The White Picket Fence Was All Race's Suburban Goal Essay

In the 1950’s American families went through several changes, some of which were positive and beneficial. There were many new technological breakthroughs. Additionally, new forms of entertainment created a generational divide between young people and adults. Americans entered a period of postwar abundance, with expanding suburbs, growing families, and more white-collar jobs. The average income of American families roughly tripled. Thousands of families rushed to buy the inexpensive homes. New suburbs multiplied throughout the United States. Affordability was the key reason most Americans moved to the suburbs.

The development of the suburbs has been appointed to be the result of the “white flight” from the inner cities. In the 1950’s black Americans moved northward to cities to find industrial jobs that were within walking distance. Discrimination in cities worsened, crime rates increased and educational facilities’ credentials weakened or gained bad reputations. The upper-class families left the cities and mass migrated to the suburbs to escape the increasing crime rates and worsening conditions. This movement was later termed the “white flight”. Every American wanted to begin building the “ideal family”: two parents, two children and maybe a pet or two. This newly invented middle-class prospered as

Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States is a book by Kenneth T. Jackson on the migration of many, primarily white, Americans to the suburbs during the mid-twentieth century and how many blacks were robbed of the opportunity to move elsewhere as well. From the chapter we read, we learn about the ways blacks were suppressed to worse parts of cities and how corporations and our government kept blacks from moving into different or better neighborhoods. The author argues that the lasting effects of the government have put a seal of approval on the racial discrimination in the housing market and these actions were picked up by private interests to deny mortgages to people, as they would say, based on geographical location of the property. Over the course of the book, Jackson gives evidence to how federal housing policies affected where Americans lived and how our government used it 's power to socially control racial minorities.

The landlords tried to squeeze as many rent-paying residents as possible into the smallest available space. In 1870, Jacob Riis immigrated to the United States from Denmark, he was unable to find a steady source of income, so he took on various low-paying jobs such as bricklaying, carpentry, and sales. Riis experienced firsthand the absolute poverty in America’s cities and felt that the unsanitary and dangerous living conditions were a terrible injustice. As an example, “The first tenements, built in 1850, had been hailed as a great improving ih housing for the poor. But most were, in fact, miserable places, with many windowless rooms and little or no plumbing or heating.”

years of the War. So the birth rate expanded abruptly. The quantity of youngsters between the ages of five and fourteen expanded by more than ten million between nineteen fifty and nineteen sixty. A considerable lot of the inexperienced parents moved to homes in the new rural areas. The word suburb originates from the word urban, or doing with urban communities. A rural area was sub or something not as much as, a city. It as a rule was made on an unfilled real estate parcel simply outside a city. A representative would purchase the land and construct houses on it. Youthful families would purchase the houses with cash that they obtained from nearby banks. Life was distinctive in suburbia. There was a wide range of gathering exercises. 12 There were changes to

Due to economic security, the baby boom, and the "American Dream" suburbs grew in the 1950's. Our economy was the largest in the world at the time and we were becoming a largely consumerism based country. We even had enough money that the government helped pay half the loans of American Veterans through the GI Bill of Rights. That security was sure, the government would not offer to pay back so much money if they thought it would be necessary for every person (Doc 1). Home ownership rates went up by over 10% the first 10 years after WW2 (Doc 4). This was caused by a great rush of babies being born also known as the baby boom. These many children needed space to live, and suddenly, suburbs are born! With the money needed families could take

What is race and social construction? The book defines race, “as a system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent, based on perceived innate physical similarities.” Social construction is a concept that is invented and shaped based on present time society. First, the books describes race as a social construct. Then the book explains that the idea of race wasn’t just socially invented by one person but rather a large mass of people who formed a society.

Racial segregation can lead to unpredictable circumstances and complications in your family. Troy Maxon was the protagonist in the book called Fences . In this book Troy uses baseball to show his way of love and responsibilities of his family. Troy had a amazing baseball career of hitting balls over the fence, but then one day that ended. Cory which is Troy’s son loves football and wants to continue to play it, but Troy is not to happy with it. To show significance of baseball in his life he put fences up around where he lives to protect him and his family from the racism. One major part of the story is family is important to Troy ,but he does not treat them like they are suppose to be treated, and this has a big effect on how he is treated

Abraham Levitt bought acres of farmland in Long Island with a plan to build houses with his two sons, Alfred and William. The land was transformed into Levittown which would end up housing thousands of people, many were WW2 veterans. Since it was such a huge success he would go onto build two more in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This became the start of Suburbia, or affordable housing in communities which fueled the American dream as well as racism and segregation.

They were no more than hardworking renters, now. That was the lowest Tike had ever been but he had not reached the rock bottom of the farming industry, so the hope of owning land was still there. Therefore, when a government brochure, for the farming population, presented the idea of a safe, sanitary, and inexpensive house of earth, the dream of building this house was formed.

The significance of the suburbs for the development of the United States was crucial in the 1950s. In the 1950s the US was the strongest nation because it was able to thrive in its economy and military powers. Because of the thrive of economy people were able to buy cars and houses outside of the city. Since they had transportation outside of the city. People moved to the outskirts of the city because they had a lot of babies. After world war two was over a lot of Americans had children because of they were happy to find peace and believed that it would last. This era Americans had more employments and the wages were

The correlation between race and suburbs in America has been full of tension and exclusivity. In the 1950s, white flight, the migration of white people from city centres into suburbs, leaving behind the black population in inner-cities was common. This has contributed to a distinct spatial division between the Anglo-Americans and African Americans within the America. Being caused by the existing income disparity, the minority African Americans, having a lower social-economic status in American, are mostly trapped in poverty cycle and are unable to afford housing ownership in suburbs. Further aggravated by discriminative government policies towards the minorities, social division within the country was made even more prominent.

When she returned back to the states, Addams and her good friend, Ellen Starr observed the many slums of Chicago. While doing this, her mind was focused on starting a settlement house in Chicago. “Chicago seemed the place to look; it had large Italian colonies, and though bluff and grasping, it still remembered the easy democracy of the prairies” (Wise 128). “The once prosperous neighborhood had become home to thousands of European immigrants who had fled their native countries hoping to find a better life in America” (Kittredge 17).

Throughout the world of suburbia, there seems to be a persistence of communities who attempt to create a perfect, enclosed world for the whole of the community to live in. By providing for everything that the inhabitants would ever want, suburbia is able to close itself off from those around it that it deems unworthy of belonging. While this exclusivity helps to foster the sense of community, it can also bring with it isolation from the outside, and also from within, and have disastrous results. Throughout the semester, there have been a number of works that have dealt the issue of isolation, but the greatest representation of a work whose physical qualities in its representation of suburbia help to

Suburban life is considered a utopia for many individuals. Well-manicured lawns surrounding every neutral colored home is heaven. Rules force home owners to care for their property and abide by neighborhood regulations. No eyesores can exist. Parents feel safe allowing children to play outdoors or go to the neighborhood park. Suburbanites can avoid negatives such as traffic, poor schools, high tax rates, and violent crime. Neighbors once again speak to each other and have neighborhood events such as parades, picnics, and block parties. Suburban communities are somewhat like a time in the past when it was acceptable to trust those who live nearby. It is once again safe to go next door to borrow a cup of sugar.