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American Society in the late 50s

• American standard of living seemed higher
  • asserting itself as world power after two World Wars
• American scientists asserting technological superiority
  • scientific discovery & development
  • automobile industry
• Civil Rights Act barred discrimination by federal law (enacted in 1964)
  • of course, passing laws did not make racial equality & integration a reality
• radicals focused on realism, rather than idealism
  • JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

Still those who were attempting to rid the world of Rock & Roll

• rock music was banned in Boston
  • record hop at MIT ended in riot
  • WBMS forbade DJs to play record hops
• Birmingham, AL: White Citizens Council tried to ban R&R all together
  • being unsuccessful, a group of them attended a show by Nat "King" Cole--interrupting the set--pulled him from the stage and beat him unmercifully!!
  • oddly, Cole was a model of racial tolerance
• Indianapolis, IN: little old lady was arrested for making repeated trips to a record store so she could smash their stock of Elvis records!!
• St. Louis, MO (1/58): KWK banned rock & roll, smashing every R&R record in its library after giving it one final spin
• Iran & Egypt banned rock on the advice of Iranian doctors
  • claimed that "many young rock and roll dancers had injured their hips in extreme gyrations."
• summer 1958--Catholic Youth Organization's newspaper encouraged teens to

  "... smash the records you possess which present a pagan culture and a pagan concept of life. Check beforehand the records which will be played at a house party or a school record dance. Resist the pressures created by the money-mad record hucksters and popularity-hungry disc jockeys ..."

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