Early Developments 433norms of the United States marginalized the achievements of
African Americans.
For many white Americans, the mid-1950s was a time in
which the nation’s history of discrimination against African
Americans and other socially oppressed groups could no
longer be ignored. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in
Brown vs. Board of Educationin 1954 declared that separate
schools for white and black children were unconstitutional
and marked the beginning of the end of the Jim Crow laws,
originally enacted to force separation between the black and
white races. This bold and monumental judgment set into
motion a civil-rights movement that was more visible to
white Americans, with the aid of the media in its role as
a wide disseminator of information (Payne, 1995, 1997).
“Those two forces—a powerful surge among American
Blacks toward greater freedom, mostly inspired by the
Brown decision, and a quantum leap in the power of the
media—fed each other; each made the other more vital, and
the combination created what became known as ‘The Move-
ment’ ” (Halberstam, 1993, p. 429). Contrasting the simmer-
ings of the civil-rights movement, and in particular the
greater visibility of the social injustices faced by black
Americans, prime-time television programming “reflected
a world of warm-hearted, sensitive, tolerant Americans, a
world devoid of anger and meanness of spirit, and of course,
failure” (Halberstam, 1993, p. 514). Watching televised
news and entertainment was no doubt a disorienting experi-
ence for viewers trying to juxtapose these different and con-
flicting images of the nation. Moreover, television news
coverage of racist events made the country’s unsolved prob-
lems of racism more visible and threatening to the postwar
happiness.
One powerful example of the confluence of the power of
media and the growing civil-rights movement was the televi-
sion coverage of the Montgomery bus boycott after Rosa
Parks refused to sit in the back of a racially segregated bus
in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. The nationally televised
coverage documented both the success of the planned boycott
and recognition of the leadership Martin Luther King Jr. and
the women’s leadership group of Montgomery (Robinson,
1987). The triumph of this nationally visible event was a cat-
alyst for more public awareness, particularly in the North, of
the civil-rights movement, which had been active in the
South for several decades (Payne, 1995).
Increasing Malaise and Discontent
During this decade, more and more Americans felt incom-
plete, puzzled, or unhappy, if not depressed (Halberstam,
1993). Information was becoming easily available that doc-
umented the limitations of the post–World War II dream of
the long-awaited placid life. Events such as the McCarthy
hearings, the Korean War, and the duplicity in the U.S. State
Department undermining democracy in Guatemala con-
tributed to the feeling that, in fact, the country was facing se-
rious problems (Halberstam, 1993; Herman, 1999; Rovere,
1996; Schrecker, 1998; Zinn, 1999). Additionally, popular
novels likeThe Man in the Grey Flannel Suit(Wilson, 1955)
andPeyton Place(Metalious, 1956), as well as the inves-
tigative research of Betty Friedan (1963) on the social and
economic restraints of women, questioned the sense of jus-
tice in the lives of U.S. citizens. Further, the groundbreaking
inquiries into American sexual behavior by Alfred Kinsey
(1948, 1953) augmented Friedan’s reporting to raise aware-
ness about gender and sexual inequalities. Alternatively,
advances in reproductive biology by Gregory Pincus and
Hudson Hoagland created the birth control pill Enovid
(Asbell, 1995; Watkins, 1998). Clare Boothe Luce cap-
tured the significance of the Pill when she said, “Modern
woman is at last free as a man is free, to dispose of her
own body, to earn her living, to pursue the improvement of
her mind, to try a successful career” (Halberstam, 1993,
pp. 605–606). Each of these significant cultural events stimu-
lated increased awareness about societal problems as well as
provided new opportunities to pursue individual freedoms.
In sum, Americans’ beliefs, values, and goals in the 1950s
were being confronted; the alleged happiness with existing
gender roles and race relations were being questioned.
Americans were being forced to see the extent of violence
and racism that was prevalent. Members of the mental health
professions were also taking notice of these negative features
of American society. The eyes of these professionals were
being forced open. These events signified serious issues in
the country that needed addressing; it seems plausible that a
zeitgeist was emerging that called for a closer inspection and
appraisal of America’s communities.The 1960s: Social Upheaval and the Birth
of Community PsychologyThe issues of the 1950s that were becoming more visible to
the average citizen intensified during the 1960s. During the
late 1950s and 1960s, it was significant that throughout the
world “so many things happened at once” and that “ordinary
people had taken action” (Marwick, 1998, p. 803). The
simultaneous occurrence of political events and social move-
ments is a unique and significant chapter in U.S. and world
history (Howard, 1995; Isserman & Kazin, 2000). Todd
Gitlin, sociologist and coauthor of the Port Huron Statement
of the Students for Democratic Society, organized the first
national demonstration against the Vietnam War. He sum-
marized the spirit of the times of the 1960s and highlighted