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The Poorer Side of 1950s America
Summary: The popular impression of the 1950s is of days of prosperity, with fast food, fast cars, color movies, and television. However, the decade was also marked by poverty and discrimination, and those who were not white endured greater suffering. An illustration of the more poverty-stricken areas of American during this time bears this out.
Although the fifties are looked back on as the days of prosperity, many will tell you another story entirely. There was another side to the fifties, a side that goes without mention too often.
In the 1950's, if you were not white, you had a lot more problems than you would have today. Over a period of about 10 years, more than 5 million African-Americans relocated from rural areas to urban areas. The suburban life, however, was unwelcome to non-whites. Most of the time, they ended up living in the `slums'. In 1949, the National Housing Act was passed, which called for the tearing down of badly maintained, rundown neighborhoods in whose place would be built low-income houses. This plan was also known as urban renewal. However, it was not consistent. For example, the houses would be torn down, but shopping centers, parking lots, highways and such would be built in...
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This section contains 476 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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