The 1950s are often presented as an era of consensus, when people chose to

conform rather than “rock the boat.” During this period of time was a massive growth in

suburbia, but new images for suburban women, Negroes, and other minorities also rose.

Suburban communities grew and expanded vastly. Technologies made the lives of

women easier, but also more boring and conformed, while African Americans were able

to integrate more into the lives of white Americans. Through all the places in American

society that seemed to meet with consensus and conformity, however, not all Americans

matched one another in lifestyle. The 1950s were also a time for trendsetters, known as

celebrities, to emerge individually. But in spite of this, the decade at midcentury was

largely representative of a conformed society, in which much was the same and little rose

above the mass of plain consensus.

At midcentury, American society was characterized by a suburban boom,

strengthened by the domestic ideal of the “nuclear family” encouraged by cold war

sentiments. Contemporary journalists, novelists, and social scientists contributed to the

viewpoint that normal life in the 1950s was plain, dull, and filled with conformity.

Suburban houses were very similar to one another; while two adjacent homes were not

exactly the same, the neighborhood was very often repetitive. Suburbia also grew very

quickly, not just in the 1950s but extending all the way into the 1970s. In 1950, 53.8

million people lived in suburbs, in 1960 59.9 million did, and in 1970 75.5 million people

resided in suburbs. Though percentages of the population did not necessarily increase, a

dramatic growth of Suburbia is still viewable (Doc 5). Within and outside the suburbs,

people, mostly women and minorities, experienced growing conformity as well.

 During the 1950s, women and African Americans saw changes in their lifestyles

that further encouraged conformity and a single image engulfing the entire community.

Technologies such as household, labor-saving appliances, as well as various scientific

accomplishments, made the tasks of housewives easier, but also more boring and plain,

even though many women were proud of their ‘occupations’ as housewives. The other

end of minority conformity, that of the African Americans’, was again very different. In

1954, with the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education, the doctrine of

‘separate but equal’ (segregation) was condemned as unequal. This meant that

integration, rather than separation, was to be the new policy, and conformity crossing

racial lines was now easier than ever before. Though this is politically considered an

achievement of the United States of America, but it did contribute a fair amount to the

conformity of the 1950s.

Through all the conformity and consensus, several pockets of uniqueness were

visible throughout America, though in some ways they only contributed more to

conformity. Elvis Presley, who began rock ‘n’ roll music, was clearly a trendsetter in his

field, garnering a large number of crazed fans, but millions of people found further

conformity in adding his music to their lives (Doc 4). In this period of time, the popular

musical style, recorded largely by small independent record labels, followed African

American rhythm and blues artists, while larger and older record labels produced white

“covers” of African American songs in order for listeners to more closely identify with

the singers; Elvis was in this category. Still, Elvis Presley and the rest of the artists were

in a steep minority.
 Though not the entire population of the United States chose to conform rather

than “rock the boat,” a substantial amount of them did, enough to justly classify the group

as a whole. Suburban homes were an endless, repeating pattern that kept expanding

through the decade; housewives and mothers earned a respected reputation, but life

remained, for the most part, the same; African Americans continued to integrate into

largely white parts of society. Technologies such as television and radio were

strengthened as well, and throughout parts of the country different people tuned in to the

same media, be it broadcast or written; magazines, especially for teens, became popular

at this point in time. Large crowds also gathered for mutual appreciation and excitement

for “stars” such as Elvis Presley, a trendsetter in music. Some people felt that the “best

minds” were lost in the conformity of the fifties, but almost all acknowledged what had

occurred.