1950s Test

Brown v. Board

After a girl was forced to travel several miles to go to a segregated school when there was a white school right next door to her, southerners wanted change. Eisenhower sent fed. troops to integrate a central Little Rock, AR high school In 1954 supreme court made segregated schools illegal

Duck and cover

Bert the turtle: taught children how to prepare for a nuclear attack using the tactic "duck and cover"

HUAC

House Un American Act Committee formed before the war and started to investigated the so-called racial groups the entertainment industry was held in suspicion

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Keynote speaker at church meeting to organize Montgomery Bus Boycott has a religious message, clear & passionate, nice voice wanted non-violence

Postdam and Yalta Conferences

Us and Soviet Union had been allies during WWII these conferences toward the end of the war revealed tension between the US and USSR over the issue of the atomic weapon this tension was ideological and military in nature and became known as the cold war

Little Rock Nine

a group of 9 african americans from little rock who tried to attend an integrated school were turned away at the door by guards and Eisenhower publicly announced that he would send federal troops to anyone in violation.

Cold War

a series of confrontational events between the US and Soviet Union starting immediately following WWII and ending with the downfall of the Soviet Union

Iron Curtain

attempt to divide postwar europe

Montgomery Bus Boycott

began with the arrest of Rosa Parks on Dec. 1, 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white person sparked a 13 month protest for african americans coordinated by the Montgomery improvement Association & led by Rev. MLKjr. instead, they organized carpools, walked, etc. Nov. 1, 1956 the US supreme court passed laws requiring segregated seating on public buses

Hollywood Ten

jailed after they refused to answer questions about beliefs

Evidence of Suburbanization

larger families created demand for larger cars, people could afford homes (cookie cutter houses) rise in automobile use and rising consumer culture (home appliances needed) strong economic growth, fueled by military spending

Levittown, NY

the most famous of the new suburban developments. the key to its success was affordability was not a diverse community

Joseph Stalin

wanted a buffer zone of satellite states in eastern europe

McCarthyism

McCarthy was a first term republican senator from wisconsin said he had a list of 20 known communists in the state department/ accused other agencies and individuals

Eyes on the Prize

Money, Mississippi Emmett Till upset the social expectations of the south by talking fresh to a white woman killed and dead body was found Mose Wright, his uncle, identified the body and testified in court Mrs. Till, his mother, chose an open casket to show the world what they did to him and make a point Jury was all white, and found the men that killed him not guilty

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

NY couple that were convicted of passing information to the Soviet Union sentenced to death, died by electrocution in 1953

Rosa Parks

Sparked the 13 month bus boycott protest after refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man; was arrested

GI Bill

The servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, signed by Roosevelt "Government Issue" (nickname for members of the armed forces) included several features aimed at helping veterans make smooth entries into civilian life provided money for vets to attend college and job training, etc. included a years worth of unemployment

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Two japanese cities hit by atomic bomb

Baby Boom

US population rose 20% b/t 1950 & 1960 a dramatic rise in the birth rate due to all of the men returning from war

Containment Policy

US worked to contain the spread of communism containment policy began after communism threatened greece and turkey US promised economic aid to prevent the spread of communism feared communism would spread like a "domino effect" because communism was already in china and korea

Marshall Plan

part of america's post-war rebuilding plans in europe 12 billion in economic aid to reconstruct western europe quickly wanted europeans to buy american goods/ make western europe strongly against communism

Manhattan Project

research and developmental project that produced the first atomic bomb leading physicist: J Robert Oppenheimer

Federal Civil Defense Admin

response to America's fears of the atomic weapon distributed pamphlets and made educational films such as Bert the Turtle purpose was to instill comfort and security