THE OTHER SIDE OF AMERICAN LIFEPoverty Amidst Prosperity

Key Vocabulary

Ideas

• Poverty Line: figure the government sets to reflect the minimum income required to support a family

• Urban Renewal Programs: replace slums with high-rise buildings for poor residents in an effort to remove poverty

• Juvenile Delinquency: Antisocial and/or criminal behavior of young people

Facts of the Times

• 20% of America lived in poverty during the 1950s

• Urban Renewal led to crowded housing with plenty of violence

• Government removed poor once they earned higher income, putting them back into poverty

• Juvenile delinquency up 45 percent between 1948 and 1953

African Americans• Moved to cities for better economic opportunity in the past

(think about everything we’ve discussed already in class)

• Racial discrimination in schools, housing, hiring, etc. kept African-Americans poor and stuck in the cities

• Generally averaged only 51% of what white workers earned and often did not receive other benefits

Hispanics• Bracero Program brought over 5 million workers to the US

to work on farms and ranches in the Southwest

• 350,000 stay in the US permanently but lived in extreme poverty

• Worked long hours, received very little pay, housed in small shacks

• Largely invisible in society until they organized for greater rights

Native Americans• Poorest ethnic group in America; made up less than 1% of

the population

• Termination Policy intended to bring Native Americans into the mainstream and ended their classification as a separate legal group

• Government attempted to have Native Americans move out of reservations and into cities with horrible results and life expectancy for Native Americans was far lower than other groups within cities

Appalachia• Stretches from New York to Georgia

• Unemployment soared and economy moved away from coal (roughly 1.5 million people without work)

• Standard of living very low (example: fewer doctors per 1,000 people than anywhere in the US; schools worse than inner-city schools of the time)

• High rates of infant mortality and nutritional deficiency

U.S. Census Bureau Poverty Thresholds, 2011

Size of Family Unit Poverty Threshold

One person (unrelated individual) $11,484

  Under age 65 11,702

  Age 65 or older 10,788

Two people 14,657

  Householder under age 65 15,139

  Householder age 65 or older 13,609

Three people 17,916

Four people 23,021

Five people 27,251

Six people 30,847

Seven people 35,085

Eight people 39,064

Nine people or more 46,572

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Weighted Average Poverty Thresholds, 2011, released in September 2012.