THE 1950S

Baby Boom

The Baby Boom More children are born in the 1950s than any

other decade child born every 6.9 seconds

Reasons Reunion of families after the war Decreasing marriage age…down to about 21

for women and 23 for men Advances in medicine Economic Prosperity

Suburbs GI Bill of Rights- guaranteed veterans a

years’ worth of unemployment benefits while job hunting; also paid part of their tuition

GIs purchase homes outside of the urban cities

Sub-developments became popular and the idea for the “cookie cutter” home was born

Ideal image that the man worked and the woman raised the family

Truman Supports Civil Rights

July 1948- issues executive order for desegregation of the armed forces Also called for an end to discrimination in

hiring government employees 1947- Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn

Dodgers, becoming the first African American to play in the MLB

The Election of 1952

Democrat: Adlai Stevenson Republican: Dwight D. Eisenhower

“I like Ike” VP: Richard Nixon

Eisenhower wins

Business

Business Franchises begin…McDonalds opened its

first doors in Illinois in 1955 Disney Land opened in California in 1955

Advances in Medicine

Vaccine- drug to fight and prevent childhood diseases

First developed in 1950s Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for

polio Baby boom had impact on child care and

economy

Leisure

Leisure becomes important to those who survived the difficulties of the Great Depression and WWII Peak of comic book production and sales baseball reaches its zenith Bowling alleys open in almost every city in

America Boy and Girl Scouts numbers reach all time high Swimming pools become popular at both homes

and public locations Magazines

Automobile Culture

Suburban living made owning a car necessary

Interstate Highway Act- authorized the building of a nationwide highway network President Eisenhower 41,000 miles of highways Led to new suburbs Decline in the use of railroads Provided jobs: drive-in movies, restaurants,

malls Negative: pollution, accidents