Tuesday , March 23rd Notes

-Truman generally supported the early civil rights movement.
-after leader A. Philip Randolph threatened to organize protests against segregation in the military, Truman issued an executive order calling for the desegregation of the military during the Korean War.
-Truman endorsed the Fair employment practices commission.
-Truman's justice department appeared in court to support litigants contesting government-backed public school segregation and "restrictive covenants" in real estate.
-1946- Supreme Court declared "restrictive covenants" illegal and began chipping away at the "separate but equal" principle in Plessy v. Ferguson.
-In 1950, the Supreme court ruled that under the 14th Amendment racial segregation in state-financed graduate and law schools was unconstitutional.
-this set the U.S. on a course leading to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954.
-Many people seemed to view change as progress yet at another level the pace of change caused a feeling of uneasiness.
-In 1947, major league baseball's policy of racial segregation changed. Jackie Robinson became a 2nd baseman.
-Having broken the color life, MLB did little to protect black players from protests, insults, spikes and brushback pitches.
-during the late 1940's and early 1950's they faces racial segregation.
-Levittown, NY set the pace for the development of mass produced homes in suburban developments.
--the govoernment offered an extensive set of programs to help buyers purchase homes. FHA *federal housing administration* helped leaders extend credit to developers.
-FHA guaranteed low down payment loans to buyers.
-veterans used the GI Bill to obtain financing to buy a home.
-Congress made interest paid on mortgages deductable from federal income tax.
-Suburban homes promised greater privacy and more amenities than in the cities.
-it became cheaper to purchase a suburban house than to rent an apartment in te city.
-post-war baby boom.
-suburban schools were newer.
-government and private housing policies helped to structure and maintain segregationist patterns in white suburbs.
-single women could not obtain FHA leans so home ownership in the new suburbs was essentially limited to white males.
-Suburban living centered around the automobile.
-most families were single car families and women were stuck at home (think boredom and conformity)
-few older relatives living in the suburbs.
-suburban living fell into a broad pattern of "separate spheres".
-work and politics for men; child care and the home for women.
-lackig mothers and grandmothers, suburban housewives turned to Dr. Benjamin Spok's book Baby and Child Care.
-books of advice on raising teenagers generated concern over juvenile delinquency.
-the pressure was on housewives to raise good children who would not turn to delinquency.
-women who sought careers outside the home and risked a lot of negative comment.
-popular tv shows like leave it to beaver suggested that men/fathers could become more involved in family.
-programs like this offered a counter to the attitudes espoused in Playboy Magazine (1953)
-Still, more and more women were entering the work force.
-Even more married women were taking jobs in the clerical and service sectors.
-Pay was lower, labor unions were not as active.
-Republican Dwight Eisenhower wins the White House in 1952.
-Republicans held a 1 vote edge in the Senate and an 8 vote edge in the House of Representatives.
-Honored his campaign promise and traveled to Korea and ended the war.
-July 27, 1953, both sides signed a truce and established a special commission of Neutral Nations to work on a prisoner of war issues.
-a formal peace treaty was not and has not been signed.
-the 38th parallel still divides North and South Korea.
AMERICAN COLD WAR ACTIVITIES:
-Massive retaliation- a military/defense strategy that reserved the right to use weapons of U.S. choosing nukes at a time and place of U.S. choosing.
-The SEATO (Southwest Treaty Organization) was a mutual defense agreement w/Austrailia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Phillippeans, and Thailand.