Essay About The 1950's

The 1950’s was seen as a fantastic era in the United State’s history. Sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of the United States, this time period was seen as a pinnacle of the country’s economic and social growth. Although this era is called the Golden Age, the 1950’s wasn’t as bright as we remember it. In reality, the 1950’s were a pretty dark time in the history of America and for the rest of the world as well. The article “What we really miss about the 1950’s” by Stephanie Coontz and the excerpt by Malcolm X entitled “Learning to read” explain how and why the 1950’s isn’t an age to feel nostalgic over. Numerous amount of issues having to do with gender, race, and finance were prevalent during this time. Immediately succeeding

The black community faced discrimination and injustice at every corner. They were seen as lower class citizens. Malcolm X said in his seventh grade United States history class “the history of the Negro had been covered in one paragraph” (X 164). This reveals that even in the history books of the time, African Americans were viewed as not important. Society was trying to underestimate black contribution to history. Coontz tells us that “when blacks moved north to find jobs in the postwar urban manufacturing boom they met vicious harassment and violence” (Coontz 37). White americans in this time era were intolerant of diversity of the time. Despite the rapid progress that came along with the era, this was unfortunately biased more towards white families. This racial discrimination wasn’t only towards African Americans. “There was tremendous hostility to people who could be defined as “others”: Jews, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, the poor, gays or lesbians, and “the red menace.” (Coontz 32). All sorts of discrimination existed during this time. If someone in the 1950’s grew up as an “other” they certainly were alienated and created much racial conflict between white American society and everyone