1950s Censorship Essay

The 1950s was known as time of civil rights progression and the fear of communism within America. But the censorship of literature and music that ran rampant in this time period is not recognized when you think of the 1950s. Classics and comics were a majority of the banning throughout this time period but not the only. Emergence of music types like R&B were also a huge ‘problem’ to many to what is played on the radio which this could be linked to the racism at the time. Pretty scandalous.
The censorship of literature during this time had been a tremendous issue upon other issues. The censorship of literature in schools had been one of the main targets of censorship. Classic works such as The Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, and The Invisible …show more content…
There had been many factors that had contributed to the rampant censorship in the 1950s. One unlikely factor was race. At the time many problems involving race had been happening like, the mass of the civil rights movement. With many overwhelming feelings in America, music is made. The 1950s had seen a new genre of music being brought up called rhythm and blues (R&B). In general this genre had been enjoyed and dominated by the African American community so, when this genre of music had spread to the white youth, older white conservatives were not happy at all. These irrational conservatives had thought that R&B corrupted youth and promoted immoral behavior which lead to many angry letters being sent to radio stations and such saying to not play this genre. Being in such a racial time, instantaneously, censorship was brought up against this music. At the time there was no internet only radio and the rising popularity of the television so, if a radio station was not going to play this music, it would not gain popularity or be listened to. In a way it was completely hypocritical on america’s part for something not having equal rights but at the same time, the United States is founded on