Events

  • 1952

    Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president

  • 1954

    Army-McCarthy hearings held

    Supreme Court issues Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, ruling
  • 1955

    AFL-CIO forms

  • 1956

    Congress passes Federal Highway Act

  • 1957

    Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957

    Little Rock crisis erupts
  • 1959

    Congress passes Landrum-Griffin Act

    • Key People

    • Dwight D. Eisenhower

      34th U.S. president; expanded New Deal–era social welfare programs and passed Federal Highway Act but cut back funding to other domestic programs in order to halt “creeping socialism”

    • Joseph McCarthy

      Republican senator from Wisconsin who led Communist witch hunts in the early 1950s; humiliated himself during televised Army-McCarthy hearings by making outlandish accusations with no evidence; was censured by the Senate

    Creeping Socialism

    Eisenhower entered the White House in 1953 determined to roll back Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal liberalism, which he derided as “creeping socialism. A Republican, Eisenhower wanted to reduce the size and influence of the federal government, give more power to state governments, and allow corporate profits to boost the national economy unfettered. Less government influence, he reasoned, would put America back on track. He appointed prominent businessmen to top cabinet posts in an effort to make the executive branch more efficient. Most Americans praised his hands-off approach to government after twenty years of heavy social engineering under Roosevelt and Truman.

    Continuing the New Deal

    Eisenhower’s desire to halt “creeping socialism” did not, however, mean dismantling the new social welfare programs previously put into place. Eisenhower proved to be a big proponent of programs and policies designed to help those at the bottom rung of the economic ladder, who needed help the most. He created the cabinet-level Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and allowed the government to continue to subsidize farmers so that the price of farm products remained high. Eisenhower expanded Social Security in order to benefit more Americans, including the elderly and unemployed, and also dumped more federal dollars into the Federal Housing Administration to help Americans purchase new homes.

    The Federal Highway Act

    Most important, Eisenhower endorsed the Federal Highway Act in 1956, calling for the construction of a network of interstate highways, which would improve national transportation. In fewer than twenty years, this highway construction became the largest public works project in U.S. history and cost more than $25 billion. New taxes on gasoline, oil, and trucks helped pay for this massive endeavor. The new interstates had an enormous impact on the growth of the suburbs and prosperity but also severely crippled the development of public transportation systems.

    The AFL-CIO

    Afraid that a Republican in the White House would mean the end of organized labor, which had flourished under the Democrats and during World War II, the heads of the rival American Federation of Labor(AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations(CIO) labor unions merged in 1955 to create the AFL-CIO. This new superunion joined between 10 and 15 million workers under a single umbrella organization and helped millions of families achieve unprecedented prosperity. Never again have so many American laborers been organized in one body.

    Scandal after scandal rocked the organization in the 1960s and 1970s, including the expulsion of the Teamsters Union from the AFL-CIO in 1957 for having ties to organized crime. The media attention tarnished organized labor in the public eye and convinced millions to leave the union. Congress eventually passed the 1959Landrum-Griffin Act in the wake of these scandals to limit labor unions’ rights.

    Ike on Civil Rights

    Eisenhower privately opposed the civil rights movement and remained relatively silent as the movement began to gain momentum during his presidency. He made no comment after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that “separate but equal” public facilities for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. He signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, but only reluctantly and only after assuring southern legislators that the new law would have little real impact.

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