The Unquiet Fifties

Second assignment

For next time: 

• Hailey Phelps, "When Interstates Paved the Way," EconFocus 2021, https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2021/q2-3/economic_history

The Fifties Begin

1950: Congress expands Social Security benefits.  Rep. Carl Curtis (R-NE) warns that the bill will come due in the future (see Derthick, p. 241):

Another objection to a program in which the number of beneficiaries is much smaller in the early years than in the later years is that, regardless of what financing method is adopted, there will be an uncontrollable tendency toward undue liberalization of individual benefit amounts. ... With only a relatively small number of present beneficiaries and with present benefit disbursements far below contribution receipts, the ability to fulfill these promises over the next few years seems to be all that matters, and the tremendous future cost, which will result when there is a much larger number of persons for whom we have made commitment of these benefit amounts, is too easily ignored.

Political violence 

• November 1, 1950, attempted assassination of Truman
• March 1, 1954, shooting in the House chamber

Communism and the Cold War

• 1948-50:  The Hiss case vaults Nixon to national prominence and a Senate seat in 1950
• 1949:  Mao wins in China
• 1950:  McCarthy at Wheeling
• 1950: Korean War begins -- fluctuating support but no mass protests
• 1951: conviction of the Rosenbergs

Crime

• Street crime and drugs are not yet major national issues
• Kefauver hearings (Johnson 182).  Godfather II
• Apalachin Raid (1957) forces Hoover to acknowledge the Mafia
• Unions, Hoffa, RFK, and JFK

The Steel Mills

• In April 1952, in response to a threatened strike during the Korean War, Truman issues an executive order directing  Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer to seize steel mills (Johnson 170-171). 
• SCOTUS rules in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company v. Sawyer: 

The Founders of this Nation entrusted the lawmaking power to the Congress alone in both good and bad times. It would do no good to recall the historical events, the fears of power, and the hopes for freedom that lay behind their choice. Such a review would but confirm our holding that this seizure order cannot stand.

1952:  

• Eisenhower wins. Nixon (age 39) bcomes veep  
• GOP gains its last Senate majority until 1980, 
• GOP gains its last House majority until 1994.  
• JFK (age 35) defeats HC Lodge for Senate
• Barry Goldwater defeats Sen. D leader Ernest McFarland in Arizona, LBJ (age 44) moves up to Senate D leader.  In 1954, will become majority leader (Johnson, p. 186 errs on the year)

 

Immigration: From "Braceros" to "Operation Wetback" (Johnson 159, 189)

The Judiciary and Civil Rights

• 1953:  Ike names Earl Warren to be Chief Justice. As state AG and governor, he had backed internment
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• John W. Davis v. Thurgood Marshall
• Brown II (1955):  "with all deliberate speed"
• Montgomery bus boycott (1955-56) and the rise of MLK (age 26 in 1955)
• Little Rock
• Executive order federalized the National Guard
• Allowed for federal troops
• Based on the Insurrection Act and
• Fast forward to 2025...
• Civil Rights Act of 1957 (Johnson 200-202) -- first federal civil rights law since Reconstruction -- creates  U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate violations; and a Civil Rights Division within the Justice Department to empower the U.S. Attorney General to prosecute voting rights infringement.