Episodes Nearest to May 1, 1948 to December 1, 1956: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. "US Declared Able to Wage Cold War"
    date November 10, 1952map New York, New Yorktags Cold War, Red Scare

    How ready was the United States ready for the Cold War? On November 10, 1952, an article was printed in the New York Times.  Its purpose was to cover a dinner forum at the New School for Social Research at 66 West Twelfth Street, Manhattan, New York to discuss the need for the continuance of the newly coined “Cold War,” as well as the economic and social ramifications of the war that would...

  2. Teenage School bus Drivers, Black and White, Crash on South Carolina Highway
    date January 20, 1953map Clarendon, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Desegregation, Transportation, Segregation, Supreme Court, Children, Public Schools, Black History, Black Schools, South Carolina, Buses

    “W.H. Ridgeway, the 16-year-old driver of the white bus, sobbed in his hospital bed and told his mother over and over how sorry he was the wreck had happened”

    The Columbia State, South Carolina’s largest newspaper, reported this pitiful scene on January 21st, 1953, under the front-page headline, “Clarendon School Bus Crash Kills 2”. The State ran no pictures of the crash, but the...

  3. Bus Driver, Age 18, Killed in Head-On Collision At Work
    date January 20, 1953map Clarendon, South Carolinatags Clarendon County, workplace safety, highway safety, Buses, African-Americans, South Carolina

    The certificate kept by the Clarendon Memorial Hospital records the death of Willie Lemon, an 18-year-old bus driver involved in a head-on collision on the highway near Jordan, South Carolina, on January 20, 1953. Vital information is recorded on Lemon. He was occupied as a school bus driver. He is listed as an unmarried, colored male from Manning, South Carolina, with no social security number.

    His...

  4. Advancements In the Women's Rights Movement
    date October 29, 1951map Worcester, Massachusettstags Women, Women's Rights, suffrage

    Over one thousand women gathered in Worchester, Massachusetts, for a Women's Rights Convention in October 1851. "Wit, humor, truth, poetry, absurdity, and misdemeanor madness, were all component parts of the proceedings and speeches," wrote a journalist for the Daily Alabama Journal. Among the speakers were E. Oakes Smith, Abby Kelly Foster, and Lucretia Mott. The journalist observed...

  5. "Why They Become Communists" By Elizabeth Janeway
    date June 14, 1953map New York, New Yorktags Red Scare, Cold War

    What was the seductive and driving force of communism? An article published in the New York Times on June 14, 1953 sought to answer this question. Elizabeth Janeway’s “Why They Become Communists: Americans seeking an effective answer to communism’s internal danger must first be aware of its influence,” was the entire title of the article and resolved to serve as an indicator as to why and...

  6. Religious Recognition for Greeks in the U.S.
    date August 24, 1953map Jefferson, Alabamatags Greeks, Religion

    In 1953, Greeks in the U.S. wanted to have their Greek Orthodox faith recognized. The Greek Orthodox Youth of America, GOYA, a Greek organization, made attempts and held drives to have their religion be included in the major faiths of the U.S. At the time, only the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths were recognized as faiths in the U.S. The chairman of GOYA gathered with other members of the...

  7. Levittown Real Estate Boards' Discriminatory Housing Practices Revealed
    date August 7, 1954map Suffolk, New York, Nassau, New York, Bucks, Pennsylvaniatags Race-Relations, African-Americans

    In an article published in the Saturday Evening Post in August of 1954 journalist Craig Thompson exposed the “problem of Negro exclusion,” commenting on the discriminatory practices employed by Levitt and the preventive covenants established by the local real estate boards within his suburban communities. As the father of modern suburbia, it seemed that with his prepackaged communities,...

  8. Management in the Home - Scientific Reasoning for Domestic Pursuits
    date September 8, 1954map Franklin, Ohiotags Women, 1950s

    Dr. Elaine Knowles Weaver of Ohio State University urges women to “analyze their tasks” in this article posted in the New York Time, 1954. The book cited by Dr. Weaver is “Management in the Home”, a joint effort by three female university professors that seeks to apply scientific, deductive reasoning to everyday household tasks. For the women of this book, logical reasoning is not just preferred...

  9. An Uncommon Sentiment
    date January 1, 1950 to December 31, 1950map Hamilton, Tennessee, Jefferson, Alabamatags Ethics, Coal, Steel industry, Race Relations, Steel, Coal Industry, Discrimination, Racial Tension, South

    H. S. Chamberlain had a problem on his plate back in the mid-twentieth century.  Everyone sought cheap labor in the steel and coal industries, but feared employing certain groups of people because of their behavior.  Blacks treated with trepidation were the majority of workers in these industries.  For the most part, blacks saw nothing but discrimination and fell under the watchful eyes of white...

  10. The Start of a New Era
    date January, 1955 to 1955map Orange, Floridatags Florida, Tourism

    Winter Park is a suburban city located on the outskirts of Orlando in Orange County, Florida. It has a current population of 27,852 residents and is home to Rollins, College, Full Sail University, and the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. Its areas range from open parks to residential areas to even street side shopping all along Park Avenue. It is in this eclectic town that just approximately...

  11. Old Winter Park Road
    date January 1, 1950map Orange, Floridatags Winter Park, Feminism

    Post World War II the Unites State’s history is shaped by activism. Starting with the African American civil rights movement, feminist and homosexuals found their voice and followed with their own activist movement. Sarah (Mrs. Joe K) Galloway’s story, “Joyce Kilmer Was Right!” is a small representation of this, particularly the feminist movement.

    In her story Galloway tells how in...

  12. An Extraordinary Slave Preacher
    date 1949tags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations, Slavery

    In 1849 Rev. William White wrote a narrative about African American Preachers. In it he tells the story of a black preacher known as "Uncle Jack." Slave traders kidnapped Jack from Africa when he was seven years out and sold him into slavery in Nottoway, Virginia. When he was forty he heard a Presbyterian Minister from Prince Edward County preach and became religious. White wrote that once Jack...

  13. Levitt & Sons Advertises New Housing Design
    date 1949map Bucks, Pennsylvaniatags Housing, Economy, World War II

    After receiving much criticism on his first mass-produced, low-cost housing design, the influential post-World War II real estate developer, William Levitt, introduced a new design in 1949.  As advertisements for the new Rancher sprang up across Pennsylvania, many citizens, including veterans who would receive significant discounts, flocked to the Exhibit Center in the Levittown suburbs.  The...

  14. Bo Diddley Records "I'm a Man"
    date October 22, 1955map Cook, Illinoistags African-Americans, music, Rock and Roll

    The lyrics “The way I make love to ‘em, they can’t resist. I’m a man, spell M-A-N,”-sung with bravado and sexual intrigue not only broke the monotonous, soothing tones of the likes of Bing Crosby and Jonny Mathis, paving the way for a new exciting sound later dubbed “Rock and Roll,” but also being sung by a black man, became even more potent with respect to black acknowledgement in...

  15. The Self-Integration Of Pembroke State College
    date July 3, 1956map Robeson, North Carolinatags Education, Race-Relations, integration/segregation, lumbee indians, Pembroke State College

    In the summer of 1956, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP) had “a record enrollment of 124 in its summer session,” wrote a journalist for The Robesonian.  The reason for this record breaking enrollment was clear: more white students were taking advantage of the university’s summer sessions.  UNCP, then known as Pembroke State College (PSC), started admitting whites...

  16. Rerouting the Kissimmee: A Really Good Bad Idea
    date 1948map Osceola, Floridatags Kissimmee River, Army Corps of Engineers, Florda, Conservation

    Florida has always been a huge swampland, with flooding, lakes, and rivers at every turn. It is why Walt Disney was able to acquire all the land necessary for Disney World at such low prices. Florida has also always had flooding issues.  The Kissimmee River, prior to 1962, ran 103 miles from Lake Kissimmee to Lake Okeechobee. [1] The problem with this was that the distance between the two lakes...

  17. An Act of Heroism
    date June 2, 1948map Orange, Floridatags Susan Wesley, Rollins College

    Greeting incoming Freshman at the start of the 1943-1944 year Miss Susan Wesley assisted in the girls unpacking, settling in, and adjusting to life away from home. A dorm mother to many girls who attended Rollins College Susan Wesley was an employee for the college a total of twenty-four years. The girls depended on Susan to help them through tough times, nurse them to health when sick as well as...

  18. I Was Not Saved to Run
    date December 25, 1956map Jefferson, Alabamatags alabama, Violence, Race Relations, African American, Civil Rights

    It was Christmas 1956.  Taking the place of presents and songs, Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and family woke up to the sound of sixteen dynamites exploding from underneath their home.  By looking at photographs of the damage, you would think everything within ten feet of the home was dead.  However, Shuttlesworth and his family reemerge unharmed.  Shuttlesworth being a religious man gave God...

  19. The Eisenhower Doctrine
    date January 5, 1957map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Cold War, Eisenhower, USSR

    By the time of his ascendance to the Presidency, Eisenhower was a man hardened by the difficulty of sending millions to war yet softened by their victorious return home. By 1957, just a teenager’s birth away from the end of the world’s largest and grandest war, the Suez Crisis prompted a reaction against communism.

    Eisenhower explained how “Russia’s rulers have long sought to dominate...

  20. Plane Crash near Los Gatos Canyon
    date January 28, 1948map Fresno, Californiatags Plane Crash, Deportees

    Thirty-two people perished when a plane crashed near Los Gatos Canyon, 20 miles west of Coalinga, California in Fresno County on the 28th of January 1948.  The plane caught fire, starting in the left engine-drive fuel pump, 50 miles after its departure from Oakland California.  The victims of the plane crash include four Americans, Franck attkinson the pilot, his wife Bobbi Attkinson who served...

  21. Dancing to the Jailhouse Rock: The Last of Elvis the Pelvis
    date 1957map Shelby, Tennesseetags Elvis Presley, Jailhouse Rock

    By 1957, Elvis Presley was already a star, when Jailhouse Rock, his third movie appeared. The movie’s plot was a loose allegory of Presley’s own life. The main character, Vince Everett, played by Elvis, was a construction worker sent to jail where he learned to sing and play guitar from his cell mate, a former country musician. Upon being released from prison Vince begins a career as a pop musician....

  22. Planning Interstate 280
    date August 15, 1957map Santa Clara, Californiatags Interstate 280, construction, freeway, highway

    Peninsula residents of the Bay Area were fuming as the construction of Interstate 280 was planned to run through the heart of Los Altos. E.O. Huttlinger, citizen of 33 years and realtor of Los Altos, was a prominent figure in the protest of the highway proposal. In August of 1957, E.O. Huttlinger addressed his concerns of 11 years to the Division of Highways in San Francisco through a four-page...

  23. Black Family Challenges Racial Barriers in Suburb
    date August, 1957 to 1957map Bucks, Pennsylvaniatags Civil Rights, African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    On August 13, 1957, Daisy and Bill Myers moved their family to a well-developed suburb in Levittown, Pennsylvania.  They were just like every other eager newcomer to arrive in Levittown, except that they were black.  As news of this Levittown “first” quickly spread, so did the curiosity.  Drivers continuously circled the house in their automobiles, trying to catch a glimpse of the first African...

  24. Whites Riot in Response to Arrival of First African American Family in Levittown, PA
    date August, 1957 to 1957map Bucks, Pennsylvaniatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Crime/Violence

    Upon driving up to their new home at 43 Deepgreen Lane, Daisy Myers was filled with doubt, recalling that she repeatedly asked herself, “what would be the extent of our ostracism? Would we be able to sleep comfortably?” as she studied the four law officers standing on the lawn of her address in the Dogwood Hollow Section of Levittown. These questions regarding the neighborhood reaction to the...

  25. Breaking Barriers in Baseball
    date May 9, 1946 to April 16, 1947map New York, New York, Jefferson, Alabamatags African American, Sports, Baseball

         The difference between the North and South in the United States has been similar to that of night and day. During the period between the 1870s and the 1970s, the South is generally viewed by outsiders as a backward, ultra-racist region, and the North is seen as tolerant and progressive. Only a year apart, Birmingham, Alabama praises its successful Negro League Baseball team, while New York...