What were the key characteristics of American culture and society during the 1950s?

The Fifties are
generally considered to be a stable period in American life. After the economic hardships of the
Great Depression in the Thirties and the challenges of World War II in the Forties, the United
States was ready for this period of relative calm.

However, hindsight gives
us a more interesting appraisal of what was going on in the Fifties. Several developments in the
areas of civil rights, literature, and music signaled the momentous changes that were coming in
just a few years as America entered the Sixties, possibly the most tumultuous of all American
decades.

Musically, the birth of rock and roll influenced society in terms of
more than just what people heard on the radio. Elvis Presleys success in combining black and
white music may have sparked protest among the white establishment, but it also led eventually
to increased inclusion of black culture in mainstream American life.

In
literature, the Fifties saw the birth of a literary group called the Beat Generation. The
website Literature Network characterized this group this way:

The taboos against frank discussions of sexuality were seen as unhealthy and possibly
damaging to the psyche. In the world of literature and art, the Beats stood in opposition to the
clean, almost antiseptic formalism of the early twentieth century Modernists. 

Although the Beats did not revolutionize literature the way that
rock and roll did music, they did pave the way for a more socially realistic literary tradition
moving forward.

Finally, and most importantly, The Civil Rights movement
continued to grow and increase its social impact. In 1955 Rosa Parks famously refused to change
her seat and move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Meanwhile, Martin Luther King
began to develop his arm of the movement, using nonviolent protest as a strategy, and in 1957
helped launch the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as its first president.

The United States was not simply locked in conformity in the Fifties. It was in
something more like a state of incubation, as new forces gathered before exploding into a social
revolution in the Sixties.