We had it all, the United States was the super power of the world and still is today, women had modern conveniences, poverty declined, from 30% to 22% by 1960. What more did we want out of life.

60% of Americans were now middle class, there wasn't just the 2 classes anymore of rich and poor, now there was a middle. We had modern conveniences that more middle class people could enjoy like electricity, indoor plumbing, washing machines, and air conditioners. We liked watching TV even though most of us had black and white sets and we didn't have to take the Greyhound bus anymore to visit Grandma because we had our own car now.

But what about the poor Negroes and Asians living in the ghettos, they didn't have TVs or air conditioners. They couldn't even get a good job because of the color of their skin, big corporations wouldn't hire non-whites for skilled work, so they had no choice of job opportunities like the White American. Asians had their land and property taken away from them by the government during WW2 and Native Americans were stuck on the reservation. So these non-white groups were all stuck in the same situation living in the ghetto in poverty. Even if they had enough money saved for a house, the banks owned by the rich upper class wouldn't give non-whites mortgages. Even Levittown was strictly whites only until a lawsuit against Levit made him allow 127 Negro residents inside his suburbs of a population of 53,000. That's just not an acceptable percentage. The government's Housing Act of 1949 built 800,000 units of public housing for low income families, but white urban and suburb communities opposed the construction in their districts, so these units were built in segregated slums. I guess these poor underpriviledged should be happy they got this much, obviously this justified the government's action because they did build new homes but they never said where they were going to put them. The government can say, " We built the homes you wanted and you should be happy, what more do you want from us." This once again proves the rich and powerful must keep the less fortunate in their place in poverty where they are properly controlled so they cannot advance and make something of themselves and make their own choices.

When government laid-off all the women working in war jobs, women lost their independence and now had to depend on their husbands to provide everything for them and since he was the breadwinner he made the major decisions like what car to buy. Married women stayed home, enjoyed all her new conveniences, had babies, cooked the family's meals, look pretty, smile, and be happy about it. She did have choices on how to raise the children but she needed to see to her husband's needs first. This was her life and she'd better like it cause there was no other choice. Women who were able to go to college should look sexy, find a man in college, marry him, live in the suburbs, do the same old thing day after day, watch the soaps and pop a valium. No wonder she's so happy according to all the advertisements depicting housewifes with all the modern conveniences saving them valuable time and energy. I'd look happy too if I was all doped up.

Southern Negroes still had no freedom, they were constantly still in fear of lynchings, the Klu Klux Klan was still burning crosses on people's property, and beating and killing Negroes. Emmett Till's murder, this young life silenced and gone forever, will always be a dark sad spot in our history. The government did nothing at the time to stop these atrocities from happening. Negroes were powerless, they couldn't even drink at any water fountain but had to find one that said Colored Only and if there was none then they had to stay thirsty, they were restricted to Colored Only section in restaurants, also when taking a bus they would have to pay the bus driver at the front of the bus, then walk to the back door, get on and sit in the back. How humiliating! I can't even imagine, like they had some kind of disease the Whites might catch.

So if our politicians in government aren't going to stand up for us and our freedom and our choices guaranteed to us by our constitution, then it takes a brave, gutsy woman like Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 to stand up for her rights as a human being. She made a choice that day. And I applaud her!