Fiction: A Point in Time

Looking for a year in the 50's to base my adaptation in. Looking for relevant events.

1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

"Families worked together, played together and vacationed together at family themed entertainment areas like national parks and the new Disneyland. Gender roles were strongly held, girls played with Barbie dolls and Dale Evans gear, boys with Roy Rogers and Davy Crockett paraphernalia. Drive-in movies became popular for families and teens. Cars were seen as an indicator of prosperity and cool-ness. Highways were built to take people quickly from one place to another, by-passing small towns and helping to create central marketing areas or shopping malls such as Sharpstown Mall, Gulfgate Mall and Meyerland Plaza in Houston."

1950:
Credit card system introduced in America.
1 in 7 UK families owned a car.
1951:
Rock and roll and colour TV starts in USA.
A new beauty competition: Miss World.
The still camera is given a built in flash.
1953:
McCarthy witch hunt hearings took place in USA.
1954:
US segregation made illegal in USA.
1955:
60% of Americans were in the "middle class," having incomes between $3,000 and $10,000 per year.


WOMEN:
http://www.learnhistory.org.uk/usa/women1950s.htm
Although the number of women at work did continue to rise after the war, female workers and career-women were viewed with suspicion by many. The traditional idea that a woman’s role was a homemaker raising her family was very influential in 1950s USA.