The events of the twentieth century have a lot of significance in the political social, cultural, and economic historical development in America. Each decade between 1950 to 2000 was marked by a major event that showed a big impact on cultural, economic and government policies. This paper examines the events of each decade starting from 1950 to the decade of 1990s and how they relate to the development of America. Also, the paper focuses on the projections of the next ten years based on the already experienced events.
The abolition of segregation in schools was the main event in the decade of 1950s. The period following the end of the Second World War saw America undergo a process of revolution witnessed by the struggle for civil rights and championed by the socially segregated black Americans especially in education system. The decision by the Supreme Court of America in 1954 served as a landmark event in the 1950s decade.
A group of black American parents under the national association for the advancement of colored people (NAACP) had challenged the board of education to push for desegregation in the schools such that the black students would share the same educational facilities with the white students. Their effort was geared towards ensuring that the government establishes a system that subjects both the black student and the white student to the same educational facilities (Cozzens, 1995)
The Supreme Court on May 17 1954 ruled out the issue of segregation in schools and called for equality in education system, a decision that formed the foundation for reforms in other areas to allow equality of blacks and whites. More reforms in education followed wherein 1964 the formulation of the civil rights act required that schools that segregated students on racial bases be denied federal aid (Page and Simmons, 2002: p 181).
Although some arguments have been raised indicating that the decision by the Supreme Court was not a success, the fact is that the government-supported segregation. The Supreme Court decision alerted the government to focus on eliminating segregation not only in the education system but also in other areas of the economy. The decision made Americans embrace the view that they should be free irrespective of the color of their skin.
The success of this event in establishing equality has been evident for a long time, since keeping other factors constant, the blacks cannot be segregated in accessing educational facilities like it was back then.
The decade between 1960 and 1970 came to be known as the hippie’s decade. This decade is famous among Americans due to massive cultural change among the American youths who had different ideological views. The Hippie movement advocated for social revolution to establish a culture characterized by freedom, music, drugs, sex, free love, and festivities.
The hippie movement which started in San Francisco had grown for a long time but its impact on cultural and political aspects was most evident in the decade of 1960s. The hippie movement wanted to bring change to society by initiating political revolutions and a change in lifestyle. The movement took to the streets demonstrating against the involvement of the American government in the Vietnam War. In addition, the movement championed the civil rights and rights for women and the minority in the society. Young people rejected the traditional conservative ways of life and created their own alternative culture.
By the mid-sixties, the movement which was composed mainly of students below the age of 25 from wealthy and middle-class families adopted the culture of wearing funny clothes or no clothes at all, listening to rock and blues music, singing, dancing, drinking beer, and taking drugs like marijuana and LSD (Huber et al, n.d). While the adults were conservative, hardworking and concerned about life and their economy, hippies continuously pursued liberty and happiness, never worked nor went to churches and cared less about some social aspects like conserving their virginity even at a very young age. The biggest event that the Hippies conducted and that had a big impact on culture was the ‘Summer of Love’ in the month of June 1967. The summer of love saw even young children adopt the practices of the hippies like wearing colored clothes, long hair, and flowers on their hair. It
Hippies’ legacy was divided into four categories: integration of black people, feminist’s movement, integration of homosexuals, and environmental concerns (The Legacy of the Hippie Movement., n.d).
Although the hippie movement died in the 1970s, its impact has been felt for the subsequent decades not only to the current American but also to other parts of the world where young people want to imitate the lifestyles of the Americans.
The era of the youth was followed by the era of women in the 1970s where the women group featured prominently in the struggle for their rights especially in the initial years of the decade. The ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1972 which was proposed by the congress had a lot of impact on the political and cultural scenes in America. The initial stages of the struggle by women for their rights were to enable women to work as their male counterparts.
The amendments were done to establish equality between the men and women. The declaration by the congress indicated that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” (U.S. Department of State, n.d). Following the previous social reforms, the women-led feminists also wanted to establish their rights and entrench them in the American constitution.
The national organization for women (NOW) gained many members in the decade of 1970s despite it having started in the previous decade. Men were not impressed as they viewed these movements as a source of social breakdown yet women were supposed to be submissive to men.
Some of the social achievements of the women groups in championing women right were witnessed in 1973 when the supreme court sanctioned women’s right to abortion in the initial stages of pregnancy. The women movements faced a lot of opposition by men groups due to the fact that the men feared and hated the changes that women were trying to make (Philips, n.d).
Some of these groups became docile while others collapsed in the mid and late 1970s even though the feminists were not able to accomplish their goals beyond the middle-class women’s rights. This was caused by differences between radical and the moderate feminists. The phenomenon was that opposition was raised to the Equal Rights Amendment by conservative women groups in different states. This prompted the amendment not to be ratified by all the thirty-eight states when the group died in 1982 (U.S. Department of State, n.d).
The equal rights amendment was written back in 1923 by Alice Paul. From this time it was introduced in the congress in every session without success. It is in 1972 that the amendment was finally passed by the congress but failed to be ratified by all states by the 1982 deadline.
Despite the challenges posed to women by men in their struggle for equality, the state established pieces of legislation that enabled women to have equal rights with men, for example, in workplace, lifestyle, and the way of thinking.
The 1986 reforms on tax as outlined in the Tax Reforms Act of 1986 were a landmark in the fiscal policymaking in the United States of America in the decade of 1980s. The act which was signed to law by President Ronald Regan changed the course of the lives of Americans in many ways.
The tax legislation significantly reduced the marginal income tax rates for individuals to 20% and provided for increase in corporations taxation by $ 120 billion for a period of five years. The Act made major changes in the way taxes were collected and administered and aimed at benefiting both the higher earners and low earners. The enactment of the act followed the deliberations by Reagan’s administration of the means to stimulate the economy. Tax reduction to individuals and corporations was identified as a means to foster changes that could stimulate the economy (encyclopedia.com 2005).
The Act also provided for defined retirement benefits for social security pensions. According to Gale, Shoven and Warshawsky (2005: p. 32), the passage of the Act led to more limitations in terms of a tax-preferred basis of financing. In addition, the employers were limited on the requirements they would impose on workers under tax-qualified plans to vest in their accruing benefits.
The fiscal policy (more specifically reduced taxes) specifically addressed top issues relating to the living standards of the citizens. This can be regarded as one of the remarkable events in the 1980s decade that changed the wellbeing of the Americans and the other reforms that followed were aimed at correcting the deficits of the initial Act of 1986.
The enactment of the tax reform act followed a time when America was recovering from the economic struggles of the 1960s where the results were the economic boom. These reforms can be regarded as the reforms that reduced taxes by the biggest margin to date. The decade of 1980 can therefore be regarded as the decade of economic reconstruction in American history.
The last decade of the twentieth century was relatively calm as far as the political climate was concerned in the United States of America. However, the 1998 sexual scandal linked to the then president of the United States of America formed part of the huge debate in the political as well as the social circles. The Clinton and Lewinsky sexual scandal did put to test most of the American perception towards sexual rights and ethics.
The debate came in a deep ambivalence by Americans in the view that sexuality is a normal and a healthy part of life. The scandal saw the president being threatened with impeachment following investigations carried out on his sexual involvement with a worker. It is suggested that the issue also threatened national security, personal privacy as well as sexual health (Noonan, 2001).
The debate on the sex scandal was solely on the ground of morality although the debate is suggested to have been raised by his opponents in the fact that, although the president’s case was no different from other sex-related cases, it had generated undue attention not only in America, but also in the whole world. However, the event has been regarded as a sexual-political issue that was orchestrated to a large extent by the media.
The scandal came in the wake of different debates geared towards establishing legislation that guarantees sexual liberty especially concerning homosexuals and their involvement in public issues. But how did the scandal affect Americans in general? It is argued that the scandal which happened during the last term of Clinton’s era as the president of the United States of America affected considerably the elections which were conducted in 2000 (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2009)
Many Americans dismissed the scandal as untrue since no other president in the history of America had ever been dismissed on accounts of sexuality. The accusations of the sexual misconduct of the president started right from the time he was the governor of Arkansas where he was accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with another female. Clinton, despite being highly approved by a large portion of Americans had attracted extraordinary hostility from rivals of the republican side.
In general, the events in America from 1950 to 2000 have a lot of significance especially regarding the development of the current American culture, economy, and government policies. The impact of the events will form the foundation of the events in the new millennium. However, technological advancement especially in the field of information and communication and issues of globalization are likely to dominate the initial part of the second millennium. Other events from outside the United States of America are likely to have a bigger impact on political economic and social aspects due to the increased international relations of the United States of America with other countries all over the world.
References
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Encyclopedia.com (2005). Tax Reform Act of 1986. Web.
Gale, W. G. et al. (2005). The Evolving System Trends, Effects and Proposals for Reforms. Washington D.C: Brookings institution press.
Huber A. et al. Hippie generation. Web.
Noonan. (2001). Sexuality in the Age of Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, and Kenneth Starr. Web.
Page, B, and Simmons, J. R. (2002). What government can do: dealing with poverty and inequality. Chicago: university of Chicago press.
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The Canadian encyclopedia. (2009). Clinton faces sex scandal. Web.
The Legacy of the Hippie Movement. To What Extent Did the Hippie Movement Have an Impact on the American Society? Web.
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