Dwight D. Eisenhower January 1953 – January 1961

Election of 1952

Republican - Eisenhower

Democrats - Stevenson

Pre-election Scandal



VP candidate Richard Nixon  Accused of accepting money from supporters  First time TV had been used in a Presidential Campaign

Political Party Republican Democratic

1952

Presidential Nom. VP Nom Dwight D. Eisenhower Richard Nixon Adlai Stevenson John Sparkman

Electoral Popular # % # 442 83.2 33,777,945 89 16.8 27,314,992

% 54.9 44.4

Domestic America 

Economic boom fueled by mass consumption   

Ideal lifestyle: “Keeping up with the Jones’” Rock & Roll Music Conformity

Beat Generation – wrote about negatives of US Society  White Flight 

 

Millions move the suburbs Created areas of poverty in Inner Cities

Civil Rights  1954 



– Brown v. Board of Education

Ruled that the current segregation of schools was separate but NOT equal Called for integration of all schools

Thurgood Marshall – Argued case against segregation

Civil Rights  Montgomery 

Began when Rosa Parks wouldn’t give up her seat on the bus

 Civil 



Bus Boycott – 1955 - 1956

Rights Act 1957

Trying to increase African American voting in the South Gave federal courts power to register voters

Civil Rights  1957  



– Little Rock High School

Central High school moves to integration Governor Orval Faubus uses National guard to keep them out Eisenhower takes over National guard and uses them to integrate the schools

Dealing with Communism 

Continued the idea of containment  Mass retaliation – if Soviets attack we hit back with everything we have  Soviet Union responds to NATO with the Warsaw Pact

Space Race Begins 4, 1957 – Soviet Union launched Sputnik – first artificial satellite  US responded by forming NASA  October



Mercury 7 Selected

 Increased

emphasis on Math and Science in U.S. schools

Nationalism and the U.S. Motto  “E  

Latin phrase meaning “Of many, one” Unofficial motto of the U.S. since 1795

 “In 



Pluribus Unum”

God We Trust”

In 1956, Congress officially adopts as national motto (replaces E Pluribus Unum) Enacted in opposition to Communism and its atheistic tendencies

 Both

on national currency

Interstate highway system  designed

to mobilize the military at a moments notice  Over pass height determined by the height of a missile on the bed of a truck.

15 feet