Website
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mit: Poverty in America [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Discover the numbers behind poverty in America in the 1950s. Read about those who were in poverty, where they lived, and find out if things have improved over the decades. [pdf]
Primary
Calisphere: University of California Libraries

University of California: Calisphere: 1950s 1970s: Struggles for Social Justice

For Students 9th - 10th
The protests of the 1960s and 70s are highlighted in original photographs. The informational text and overview discuss what groups were fighting for social justice, what the issues were and how these groups made their voices heard.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: City and Suburb: Chicago and Park Forest, Illinois 1950s

For Students 9th - 10th
Exhibition highlights the differences between city and suburbia living. Visit Park Forest, Illinois, a new suburb of Chicago, where every day is moving day. A station wagon and moving boxes sit in front of a new house and the new kids on...
Unit Plan
CommonLit

Common Lit: Book Pairings: "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry

For Students 9th - 10th
Selected (7) reading passages (grades 8-10) to pair with the drama "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. When a struggling African-American family receives a large insurance check, a conflict erupts on how to spend the money....
Website
US Department of State

America.gov: Edward R. Murrow [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Highlights the life and career of broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow. Examines his "This is London" reports during World War 11, the Senator McCarthy anti-Communist campaign in the 1950s, his critical treatment of migrant workers, and...
Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Women in the 1950s

For Students 9th - 10th
Looks at what life was like for women in 1950s America. Examines the tension between the expectations of conformity and domesticity and an emerging discontent as many women chose to continue working after World War II. Meanwhile, African...
Article
PBS

Pbs American Experience: Mrs. America: Women's Roles in the 1950s

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the role of women in the 1950's. American society was geared toward the family and marriage and children were part of the national agenda.
Article
CommonLit

Common Lit: "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Changing America" by Barbara Radner

For Students 4th - 6th
This is an informational article about how Martin Luther King Jr. worked toward changing America in the 1950s and 1960s. It includes a short bio of Dr. King and a reading purpose: As you read, take notes on the problems that African...
Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Anticommunism in the 1950s

For Students 9th - 10th
Looks at the paranoia of the 1950s when Americans lived in fear of communism. The House Committee on Un-American Activities created blacklists of people working in Hollywood, McCarthyism flourished, and the Rosenberg couple were tried...
Website
University of Virginia

Virginia Center for Digital History: Television News of the Civil Rights Era

For Students 9th - 10th
A rich collection of streaming video samples of television news footage from 1950 to 1970, along with an assortment of primary source documents, first-person accounts, a glossary of terms, and essays and analysis for learning about the...
Activity
SparkNotes

Spark Notes: Social Trends of the 1950s

For Students 9th - 10th
Spark Notes gives a brief overview of the 1950s from consumerism and conformity to poverty to youthful rebellion. A good review of this important decade in American history.
Article
Other

The Suburbanization of America: Patio Culture

For Students 9th - 10th
This site offers a discussion on middle class suburban life in the 1950's and 1960's which has been dubbed the Patio Culture.
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: A Biography of America: The Fifties 1945 1960

For Students 9th - 10th
World War II ends with the legacy of its final moment: the atomic bomb. After reading comprehensive background material, interactive feature lets you decide if President Truman was correct in his decision to drop atomic bombs on...
Website
University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania: The Literature & Culture of the American 1950s

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides a very large collection of web resources for a study of American culture during the fifties. Some links no longer work.
Primary
Digital Public Library of America

Dpla: Rock 'N' Roll: Beginnings to Woodstock

For Students 9th - 10th
The resources in this set highlight the artists and sounds that were central to the rock 'n' roll musical genre that contributed to social and cultural change in America beginning in the 1950s.
Lesson Plan
Yale University

Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Negro Holocaust: Lynching and Race Riots

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A lesson unit with good background information for students. Details the history of lynching and race riots in America and the treatment of African-Americans from 1880 to 1950.
Handout
University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania: The Hollywood Blacklist

For Students 9th - 10th
This site describes what went on in Hollywood during the Red Scare of the 1950s when many actors and directors were asked to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee about possible communist activity in Hollywood.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The 1950s: Happy Days

For Students 5th - 8th
A brief look at American life and politics in the 1950s with an increase in consumerism and fear of the Soviet Union.
Activity
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Chicago, the Transit Metropolis

For Students 9th - 10th
Explore the role of public transportation in Chicago, from the 1890s through the 1950s.
Handout
The History Cat

The History Cat: Red Scare America

For Students 9th - 10th
Describes the events that took place during the McCarthy Era and actions of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Ordinary Americans feared being identified as a Communist sympathizer and libraries removed books from their shelves...
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story: Marshall and Mc Carthyism

For Students 6th - 8th
Read the outlandish claims Senators Joseph McCarthy and William Jenner made about honored statesman and public servant, George Marshal during the time that came to be known as McCarthyism.
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: Post War Prosperity and Cold War Fears 1945 1960: The American Dream

For Students 11th - 12th
Looks at the policies of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, both at home and abroad. Also examines changing gender roles in the 1950s, and the impact of suburbanization on America.
Interactive
Museum of Modern Art

Mo Ma: Abstract Expressionist New York

For Students 9th - 10th
Blockbuster exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art underscores the relationship between New York City and the explosion of creative activity among the artists who lived there in the postwar period. Learn why New York became the center of...
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: Prosperity and Cold War Fears 1945 60: Popular Culture and Mass Media

For Students 11th - 12th
Examines the impact that rock and roll music, movies and the invention of television had on America in the 1950s.

Other popular searches