Has the Man got you down?

by Renee A.

Has the Man got you down?
Feel like you’ve been Beat
by this thing called…
Life?

Well, if you did and you were a part of the Beat Generation, you would write a poem about it.
When Jack Kerouac first used the term “beat” in his novel, On the Road in 1957, the social liberation movement that had been brewing for the past decade was finally named.
The Beat Generation, started as not more than a couple of friends who decided they were sick of society’s strict rules on who they could and could not be, and what they could and could not say. This group of friends, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and William Bourroughs, also the four main characters in Kerouac’s On the Road, started this social liberation movement through artistic pieces, such as poems and paintings, and turned it into a culture with a following strong enough to push it through to future decades.
Representing the product of the Depression and the Second World War, it is no wonder that they were so eager to criticize their government and society. They saw everyone around them scared into conformity and decided to stand up to it.

One piece that is particularly known for doing this is “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg. He first performed it in 1955 in the heart of the Beat culture, North Beach, San Francisco where he spoke freely of hallucinations, drugs, and insanity. Because the poem was so radical, Ginsberg was arrested on charges of obscenity. The arrest drew much attention to the movement and because so many prestigious literary and academic figures showed support for Ginsberg, he was acquitted. The case breaching the First Amendment established a legal precedent for the publication of controversial work and inspired more to do so. City Lights Books located in North Beach then started to publish and sell such works and still does today. Because of all the unrest the FBI was quick to label Ginsberg "a rabble-rouser, a beatnik, and, most probably, insane." Relating to the then hated Russian “Sputnik”, the term “Beatnik” was considered to be derogatory, however now it is widely accepted. This is most likely because Beats did not play into the government’s competition with Russia or think Russians enemies.

So, you might ask where the Beat Generation is today. The nostalgia for the 1950s has kept the Beat Generation very much alive, for just last year, a Beat Museum opened up around the corner from City Lights Books. It contains documents such as Kerouac’s first manuscript of On the Road. It also displays art from those who are carrying on the Beat Generation today, like Stanley Mouse who designed album covers for the Steve Miller Band, the Beatles, and others.

As predominantly white, educated men, the Beat Movement did what women wanted to and what African Americans would soon start to do: it was the first major post World War II movement to speak out against societal norms. Without the Beat Movement, it is probable that Betty Friedan would have still revealed the Feminine Mystique and that Dr. Martin Luther King still would have lead the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to fight for Civil Rights, but I am not sure that as many people would have followed these controversial actions. The Beat Movement started activism in a culture that forbid it but in a time that call for it.

Sources:
The Beat Museum

http://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/keenan/citylights-1.html

City Lights Books

We're Gonna Keep It!

by Amanda C.

When one thinks of Richard Nixon, typically nothing comes to mind other than his notorious role in the Watergate scandal of the 1970's. But remarkably, Nixon is famous for giving one of the greatest speeches in American history, the Checker's Speech. This speech single-handedly saved Nixon's political career, and contributed to the landslide victory for President Eisenhower.

Nixon was first elected to Congress in 1946,where he quickly made a name for himself as a militant anti-Communist while serving on the House Un-American Activities Committee. Just 4 years later in 1950, Nixon was elected to the U.S. Senate and became an outspoken critic of President Truman's conduct of the Korean War, wasteful spending by the Democrats, and also calimed that there were Communists in the government.

But Nixon's rapid rise in the political community came to a sudden and quite possibly life altering halt after a headline appeared in the New York Post stating, "Secret Rich Men's Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond His Salary." The headline appeared just a few days after Eisenhower had chosen him as his running mate for the Presidency. Amongst all the outrage that surrounded Nixon's "secret fund," Eisenhower's advisors urged him to drop Nixon as his running mate before it was too late.

To off-set any animosity between himself and the people, Richard Nixon went before the American Public and gave the ever-famous Checker's Speech. On Septemer 23, 1952 Nixon was televised, with his wife by his side, explaining his reasons for having such a fund. After stating that the fund was purposely not kept a secret, Nixon continued to ask the American people to ponder the following:
"Do you think that when I or any other Senator makes a political speech, has it printed, should charge the printing of that speech and the mailing of that speech to the taxpayers? Do you think, for example, when I or any other Senator makes a trip to his home State to make a purely political speech that the cost of that trip should be charged to the taxpayers? Do you think when a Senator makes political broadcasts or political television broadcasts, radio or television, that the expense of those broadcasts should be charged to the taxpayers? Well I know what your answer is. It's the same answer that audiences give me whenever I discuss this particular problem: The answer is no. The taxpayers shouldn't be required to finance items which are not official business but which are primarily political business."

And thus was his reasoning for taking money from private supporters, to relieve the burden from the American people.

But the speech was not called the Checker's Speech for nothing. After being accused of taking nearly 18,000 dollars in gift money, Nixon proclaimed,
''One other thing I probably should tell you, because if I don't they'll probably be saying this about me, too," Nixon told his millions of listeners. ''We did get something, a gift, after the election" from a ''man down in Texas. . . . You know what it was? 'It was a little cocker spaniel dog, in a crate that he had sent all the way from Texas, black and white, spotted, and our little girl Tricia, the 6-year-old, named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog, and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it."

Nixon continued on with his speech, making poinant remarks about his opponents financial positions and challenged them to openly provide the same type of public financial explanation.

With his speech, Nixon gained the support of millions nationwide. He was seen as an honest man, looking out for the financial interests of the American public by taking the private money. But most importantly, he was seen as a family man, looking out for the interests of his daughters who wanted nothing more than to have a puppy--a gift that he refused to take away from them. Nixon looked real--he stood headstrong, yet vulnerable, putting his weaknesses out for all to see, and in doing so he won the heart of the American public and thus, the election.

The Beginnings of a New Age: Computers in the 1950s

by Shannon C.

The creation and progress of the computer in America came to a comparative standstill in the 1950s—where it was received with doubt by the general public and was only sold to a limited few businesses and government agencies. Right up to the beginning of this decade, however, the development of computer technology was highly progressive in relationship with military demands. The emergence of ENIAC in 1943 as the first general use computer created new opportunities for warfare strategizing in the U.S. involvement in World War II. ENIAC was funded by a partnership between the government and the University of Pennsylvania and although it was an enormous energy-consuming machine that covered 1000 square feet, it helped to create a space for computers in 1950s America.

Another important invention that led to the creation of the first commercially available computer in 1951 actually occurred five years prior to our decade of study. In 1945 a Hungarian-American, John von Neumann, generated a milestone in computer advancement with his creation of the EDVAC and its ground-breaking element, the CPU (central processing unit). The CPU is a central feature of computers even today that allows all of the computers functions and related equipment to be coordinated through a single source. The creation of the CPU spurned the production of the first computer to be commercially available and sold in the U.S., the UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer).

In 1951, the UNIVAC was not only the first commercially sold computer, it was also the first computer in the U.S. designed for business use. UNIVAC was built by Remington Rand; their first customers were the U.S. Census Bureau and General Electric; the price tag was $750,000 for the computer itself and $185,000 for a high speed printer. Public reception and acknowledgment of the UNIVAC culminated with the 1952 Presidential Election. The UNIVAC appeared on the CBS evening news with Walter Cronkite who used the computer to predict the results of the election. UNIVAC hypothesized that Eisenhower would win the election by 1%. Casting doubt on the computer, since its prediction contradicted popular lore in favor of his opponent, CBS withheld the prediction until later when Cronkite announced that UNIVAC had indeed been right.

The public doubt with which UNIVAC was received did not halt its commercial success. Aside from the U.S. Census Bureau, the first customers of Remington Rand were Prudential Insurance Company, followed by the Appliance Division of General Electric in 1954, who created the first industrial payroll application. UNIVAC inspired more business computer use in 1956 when in its East Pittsburgh Plant, Westinghouse Electric Company used the computer to calculate payroll and sales records, and even analyze sales performance of its own company and competitors. By the end of the decade 46 UNIVAC’s had been sold and delivered to businesses, government agencies, universities, and laboratories across the country. The computer that was initially doubted in its ability to make an accurate prediction in the presidential election had become a major calculating tool in the country’s economy. Acceptance of the computer’s role in the workings of government and business in the 1950s paved the way for further development and commercial sale of computers in decades to come—making the 1950s a decade in which the success of a creation hinged on public acceptance or rejection.

http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611663/100438659338
http://www.richmond.edu/~pli/teaching/psy333/ai_genprob.html
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~museum/guys.html
http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~csclub/museum/items/univac.html

Operation Wetback

by Sarah H.

During the 1950s, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service underwent a project to remove illegal Mexican immigrants (“wetbacks”) from the Southwest and Southern California. As a result of Congress’ Public Law 78, many Mexican immigrants were cheaply paid, government contracted braceros. However, due to the ability to get higher wages and poor working conditions, many Mexican immigrants skipped-out on their contracts and continued working as wetbacks in the United States. Due to World War II and the post-war era, the demand for cheap agricultural laborers caused a mass migration of illegal Mexican immigrants to the Southwest (Handbook of Texas Online). According to Handbook of Texas Online, it is estimated that more than a million workers had crossed the Rio Grande illegally in 1954. Between 1944 and 1954, there was a 6,000 per cent increase of wetbacks in Texas (Handbook of Texas Online). The Immigration and Naturalization Service (hereinafter “INS”) began a quasi-military operation of search and seizure of all illegal immigrants (Handbook of Texas Online). According to The American G.I. Forum and the Texas State Federation of Labor, in their What Price Wetbacks?, “…illegal aliens in U.S. agriculture damaged the health of the American people , illegals displaced American workers, … and that the open-border policy of the American government posed a threat to the security of the United States” (Handbook of Texas Online). Competition for jobs and a greater intolerance for racial and ethnic minorities, especially those associated with political organizations of the Left, greatly affected the Mexican American community. Because of Operation Wetback and the McCarran Act, Mexican Americans were not only deported because of their non-citizen status, but also their dissident political views. The justification for Operation Wetback demonstrates our government’s political control of illegal entry into the United States. According to Juan Ramon García, the Justice Department released press releases that reminded the public that subversives hid themselves among the mass of Mexican immigrants; thus, continuing to fuel the anticommunist fears with Mexican immigration. Government officials also blamed wetbacks for the poor economic conditions in the Southwest at the time (Garcilazo). The politically, racially driven deportations of Mexican Americans during the 1950s reflects how the perceived threat to the United States’ security was eminent in the minds of Americans during the 1950s.

McCarthyism fueled the fear of anything “un-American”. Communism and the displacement of White American workers out of their jobs were a major concern for many Americans during the 1950s. Under federal law, the McCarran Act required the registration of members of Communist organizations with the U.S. Attorney General’s office and gave the Subversive Activities Control Board the right to investigate persons thought to be engaged in “un-American” activities. Furthermore, the McCarran Act allowed for the detention of persons were deemed danger, disloyal, or subversive in times of war or “internal security emergency.” Basically, any person who was considered dissident by the American government could be stripped of their civil liberties and deported. Unfortunately, many of the deported wetbacks were also their U.S. born.

Mexican Americans were especially vulnerable to deportation during the 1950s. Anti-communism and anti-Mexican hysteria permeated the everyday lives of Mexican Americans living in the Los Angeles and Southwest areas between 1950 and 1954. The occurrence of mass-raids on wetbacks during the McCarthy period reached its high point in 1954 with the largest INS assault on the Mexican American community in history (Garcilazo). Operation Wetback, as dubbed by the INS, entailed a promise of deporting 70,000 wetbacks, but rounded-up 36,124 (Garcilazo). However, the American Committee for Protection of the Foreign-Born reported that the INS expelled 1,101,228 Mexican-Americans (including undocumented workers and U.S. citizens) in 1954. Immigration authorities deported men, women, and children in trucks, as opposed to buses, to save on expenses (Garcilazo). According to The Handbook of Texas Online, deportation by sea began on the Emancipation, which transported wetbacks from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz. (Note the striking similarity to how African slaves were transported to the U.S. from Africa) Ships were a preferred mode of transport because they displaced “illegal workers” farther away from the border (Handbook of Texas Online). Once Mexicans were rounded up by the INS, they were detained at detention centers such as Terminal Island and Elysian Park--reminiscent of the “concentration camps” from Nazi Germany and the Japanese American internment camps or our most recent detention center for dissidents, Guantánamo, Cuba.


Works Cited

Garcilazo. "MCCARTHYISM, MEXICAN AMERICANS, AND THE LOS ANGELES COMMITTEE FOR PROTECTION OF THE FOREIGN-BORN, 1950-1954." The Western historical quarterly 32.3 (2001):273-295.

Handbook of Texas Online: Operation Wetback

The Brave New World of Sci-Fi

by Matt M.

The 1950s saw the emergence of a new genre of entertainment: “Sci-Fi,” or science fiction. This genre sought to imaginatively envision the future as it would be changed (most Americans agreed) by sweeping advances in technology.

Sci-Fi appealed to 1950s Americans through many different mediums including comic books, movies, television, and novels. The genre was a reaction to all the technological advances that drastically changed American life during and shortly after World War II. Whether creative minds thought technology would lead to a wonderful utopia or disastrous post-apocalyptic nightmare, all agreed that the technology that had won the war and made housework ‘a breeze’ would change everyday life in the future as few could imagine.

By looking at a few specific ‘sci-fi’ movies that captivated the American audience in the 1950s, we can better understand some of the issues that Americans were dealing with both in a personal sense and together as a nation.

When Worlds Collide:

This movie imagines what would happen if earth was guaranteed to be destroyed. How would society react? What would people do? In the movie people react calmly and logically for the most part (just as it was hoped they would in the event of nuclear war with the U.S.S.R.) and it is decided that life should start anew somewhere else using an escape pod. As scifimoviepage.com states: “plans are hatched to build a modern “Noah’s Ark” – a rocket uncannily resembling a V-2, basically a ballistic missile, developed by the Nazis during World War II…” (scifimoviepage.com). This film shows that Americans were dealing with the possibility that their society could be destroyed and were trying to look for answers as to what they could possibly do to salvage their way of life.

The Thing (from another world):

This film, like many other sci-fi movies of the 1950s, deals with the perceived threat of communism. The ‘thing’ is mindless and conformist, and spreads quickly with a hive-like mentality. “The alien is actually a vegetable and needs human or animal blood to survive. The creature can also procreate at an incredible rate -- it only needs to sow a few seedlings. Thus the entire planet is in ultimate danger of being taken over by this creature or rather its seedlings” (scifimoviepage.com). This threat mimics the threat that mindless followers of communism could spread quickly throughout the world and destroy everything that America has built.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers:

Much like The Thing (from another world), though vastly more studied and commented on because of its communistic fear parallels, Invasion of the Body Snatchers also tells the story of mindless ‘pods’ that threaten the society that Americans have built and fought in two world wars to protect. As the description states: “Townsfolk accuse their loved ones of acting like emotionless impostors. Santa Mira has been invaded by alien "pods" that are capable of replicating humans and taking possession of their identities. It's up to McCarthy to spread the word of warning, battling the alien invasion at the risk of his own life” (scifimoviepage.com).

War of the Worlds:

War of the Worlds, which most people are familiar with because of the recent adaptation by Steven Spielberg, is most interesting in terms of the 1950s because of the plot point that must have struck a cord with 1950s viewers: “As formations of alien ships continue to wreak destruction around the globe, the military is helpless to stop this enemy while scientists race to find an effective weapon” (scifimoviepage.com). In the movie conventional weapons and military stratagems cannot defeat the threat. The only hope is science. Science is the savior and must develop a way to overcome this obstacle. This was very appealing in the 1950s because science (the A-bomb) had ended the world’s greatest war and people were convinced that all the answers to life’s problems could be obtained using science, logic, and reasoning.
Also included is a link to a website with many interesting analyses about sci-fi in the 1950s. From there I found this great quote that pertinently concludes this post: “The 1950s spawned atomic nightmares and invaders from space that were fanciful (if not tame) stand-ins for the Cold War, nuclear bombs and Communist witch hunts that pervaded real life” (awdsgn.com).

Works Cited:
http://www.scifimoviepage.com/1950s.html
http://www.cinemacom.com/50s-sci-fi-BEST.html
http://www.awdsgn.com/Classes/WebI_Fall02/WebI-Final/JBusser/
all of these links are actually very interesting and worth checking out.

Hawaiian Occupation

by Ryan B.

Some day soon, the U.S. flag will have to be redesigned.

In 1959, the Hawaiian Islands became the fiftieth state of the union. This was the end result of about sixty years of abuse and mistreatment of the local government by the United States, and a provisional government that American settlers had established on the islands by force.

In early 1842, the Hawaiian government sent a delegation to the United States and England to secure recognition as an Independent State. On December 19th, 1842, they "secured assurance of the United States," and England followed suit in 1843.

In 1893, the government of Hawai'i was first overthrown by a group of American settlers. Their primary interest in such a coup was to gain control of the islands' lucrative sugar industry. There was some back and forth fighting that you can read about on http://www.hawaiiankingdom.org/ website.


In the 50s, the US was probably more concerned with protecting itself from Communist powers in Asia than Hawaiian independence, and the strategic defensive position of the "Unsinkable Battleship Hawaii" was something the U.S. Navy was more than a little interested in. Eisenhower was still a military general at heart. It is also interesting to note that these facts weren't public knowledge when annexation happened. Were the islands just too far away for most Americans to care?

In 1950, the Hawaii Constitutional Convention signed and the voters of Hawaii later ratified a constitution. The U.S. Un-American Activities decided 2 weeks later to come conduct hearings on Communist influence in the Hawaiian Labor organizations.

The original citizens of Hawaii were Chinese and Japanese immigrants. They remained the majority of the residents even in the 50s, and during the plebiscite for Hawaiian statehood under the U.S. government. A plebiscite is a special vote, required by United Nations for the annexation of any territory, on which there are three options: Remain a territory, Annexation, and Independence. In 1959, the plebiscite of the Hawaiian Islands had only two options: Territory status, or Annexation.

This coming at the same time as the Civil Rights Act, and after the Japanese Internment in 1942, shows the continued neglect of the US Government that had plagued it for so long. Eisenhower was a military president, and his priorities did not lay along human rights issues. The annexation of Hawaii was rushed in the 1950s due to fears of Communist aggression from Asia. It is also interesting to note that martial law was imposed at the beginning of World War II, and ended in 1944.

Annexation of Hawaii was one of the early outcomes of the Cold War, and in my opinion much cruder than McCarthy scares or the immense amount of radio spam from the Voice of America or the Communist radio blocs.

"On July 5, 2001, the Hawaiian Kingdom filed with the Security Council at the United Nations headquarters in New York a complaint against the USA concerning prolonged occupation of the Hawaiian Islands (103 years)." If everything goes according to plan, our flag will have 7 rows of 7 stars again.

Sources:
The Hawaiian Kingdom National Website

The Hawaiian Historical Society