Icons & Impact

Sometimes history is shaped not by grand events, but by the small actions of a single individual that ripple outward and change everything. In the ninth grade elective Topics in Modern America (TMA), students are studying the cultural upheaval of the 1950s, a decade that forever altered what Americans wore, watched, admired, and feared. This month, students chose an icon from that era, and created a slide presentation that tracked their rise to fame, the historical context of their impact, and the effect that they had on American culture during the 1950s and beyond.

Students selected influential figures from the civil rights movement, sports, entertainment, and the media, and TMA teacher Richard Roberts grouped the presentations thematically to highlight the defining cultural forces of the era. Ninth graders Jessica K. and Ashley N. opened the series with profiles of Oliver Brown and Rosa Parks. Jessica examined the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the 1950s and described Brown’s frustration when his daughter was forced to attend a school far from home simply because she was Black. Brown later became the lead plaintiff in the NAACP’s case against the Board of Education, a landmark decision that led the Supreme Court to strike down the doctrine of “separate but equal.” Similarly, Ashley explained how Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In both presentations, students traced not only the immediate impact of these actions but the longer-term effects of reshaping how Americans understood equality and demonstrating the power of nonviolent protest to bring about meaningful change.  

Other students turned their attention to sports and entertainment icons,  including Mickey Mantle and Bill Russell, whose influence extended beyond the sports arena through messages about substance abuse and social justice. Classmates also explored the impact of entertainers such as Sid Caesar, who introduced Americans to the energy of live television comedy, and Alan Freed, who helped bring rock ‘n roll into the cultural mainstream. Together, these presentations revealed how individuals shaped and reflected the cultural turbulence that defined the 1950s as a transformative era in American history.