Eisenhower

Tydyed-79076:

You really gave segregation a nice spin. People segregated themselves in America not because they wanted to but, for most of this country's history, non-whites were barred from living in communities with whites. When race covenants were struck down in the late 1940's, white communities reacted with violence, petitions to prevent non-whites from moving in, cross burnings in some communities, even trashing the house bought by the non-white family. For protection and safety, families moved in with others of their same ethnicity. Of course, in the 1950's, anywhere, you wouldn't have seen blacks in your neighborhood because they wouldn't have been allowed to live there. That's what the Civil Rights Movement helped address: the right of people to live where they want, not to be segregated legally or brutalized for daring to be "equal" to whites.

Because of such segregation, many whites grew up believing that civil rights was unimportant because most whites only saw and interacted with other whites.

You're right: When "Father Knows Best" was in production, suburbia was mostly a white, Protestant "bubble".

To mwmtampa: Right on! The show was quite realistic and did deal with serious problems. I recently saw one about Betty getting mistreated when she tried to enter the man's world by working on a survey crew. It was nice to see that while people were surprised she was interested in that sort of career, they fully agreed that she had the right to do so.










Why don't we just shoot 'em down and be through with it?