At first glance, the decade of the 1950s appears an age of innocence sandwiched between the hard years of World War II and the political and social revolutions of the 1960s.  The decade seems a clean, simple and happy time.   

Suburbs and shopping malls, access to cars, and televisions became part of everyday life.  The state was alive with growth and prosperity.  Young people enjoyed roller skating and soda fountains.  Mom returned home after years of war-related work.  The state’s business and industry thrived during the 1950s.
Closer examination brings an understanding that the decade really had undercurrents of the unrest that would surface in the 1960s.  It was a decade of growth and prosperity for some, but not for all.  It was a time of questioning long-held beliefs and customs.
On the national and international front, The Korean War (1950-1953) is probably the best illustration the tensions of the Cold War world.  Political and economic tensions between the democratic west including Western Europe and the United States, and the communist bloc countries of Eastern Europe dominated international affairs.  Many believed that the Soviet Union was developing the hydrogen bomb.  That bomb’s capacity for destruction loomed large in the hearts and minds of people as international politics came into homes through radio and television.  Tension entered people’s lives in the form of bomb shelters built in public places, and in some homes.  Russia’s Sputnik, and the American space program, NASA, with their feverish and exciting race to the moon was another manifestation of Cold War tensions.
Closer to home, racial discrimination became intolerable to some.  For them, it was time to question the legality of segregation in the courts.  In 1954 Delawareans helped lead the way supplying two local cases to the larger Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.  Delaware’s first African-American member of the state bar, Lewis Redding, joined the panel of lawyers arguing at the Supreme Court. Segregation was struck down.  Throughout the remainder of the decade, the schools and later all public places opened their doors to African-American and whites alike.  The social revolution had begun.

Take a look at a decade that seems at once both in peace and in turmoil.  Click here to see photographs from the collections of the library of the Historical Society of Delaware, giving us a glimpse into the decade of the Fabulous 50s!!