L42: Two Americas

Which statement best describes the impact of The Other America when it was published in 1962?

• A. It incited riots among poverty-stricken minorities.

• B. It was ignored by politicians, who blamed poor people for their poverty.

• C. It led to the formation of a new political party for people in poverty.

• D. It woke up the nation to the reality that poverty still existed in many places.

According to The Other America, which of these factors contributed the least to the invisibility of poor people in the 1950s?

• the mass production of affordable clothing

• the development of the interstate highway system

• the migration of middle-class families to the suburbs

• the lack of political power among low-income people

Which statement is true of poverty in the late 1950s?

• The average age of a person living in poverty was 20 in the late 1950s.

• Around one in four Americans was living in poverty in the late 1950s.

• The poor population was mostly blue-collar workers in the late 1950s.

• Poverty stricken areas were very far from affluent areas in the late 1950s.

How did the Housing Act of 1949 worsen poverty, rather than help it?

• It caused hundreds of thousands of poor people to be displaced from their homes.

• It raised the cost of owning a house, causing middle-class people to lose money.

• It increased the price of other necessities, such as education and grocery items.

• It discriminated against African Americans who often needed the housing the most.

How did the rise of agribusiness in the 1950s hurt small farmers?

• by hiring small farmers to run corporate farms

• by buying land once owned by small farmers

• by driving seed and fertilizer prices up for small farmers

• by producing crops more efficiently than small farmers could

What impact did the termination policy have on many Indigenous groups during the 1950s?

• They fell deeper into poverty.

• They expanded their reservation lands.

• They became economically self-reliant.

• They lost their chance to relocate to cities.

The maps below show Chicago in 1960. Which statement is best supported by the data on the maps?

• Impoverished people were spread evenly throughout Chicago.

• Chicago had more impoverished people than most other cities.

• Poverty affected all of Chicago's ethnic groups equally.

• Poverty was highest in Chicago's Black neighborhoods.

Which group was the most impoverished in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s?

• African Americans

• Indigenous people

• Chinese immigrants

• blue-collar workers

Read the quote below from a leading clergyman in 1834. What philosophy towards impoverished people does the quote exemplify?

“Pauperism is the consequence of willful error, of shameful indolence [laziness], of vicious habit.”

• Poverty is a result of a moral failing.

• Government has an obligation to help poor people.

• Poverty is oftentimes a result of misfortune.

• Government is a result of an economic failing.

__________ refers to the minimum amount of income one would need to meet basic needs.

• Low income

• Pauperism

• Poverty line

• Total budget