1950’S Youth Culture

Youth culture in the nineteen fifties was a time that opened up the world to be integrated for whites and blacks.   In this paper the fifties are analyzed through the clothing, styles, cars, family life, and most importantly entertainment.


Talking to various members of my family I asked them if they could remember the way that the youth dressed in the nineteen- fifties.   The responses were all similar.   The popular man role wore tight white T- shirts which were described to me (I hate this expression)as ‘Guinea T’s.’   These are white T- shirts in which the manufacturer cut- off the sleeves.   Also regular white T- shirts were worn with one sleeve rolled up with a pack of cigarettes.   When I talked to a man in my neighborhood, John Braggs, he explained to me that the modern style of wearing your pants low on your hips actually began in the fifties.   He said that they wore tight jeans that were pulled down low at the waist with of course a tight white T- shirt tucked in.   "I don’t know where y’all started wearen’ ‘em so baggy from, but I don’t like it," he shouted in his southern accent.   The females were not as revealing as the modern women are.   Longer dresses and dressier shirts were their style.   The ‘Beatnik’!


generation was forming out of Grenitch village in Manhattan which the style was more of a depressing look.   They wore mostly black or darker colors.   I watched a movie called ‘The Wanderers’ to try to take a look at how they dressed and the portrayal was what I just described.  


The type of children that the fifties brought out was a common question I asked everyone I surveyed, and to tell you the truth they were not all that much help.   There were the popular crowd who were ‘Greaser’ types.   The Greaser boys were the bad boys, they spawned off of the rebellious biker gang called the ‘Hell’s Angel’s.’   This group was a bike gang...