Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Over the last 50 years you'd certainly have to name Detroit as one of the cities with the most cultural changes, largely because of white flight. It was something just over half non-Hispanic white back then and now it's less than 10% non-Hispanic white, and overwhelmingly African-American. Couple that with the disintegration of the economy, as the automakers either floundered or left the region, the subsequent deterioration of the physical city, and Motown's eventual bankruptcy, and you'll be hard pressed to find a big U.S. city that's undergone more change in a half a century. It went from a middle-class and racially diverse city to a very poor and mostly black one. That changes the everyday culture of the place a lot.
California without a doubt. In 1967 it was still very white and conservative. Ronald Reagan had just been elected governor.
Ever heard of a little subculture called the hippies? Sure, in the hindsight of a half century, it seems quaint, but what they did over at Berkeley, Haight-Asbury, Monterrey, and other "hip" spots really was quite a shift compared to the more classically glamorous 1950s/early '60s. Sure, its a lot more Hispanic/Asian and a little less black/white, but California is still California, just with a fresh look for each wave of youth, and was basically a purple state leaning blue back then. Now if you compared 1917 to 1967, then California would probably be the winner thanks to Hollywood, the aerospace boom, the popularization of car culture, and the WWII support for the Pacific Theater.
I'd say Texas, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, the eastern half of Tennessee, the Pac NW, Arizona, Nevada, and DC/Virginia win this, with NYC not far behind as is expected for a juggernaut. These were just starting to be seen as future hotspots, and is a prime example of how technology made the country/world smaller. The south was barely out of the Jim Crow era 50 years ago for goodness sakes, and much of it resembles what the rest of America outside most of the Midwest was about a generation ago, with more neutral accents.
The Midwest (outside of the largest cities), Alaska, and rural deep south loses.
Thanks to Teddy Kennedy's Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the City of Los Angeles, America's second most populous city, underwent the most rapid and drastic demographic shift in the history of Western civilization in less than 50 years. In 1960, Los Angeles was one of the whitest, most Protestant American cities; by 2010, Los Angeles was one of the least white major American cities. Suburbs of Los Angeles such as Bellflower, Downey and Lakewood, for example, also underwent drastic demographic shifts (e.g., Lakewood was 98% white in 1960 and only 41% in 2010).
Ever heard of a little subculture called the hippies? Sure, in the hindsight of a half century, it seems quaint, but what they did over at Berkeley, Haight-Asbury, Monterrey, and other "hip" spots really was quite a shift compared to the more classically glamorous 1950s/early '60s. Sure, its a lot more Hispanic/Asian and a little less black/white, but California is still California, just with a fresh look for each wave of youth, and was basically a purple state leaning blue back then. Now if you compared 1917 to 1967, then California would probably be the winner thanks to Hollywood, the aerospace boom, the popularization of car culture, and the WWII support for the Pacific Theater.
California is 1967 was pretty comparable to Texas today politically. You had one very liberal, Democratic bastion around the Bay Area, which was comparable to Austin. Though not all of it - back then Marin County was rock-ribbed Republican. While some of the central valley was Democratic, SoCal was extremely conservative. The political shift there has mostly been due to Latino and Asian immigration - Southern California whites still are nearly as conservative as whites in Arizona.
Florida. Was a very different place back then. All of it was the deep South, now only the northern half of it is.
The nostalgia I hear about the older Florida before the rapid development came saddens me and I wish that I could have seen it back then.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
