The Silent Generation refers to the group of people who came after the Greatest Generation. Although not all of them were, in fact, silent, the term generally refers to their preference to keep quiet about political issues and to avoid disrupting the peace.

Their silence, especially during their youth and early adulthood, was likely due to the political turmoil they witnessed their parents go through and McCarthyism being prevalent in their adolescence. However, the word "silent" doesn't define all members of this generation. For example, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was born during the Silent Generation, and Gloria Steinem, a leader, and spokeswoman for the Feminist Movement in America.

Who is the Silent Generation?

The Silent Generation is the cohort born between 1928 and 1945. This generation preceded the Baby Boomer Generation and was the Greatest Generation's children. The Silent Generation is relatively small, especially compared to the Baby Boomer Generation. Their size is due to people having fewer children in the 1930s and 40s.

The Great Depression and World War II made it difficult for families to have more children, mainly because of their financial situations. Many also felt that they did not want to have more children during uncertain times. The parents of the had over-protective parents, which was even more true for the parents of the Silent Generation.

As of 2019, there were 23 million people of the Silent Generation in the United States. Since they are small in number, they are a generation that is sometimes forgotten. The media talks about Baby Boomers, Millennials, and even the Greatest Generation, but the Silent Generation is rarely mentioned. During their early years, many of them watched their parents struggle to provide for their families during the Great Depression or fight for their country during World War II. Yet, despite the struggles of their parents and grandparents, the Silent Generation entered adulthood during a time of relative peace. They are the generation known for the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement and for making up the silent majority, a phrase coined by President Richard Nixon.

Where did they get their name?

In 1951, Time Magazine published an article titled "The Younger Generation." The author referred to the current generation (born between 1923 to 1933, as identified by the publication) as a "still, small flame" in comparison to the "Flaming Youth" of their parents. The period expressed in this article is not the span that defined the generation, which changed from 1928 to 1945.

This generation is also sometimes called the "Lucky Few." In 2008, author Elwood Carlson published The Lucky Few: Between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boom. In this book, Carlson describes the Silent Generation, who has slipped through the cracks and as the "luckiest generation of Americans ever." What sparked this documentation of this group of people in the events during their lifetime. Carlson wasn't the only one to refer to them as "lucky."

Professor and researcher Richard Easterlin referred to this generation as the "lucky" or "fortunate" generation because of the world they were born into. Unlike the previous two generations, they didn't have to deal with an economic depression. Instead, they walked right into a healthy economy as they graduated from school and were able to be successful in their professions.

The Silent Generation was the first to be smaller than the previous generation. Due to the family values of the Greatest Generation, most of their families were intact. Schooling during this generation was at an all-time high, and even though women were still getting married young, society also provided them with numerous opportunities in education and work.

Many of the men in this generation were Veterans, but as Carlson points out, they mainly served during a period of peace. The two previous generations did not have that same benefit in World War I and II. Nevertheless, the Silent Generation did face difficulties of their own. But especially in comparison to their ancestors, they lived relatively free of political turmoil or warfare.

Silent Majority

United States President Richard Nixon coined the "silent majority" in 1969. This phrase was his way of addressing the group of people who had not publicly expressed their opinions about the issues in politics and culture. Frequently, people use the phrase to define a large group of unidentified individuals who have not publicly expressed their political opinion.

During a televised address in 1969, President Nixon said, "And so tonight-to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support." Expressly, Nixon referred to those who hadn't vocally expressed their disagreement with the Vietnam War and didn't join the countercultural movements of the 60s that were occurring. This group was viewed as underrepresented due to the vocal majority being the loudest voice in the media. Since then, politicians have used the term silent majority in other campaigns. In the 1970s and 80s, President Ronald Reagan used the phrase silent majority, and President Donald Trump used it during a campaign rally in 2015.

Unlike their parents, who worked to change some societal systems, the Silent Generation tried working within the system. In their early days, they were considered hardworking youths who kept their heads down, which contributed to the "silent" label in their name.

Korean War

Most of the servicemen and women who fought in the Korean War were a part of the Silent Generation. The media did not publicize the Korean War as much as some other wars. For this reason, it's sometimes referred to as the "Forgotten War."

The Korean War began when North Korea invaded the Republic of Korea in both the north and south. The war ended in July 1953 after the United Nations and the Korean People's Army signed the Korean Armistice Agreement. The United States lost over 33,000 Americans during a battle in the Korean war. Over 1 million US soldiers served in the war.

This war had a more considerable civilian death toll than World War II or Vietnam. Millions of civilians were killed by the end of the war. The United States officially entered the war in 1950 to support South Korea. Despite the millions of casualties, the war ended with little change to the border between the north and south.

Characteristics of the Silent Generation

The members of the Silent Generation, like many other generations, fought back against the values and beliefs of their parents. Even though, most of the time, they found that going along with the system and following the rules proved to be successful, not everyone in this generation felt that way.

For instance, members of the Silent Generation worked to reform marriage laws to destigmatize divorce. Unfortunately, even though the members of this generation were the youngest to get married and have children, the reformation of marriage laws led to a wave of divorces for this generation later in life.

Even though there were some ways that this generation pushed the boundaries of cultural norms, it mainly was their children who fought against what they believed to be oppressive rules in society. The Silent Generation gave birth to members of the Baby Boom Generation and Generation X, depending on when they were born.

Part of what contributed to their silence, other than their size, was the vocality of the previous generations.

This generation often does fall through the cracks since it falls between two well-known generations, the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers.

The Silent Generation was also the cohort to popularize the idea of the "midlife crisis." Gail Sheehy, a journalist and author explained the mid-life crisis concept in her book Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life. In her book, Sheehy explains the idea of a mid-life crisis from a psychological point of view.

Despite the stereotype that midlife crises only happen to men, Sheehy explained in Passages that the mid-life crisis is something that happens to both men and women. She reported that this crisis happens to women earlier than men, typically between 35 and 39.

McCarthy Era

This era contributed to the Silent Generation's desire not to disturb the peace. McCarthyism originally referred to the controversial practices of US Senator John McCarthy during the Second Red Scare. The Second Red Scare refers to the fear-driven phenomenon where United States citizens were nervous about the Soviet Union and other communist countries in their growing power.

McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of treason, especially when it comes to communism and socialism. The McCarthy era began before Senator McCarthy's rise to fame. In 1947, President Harry Truman signed an executive order to screen federal employees for involvement in any fascist or communist organizations. In 1950, Senator McCarthy announced a list of alleged members of the Communist Party working in the state department, which drew significant attention. The term "McCarthyism" was used in print for the first time later that year in the publication The Christian Science Monitor and again in a political cartoon published in The Washington Post.

Even though McCarthyism was used to track down those who were treasonous in the government, the sentiment, combined with the fears about communism and nuclear war, contributed to the silent nature of this generation.

Civil Rights Movement

The American Civil Rights Movement was a time of significant change in the United States. Taking place during the 1950s and 60s, it was a fight for social justice and Black Americans to receive equal rights as American citizens. Slavery was abolished after the Civil War in 1861, but discrimination still occurred.

Many members of the Silent Generation were coming of age during the Civil Rights Movement. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a member of the Silent Generation, born in 1929.

King became the face of the movement after he was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. Their boycotts of the Montgomery bus system received national attention and led to a ruling in the case of Browder vs. Gayle, which ordered Montgomery's buses to be desegregated.

The famous March on Washington occurred on August 28, 1963. The administration of President John F. Kennedy initially opposed the march because they believed it would negatively impact the push for civil rights legislation.

The prominent civil rights organizations came together for the March on Washington, intending to march for equality in employment, housing, education, and voting.

Between 200,000 to 300,000 demonstrators showed up to the march, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to the crowd. After the march, the civil rights leaders met with President Kennedy to discuss legislation. Unfortunately, however, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Nevertheless, the next president, Lyndon Johnson, decided to move forward with Kennedy's legislative agenda regarding civil rights.

Music

Big band music became increasingly widespread in the 1930s. As Americans recovered from the Great Depression, musicians such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Tommy Dorsey thrived. Swing dances such as the jitterbug were becoming popular as well. The era of big band music continued until the late 1940s.

By the 1950s, the rock and roll era had begun. At the time, many members of the older generations disapproved of Rock n Roll culture. Their disapproval had little to do with the sound of the music itself. The trouble was what the music represented. Rock n Roll became a popular genre of music in the mid-1950s. Alan Freed, a Cleveland DJ, began playing this style of music in 1951 and popularized the term "rock and roll." Freed was the first DJ to promote this genre of music.

Musicians who became popular during this time expressed themselves in a way the older generations hadn't seen before. Take Elvis Presley, for example. His scandalous lyrics and dance moves were portrayed as just that by the older generations- scandalous and inappropriate. So much so that when Elvis appeared on television, they only showed his torso to avoid showing his dance moves.

But, in the mind of the Silent Generation and the generations after them, this was an expression of freedom. With the civil rights movement, and the sexual revolution of the 60s, some members of this generation were eager to break away from values they believed held them back from being who they wanted to be.

Overview

The Silent Generation faced difficulties in their life as many others did. But, they are often referred to as the Lucky Few because of how they escaped fighting in a brutal war or facing economic hardship like the two previous generations.

The Silent Generation got its name originally from an article published in Time Magazine. The writer compared them to their parents in this article, referring to them as "Flaming Youth." But whether it was because of how prevalent McCarthyism was, or they didn't want to mess up their good fortune, the silent generation tended to be just that- silent. They mostly kept their heads down and didn't rock the boat.

There indeed were times of activism during their lifetime. Events such as the Civil Rights Movement involved some of the members of the Silent Generation. Martin Luther King Jr. was part of the Silent Generation, and we know he was anything but silent.

1. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968): An American Baptist minister and activist, King became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

2. Gloria Steinem (b. 1934): An American feminist, journalist, and social political activist, Steinem became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

3. Neil Armstrong (1930-2012): An American astronaut and aeronautical engineer, Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon in 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission.

4. Elvis Presley (1935-1977): Known as the "King of Rock and Roll," Presley is one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energizing influence on American music and culture was unparalleled.

5. Warren Buffett (b. 1930): An American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, Buffett is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and is considered one of the most successful investors of all time.