Can’t get no satisfactionThose Who Found the 50s-60s Era Too Conformist, Too Restrictive, Too Materialistic or Just Plain Boring.

Who Was UnhappyMinorities who wanted greater

equalityWomen who chafed at the

restrictions imposed on their opportunities.

Intellectuals who disliked restrictions on their creativity, or who disliked society as too conformist (writers, musicians, artists, etc.).

Civil Rights Brown Vs. Board of Education

The Supreme Court had ruled in 1954 that schools must desegregate “with all due speed.” How was desegregation carried out in many southern schools?

Why Brown Was Decided

1890s Supreme Court Decision, that “separate but equal” facilities were acceptable was never carried out – “separate” was never made “equal.”

• Funding for black schools generally 40-50% less than white schools of same size

• Black teachers paid about two-thirds of white teachers’ salaries.

• Texts in black schools generally 10-15 years out of date.

The Story of Mansfield, Texas, 1955

• Terrant county Texas• Segregated school system,

providing no bus transportation for black students to their segregated school.

• T.M. Moody- the active president of region’s NAACP helped to pay for lawsuits.

• I.M. Terrel High School for African American students.

• Landmark integration case in the state of Texas

Events in the Desegregation Process

I.M. Terrel School was a black-only high school – under funded and poorly staffed.

Black community frequently requested improvements – no result.

1955 --Three I.M. Terrel School students attempted in Mansfield public school, and turned away.

Lawyer for students files suit on Oct. 7, the case would begin Nov. 7.

Ruled in favor of the defendant.After school district loses appeals to higher

courts, the school board determined that the school would be integrated the following school year, 1956-1957.

King and Adam Clayton Powell

Les Paul, a jazz/blues guitarist inspired by Django Reinhardt (among others) experimented with ways to electrically change the volume and range of string instruments – the result by the mid-1940s was “the log,” a prototype electric guitar.

Music is“borrowed”

“Big Boy” Crudup

One of dozens of black musicians who worked segregated clubs playing his music. While his tunes “That’s All Right Mama” and “My Baby Left Me” made Elvis Presley rich, songwriter Arthur Crudup quit performins: “I was making everybody rich, and here I was poor.”

The First Great Rock Hit

“Sh-Boom” was first recorded by the Chords, “Earth Angel” by the Penguins – black groups. The Crew Cuts made them into hits.

Rock and “Appropriation”

“Blanching” the Music

Pat Boone made a career of “covering” Black songs – “Roll with me Henry” became “Dance with me Henry,” “Long Tall Sally” (Little Richard) was “sanitized” and many other songs were redone and sold as Boone’s hits.

The Payola Scandal

Dick Clark (above, with The Coasters) barely survived the revelation that DJs and music hosts were paid to promote certain groups and records.

First Steps in “Personal Music”

Rebellion

"To understand a delinquent child one has to know the social soil in which he developed and became delinquent or troubled.” Fredric Wertham, 1954.

Alan FreedRock’s first “super promoter” produced concerts that were integrated and helped black performers get recording contracts, until he was ruined in the payola scandal. He received death threats for promoting “ni**er” music.

He died of heart failurein 1965, age 43.

Rock and Fashion

The early Beatles (1964-65) established a new style in youth fashion – the “mod” style of tight slacks, Italian footwear, and longer hair – it swept America’s teen population by 1966.

Dis-satisfied women

“I never found a woman who fit that ‘happy housewife’ image.”

The Feminine Mystique

Birth Control

In 1965, the US Supreme Court struck down state laws that prevented the sale of birth control devices.

Jack Kerouac

Kerouac, and Neal Cassaday, 1952.

On the Road was written on a roll of teletype paper, in one week, as Kerouac “simply followed the movie in his head.”

The book inspired the “Beat Generation.”

“Howl”

Allan Ginsberg’s free-verse poem “Howl” denounced all that was “wrong” in American society.

Like Kerouac, Ginsberg helped create the Beat movement, later influenced many 1960s ‘counter-cultural” activities.

Lenny Bruce

Arrested numerous times for obscenity while on stage, Bruce died of a drug overdose – many fans insisted he was murdered by police.

Norman Mailer

In several 1950s essays (including “The White Negro,” Mailer compared the fears of the average American about the Cold War to the problems that African-Americans faced every day.

Most Were SatisfiedMost were quite satisfied with the situation in the 1950s, when

• American was not at war

• Work was available to almost everyone

• Incomes were higher than ever

• There was more leisure time than ever before

But there was a major shift coming – as the largest generation ever began to come of age in 1964.