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DOCUMENT A

Gross Domestic Product: 1945-1960
(Adjusted for inflation; calculated in 1996 dollars)

Year (in billions)

1945 $1693.3
1946 1505.5
1947 1495.1
1948 1560
1949 1550.9
1950 1686.1
1951 1815.1
1952 1887.3
1953 1973.9
1954 1960.5
1955 2099.5
1956 2141.1
1957 2183.9
1958 2162.8
1959 2319
1960 2376.7

Source: U. S. Department of Commerce.

DOCUMENT B
Total and Foreign-born U.S. Population:
1900-90
(Numbers in thousands)
Year	Total U.S. Population	Foreign-born
Year	Total U.S. Population	Total	Percent
1990	248,710	19,767	7.9
1980	226,546	14,080	6.2
1970	203,210	9,619	4.7
1960	179,326	9,738	5.4
1950	150,845	10,431	6.9
1940	132,165	11,657	8.8
1930	123,203	14,283	11.6
1920	106,022	14,020	13.2
1910	92,229	13,630	14.8
1900	76,212	10,445	13.7
Source: Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, Ethnic and Hispanic Branch.

DOCUMENT C

The final problem of the productive society is what it produces. This manifests itself in an implacable tendency to provide an opulent supply of some things and a niggardly yield of others. This disparity carries to the point where it is a cause of social discomfort and social unhealth. The line which divides our area of wealth from our area of poverty is roughly that which divides privately produced and marketed goods and services from publicly rendered services. . . .

In the years following World War II, the papers of any major city--those of New York were an excellent example--told daily of the shortages and shortcomings in the elementary municipal and metropolitan services. The schools were old and overcrowded. The police force was under strength and underpaid. The parks and playgrounds were insufficient. Streets and empty lots were filthy, and the sanitation staff was under-equipped and in need of men. Access to the city by those who work there was uncertain and painful and becoming more so. Internal transportation was overcrowded, unhealthful and dirty. So was the air. . . .

An affluent society, that is also both compassionate and rational, would not doubt, secure to all who needed it the minimum income essential for decency and comfort. . . .

Source: John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society, 1958.

DOCUMENT E

�Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments�.

In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms�.

We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race�deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.

To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone�.Any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is rejected.

We conclude [unanimously] that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Source: Supreme Court majority opinion, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 1954.

DOCUMENT F

We regard the decisions of the Supreme Court in the school cases as a clear abuse of judicial power. It climaxes a trend in the Federal Judiciary undertaking to legislate, in derogation of the authority of Congress, and to encroach upon the reserved rights of the States and the people.

The original Constitution does not mention education. Neither does the 14th Amendment nor any other amendment. The debates preceding the submission of the 14th Amendment clearly show that there was no intent that it should affect the system of education maintained by the States.

The very Congress which proposed the amendment subsequently provided for segregated schools in the District of Columbia.

This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding.

Signed by:

[19]MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE

[63] MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Source: Southern Manifesto, March 12, 1956.

DOCUMENT G

This is a time of the "cold war." This is a time when all the world is split into two vast, increasingly hostile armed camps--a time of great armaments race. . . .

Today�there are 800,000,000 people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia�an increase of over 400 percent. On our side, the figure has shrunk to around 500,000,000. In other words, in less than 6 years the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us. This indicates the swiftness of the tempo of Communist victories and American defeats in the cold war. As one of our outstanding historical figures once said, "When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be because of enemies from without, but rather because of enemies from within�."

In my opinion the State Department, which is one of the most important government departments, is thoroughly infested with Communists.

I have in my hand 57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy.

Source: Senator Joseph McCarthy, Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, February 20, 1950.

DOCUMENT H

"1. Any person who served in the active military or naval service on or after September 16, 1940, and prior to the termination of the present war, and who shall have been discharged or released there from under conditions other than dishonorable, and whose education or training was impeded, delayed, interrupted, or interfered with by reason of his entrance into the service, . . . shall be eligible for and entitled to receive education or training under this part. . . .

"3. Such person shall be eligible for an entitled to such course of education or training as he may elect, and at any approved educational or training institution at which he chooses to enroll�.

"5. The Administrator shall pay to the educational or training institution, for each person enrolled in full time or part time course of education or training, the customary cost of tuition, and such laboratory, library, health, infirmary, and other similar fees as are customarily charged, and may pay for books, supplies, equipment, and other necessary expenses: Provided, That in no event shall such payments, with respect to any person, exceed $500 for an ordinary school year. . . .

"6. While enrolled in and pursuing a course under this part, such person, shall be paid a subsistence allowance of $50 per month, if without a dependent or dependents, or $75 per month, if he has a dependent or dependents. . . .

Source: The GI Bill of Rights, 1944.

DOCUMENT J

The ultimate outcome of the suburb's alienation from the city became visible only in the twentieth century. . . . In the mass movement into suburban areas a new kind of community was produced, which caricatured both the historic city and the archetypal suburban refuge: a multitude of uniform, unidentifiable houses, lined up inflexibly, at uniform distances, on uniform roads, in a treeless communal waste, inhabited by people of the same class, the same income, the same age group, witnessing the same television performances, eating the same tasteless pre-fabricated foods, from the same freezers, conforming in every outward and inward respect to a common mold, manufactured in the central metropolis. Thus the ultimate effect of the suburban escape in our time is, ironically, a low-grade uniform environment from which escape is impossible�.

Our cities are being destroyed for the same superstitious religious ritual: the worship of speed and empty space. Lacking sufficient municipal budgets to deal adequately with all of life's requirements that can be concentrated in the city, we have settled for a single function, transportation, or rather for a single part of an adequate transportation system, locomotion by private motor car. . . .

The absurd belief that space and rapid locomotion are the chief ingredients of a good life has been fostered by the agents of mass suburbia.

Source: Lewis Mumford. The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects, 1961.