You are to write 1 letter to the editor of a newspaper during the 1950s and/or 1960s.
Your letter will represent the point of view of a particular person in that particular time period. It will also deal with issues that resonate through that era. Your letter will be 1-2 pages in length, double spaced. You are to assume the persona of a member of one of the groups listed below and then write a letter to the editor from that personΒs perspective. In your letter you are to discuss your thoughts on the pressing issues of the day. Instead of trying to discuss all factors at work in these time periods, choose one issue, or a few related issues to examine in greater detail. Make sure to mention relevant events and people from this time. Please remember to stay in your fictional voice. You will be graded on how accurately you represent that personΒs point of view a
nd how well you discuss the hot-button issues of the 1950s.
Possible topics you can address in your letters include, but are not limited to, the
following:
The Red Scare
The Emerging Middle Class Culture
The Domestic Implications of the Cold War
The Beginnings of the Civil Rights Struggle
The Place of Women in Society
The Emergence of New Forms of Media
The Underground Beat Culture
The Beginning of the War in Vietnam
For this assignment you are to assume a fictional persona. You must choose a person from one of the following groups.
a college age student
a housewife in suburbia
a teenager in suburbia
a World War II veteran
an African American high school age student living in the South a wealthy, white business person
a white midwestern farmer
a Washington DC government bureaucrat
a middle management businessman working for a large firm
a Hollywood scriptwriter