often depicted as a decade of vociferation, turbulence, and disillusionment. These stereotypes are largely accurate about both of these decades but there is always exceptions to everything. The historian’s portrayal are accurate while there are obviously some groups that were clearly exceptions to the rules.
The 1950’s was a time of prosperity and conformity after WWII, for a multitude of reasons. One of the most widespread reasons was the rise of the middle class families and the developmHistorians portray the 50’s as a prosperous time for the Americas, also a time of conformity and consensus while the 1960’s are often

With the increase in the middle class the buying power of teenagers increased with allowances, Presley triggered a huge demand in record sales in teens between the ages of 18 and 10. Along with the demand for loose black slacks, open necked shirts. New lines of clothing was created for boys, while girls might have purchased portable record players this fueled the conformity mentality in the teenage age group. His music was inspired from Southern Blues, Country and Christian Gospel which opened the way for many African American performers (Document D). The rise of the civil rights movement was also very prevalent during this era, many Black American’s suffered from the segregation of society and Jim Crow laws which were in effect almost everywhere in the deep south. Some conditions did improve in the remarkable Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas which ruled that segregation was constitutionally unjust and “inherently unequal”. This decision was largely accepted in the North and most Border States but caused massive outcry in the South who resisted the ruling. The Governor of Arkansas called the National Guard in order to prevent nine Black girls from enrolling in Little Rock High School, troops were sent to Little Rock in order to escort the girls to their classes (Document

The uprising of feminism, by women who felt dissatisfied with simple lives as housewives and mothers, they wished for a change (Document G). They were unable to obtain high paying jobs and they demanded equal rights and pay, women felt that they were living as “second class citizens”. The struggle for equal rights also spilled over into the sexual revolution of the sixties, which started with the introduction of the birth control pill which made it easier to avoid unwanted pregnancies and women could be more sexually “free”. Gays and Lesbians were also a large part of the sexual revolution proudly parading in New York in the