Background

1
Creolization on the Small Screen Television,
Society, and Interracial Relationships 1948-1980
Background
The Jeffersons (mid-1970s) Tom and Helen
Abstract

• Between 1950 and 1980 America underwent several
  major social evolutions
• Civil Rights Movement
• Information/Media revolution
• A shifting of immigration
• Many Americans still held true to traditional
  values and beliefs.
• Only a 4 approval rate of interracial
  relationships. In 1954

What was the portrayal of interracial
relationships in television in its earliest
decades? Was this portrayal the same one
happening in reality throughout American society?
Our poster will answer these questions and give
insight into the correlation, or lack thereof,
between televised media portrayals and social
reality.
Star Trek (1968) Kirk and Uhura
I Love Lucy (1951-1958) Ricky and Lucy

• 1st stable African-American and Anglo
  relationship
• Two biracial children produced

What was happening at the time?
By Jessica Miller and Jamie King, with Dr.
David Coleman

• Rising divorce rates among American couples of
  all races
• 65,000 Black and White relationships compared to
  233,000 Anglo and Non-Anglo relationships
  (marriage)

• 1st Black and White physical relationship shown
  on television
• Very cautious

• 1st Anglo/Non-Anglo relationship portrayed in the
  media
• Required the establishment of Desilu Productions
  in order to air.

What was happening at the time?

• Loving Case of 1967 declared anti-miscegenation
  laws unconstitutional
• 1968 Olympics 400 meter dash medalists raise the
  Black Power fist on the podium
• Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy
  assassinated

Conclusion
What was happening at the time?
While interracial relationships were rare in
American television it is clear that despite the
apparent strife within society the media
between 1950 and 1980 was willing to challenge
the social standards at important times.

• Heavy anti-immigration and anti-interracial
  sentiment
• Operation Wetback

1954- Operation Wetback begins
1955- Rosa Parks refuses to stand
1965- United Farm Workers associated founded
1988- Civil Rights Restoration Act passed
Nov. 08- President Barack Obama elected
Jan. 1964- 24th Amendment abolishes poll tax
1962- U.S.-Cuban flights cancelled following
Cuban Missile Crisis
1967- Loving v. Virginia
Lets Play a Game!
Can you guess when your home state abolished
anti-miscegenation, legalizing interracial
marriages? Use our timeline to help you! The
answer may be surprising!
1991- Civil Rights Act of 1991 passed
Aug./Sept. 1965- Voting Rights Act and Executive
Order 11246 passed
July 1964- Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed
1968- Civil Rights Act of 1968 signed
1957- Little Rock Nine
Aug. 1963- March on Washington
1954- Brown v. Board