Levittown

by David Kushner

  151 Bea and Lew agreed and left: Wechsler, First Stone, p. 82.

  152 “Here, Nigger”: Ibid., p. 65.

  Chapter Fifteen

  153 “No single feature”: Ted Steinberg, American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006), p. 19.

  153 Or, as he: Ibid., p. 17.

  154 One local borough: “Operation Weed Removal Almost Done,” Bristol Daily Courier, September 9, 1957.

  154 Then she put back on: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Eldred Williams, James E. Newell, Howard H. Bentcliffe, Mrs. Agnes Bentcliffe, John R. Bentley, David L. Heller, John Thomas Piechowski, Mrs. John Brabazon, September term, 1957, p. 88–89.

  154 Outraged and fearful: “Myers Neighbor’s Home Is Crayoned,” Levittown Times, September 26, 1957.

  156 Colgan told them what: Lewis Wechsler, The First Stone: A Memoir of the Racial Integration of Levittown, Pennsylvania (Chicago: Grounds for Growth Press, 2004), p. 84.

  157 What retribution, she feared: Commonwealth v. Williams et al., p. 32.

  157 Daisy Myers later appealed: “Night and Day Watch Kept by State Police in Levittown Disorder,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 25, 1957.

  158 They knew what they had: “Levittown Man Held in Bail on Malicious Mischief Charges,” Bristol Daily Courier, October 18, 1957, p. 2.

  158 He ordered the 101st: “Levittown Owner Told to End Noise at Negro’s Home,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 26, 1957, p. H27.

  159 A similar note: Wechsler, First Stone, p. 90.

  160 “We just can’t take it”: “Levittown, PA, Revisited,” New York Post, September 30, 1957, p. 3.

  161 “This is it”: Commonwealth v. Williams et al., p. 25.

  Chapter Sixteen

  162 As Senate majority leader: “Ike’s Wise Restrained Response to Sputnik,” History News Network, http://hnn.us/articles/43173.html.

  163 They were, as the activist: “An Evening with Levittown’s Freedom Fighters,” Militant, October 14, 1957, p. 1.

  163 “There they sat”: Lewis Wechsler, The First Stone: A Memoir of the Racial Integration of Levittown, Pennsylvania (Chicago: Grounds for Growth Press, 2004), p. 97.

  165 The New York Times praised: “Apartments with Levitt Touch Rise on Waterfront in Queens,” New York Times, February 24, 1957, p. 292.

  165 “Known for his low”: Herbert Gans, The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 6.

  166 “I’ve got them in”: “Levitt’s Belair Homes Will Be Ready in ’60,” Washington Post and Times-Herald, December 18, 1957, p. D1.

  166 The move to colonials: “Home-Building Firm Shifts to Traditional Styling in Third Huge Project,” Christian Science Monitor, August 15, 1958, p. 12.

  166 As one of his: Ibid., p. 9.

  167 Police Chief Stewart denied: “Police Sergeant Raps Levittown Orders, Rejects Citation,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 9, 1957, p. H29.

  167 The following week: “Demote Sergeant in Police Row on Levittown Duty,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 16, 1957, p. H49.

  168 “I’ll seek an”: Sam Snipes “Racial Crisis in Levittown,” The Writs 17, no. 2 (June 2006): p. 7.

  168 “This is nothing”: “House Party Protest Halted at Levittown,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1957.

  168 “The wishes of”: “Gatherings Halted in House Next to Negro’s in Levittown,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, September 27, 1957.

  168 Despite the mob’s claims: “Large Crowd Hears Talk in Myers’ Case,” Levittown Times, October 7, 1957, p. 2.

  168 On Thursday, October 17: “Bucks Man Seized in KKK Painting,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 18, 1957.

  Chapter Seventeen

  171 “For Katy!”: Lewis Wechsler, The First Stone: A Memoir of the Racial Integration of Levittown, Pennsylvania (Chicago: Grounds for Growth Press, 2004), p. 114.

  172 They were quite the opposite: Daisy D. Myers, Sticks ’n Stones: The Myers Family in Levittown. (York, PA: York County Heritage Trust, 2005), p. 83.

  172 “If I were”: Ibid., p. 84.

  172 “Mrs. Myers, McBride said”: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Eldred Williams, James E. Newell, Howard H. Bentcliffe, Mrs. Agnes Bentcliffe, John R. Bentley, David L. Heller, John Thomas Piechowski, Mrs. John Brabazon, September term, 1957, p. 7.

  174 “Now, Mr. Bentcliff”: Ibid., p. 49.

  175 The state’s first: Ibid., p. 59.

  175 “We were quite”: Ibid., p. 443.

  175 “Afterwards”: Ibid., p. 462.

  176 “Yes, sir,” Corporal Dane: Ibid., p. 195.

  176 “Yes, it is”: Ibid., p. 173.

  177 “Reverend Harwick,” McBride: Ibid., pp. 164–65.

  178 “I do think”: Ibid., p. 166.

  178 “I felt this way”: Ibid., p. 357.

  179 “Yes, sir”: Ibid., p. 346.

  179 “No, sir”: Ibid., p. 352.

  179 “This pious pretense”: Ibid., p. 317.

  181 And, it concluded: Ibid., p. 86.

  181 Those in court: “Defendant Collapses in Myers Case,” Bucks Daily Courier, February 1, 1958.

  182 “I’m giving you”: “Bentcliff Is Fined, Put on Probation,” Bristol Daily Courier, February 27, 1958, p. 2.

  Chapter Eighteen

  183 “The new postwar”: “What! Live in a Levittown?” Good Housekeeping, July 1958, p. 47.

  184 As sociologist Herbert: Herbert Gans, The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 373.

  184 a private battle was being waged: Author interview, William Levitt Jr.

  186 Levitt’s Barnumesque: “New Levittown with 15,000 Homes to Open in New Jersey,” Wall Street Journal, June 6, 1958, p. 8.

  186 “Our policy on that”: “Third Levittown Gets Underway,” New York Times, June 6, 1958, p. 28.

  187 Levitt, who had long been: “Levittown Builder Hit on Racial Policy,” New York Times, June 7, 1958, p. 10.

  187 A prominent reverend: “Catholic Editor Sees Peril in Segregation at Third Levittown,” New York Times, June 13, 1958, p. 24.

  187 The American Civil Liberties: “Joins Levitt Protest: Civil Liberties Union Asks Jersey to Disavow Charters,” New York Times, July 3, 1958, p. 26.

  187 And the state Assembly: “Bias Charge Threatens U.S. Aid to Levittown Housing in Jersey,” New York Times, June 20, 1958, p. 21.

  188 “There is no question”: “Racial Strife Can Be Resolved,” Daily Defender, July 9, 1958, p. 35.

  188 After Levitt’s announcement: “V.A. to Help Jersey Fight Housing Bias by Curbing Loans,” New York Times, July 9, 1958, p. 29.

  188 Now when Bill Levitt: Gans, Levittowners, p. 372.

  188 This “gives a go-ahead”: “Fight Proposed All-White Levittown for New Jersey,” Chicago Defender, July 12, 1958, p. 9.

  189 “Bitter racial prejudice”: “Warning to Lawbreakers,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 18, 1958.

  189 “The complainants argue”: “Jersey Levittown to Sell to Negroes if Law Is Upheld,” New York Times, November 11, 1959, p. 31.

  189 “Had the housing measure”: “Levittown Negro Woman Testifies for Fair Housing,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 21, 1958.

  189 State law barred discrimination: “New Jersey Upholds the Law,” Chicago Defender, July 27, 1959, p. 11.

  190 In 1945, there had been: “Suburbanization, Post World-War II,” Encyclopedia of American History: Postwar United States, 1946–1968, vol. 9, Facts on File Database Center, www.fofweb.com/.

  190 Soon after, on: “Integration Near in Levittown, New Jersey: Builder Cites Losing Fight—Asks Council for Negroes,” New York Times, March 27, 1960, p. 31.

  190 “I plan to buy”: “Order Levittown to Consider 2 Negroes,” Chicago Defender, July 30, 1960, p. 21.

  191 “No, it’s so nice”: “We Shall Not Be Judged by What We Might Have Been. What We Have Been,” Bucks C
ounty Courier Times, August 15, 1997.

  Epilogue

  193 The fracas began: “Levitt Excludes Negroes, Testing U.S. Housing Ban,” New York Times, March 27, 1963, p. 1.

  193 A government physicist: “Rights Groups to Picket Levitt,” New York Times, November 13, 1963, p. 14.

  193 But Levitt had: “Can’t Crack Belair Ban, FHA Says,” Washington Post and Times-Herald, June 16, 1963, p. B10.

  194 “Any home builder”: “Levitt’s Defenses of Racist Policies,” “Long Island: Our Story,” Levittown History Collection, p. 413, Levittown Library, NY.

  194 “That never stopped”: “Dream Builder,” Newsday, September 18, 1997, http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-levittown-hslevpro,0,721552.story.

  194 Six days later: “Levitt & Sons Starts ‘Open Housing’ Policy as King ‘Memorial,’ Wall Street Journal, April 10, 1968, p. 4.

  195 At the top: “Levitt Drops Sales Ban to Subdivision Negroes,” Washington Post, April 10, 1968, p. B1.

  195 “Levittown is a dirty”: “Another Levittown Studies Possibility of Changing Name,” New York Times, November 23, 1963, p. 16.

  196 He lost twenty million: “Too Long at the Party,” Forbes, May 4, 1987, p. 40.

  196 “I lived in a Levitt”: “They Banked, and Lost, on Levitt’s Good Name,” Newsday, February 18, 1986, p. 7.

  196 Another put it: Ibid., p. 24.

  196 After an investigation: “Levitt to Repay Family Charity $11 Million,” Newsday, January 23, 1987, p. 7.

  197 “The people of”: Ibid.

  197 Unable to pay: “Levittown’s Builder in Straits,” Newsday, October 27, 1990, p. 11.

  198 “Levitt bears a lot”: “Shut Out in the Suburbs,” Newsday, May 19, 2003, p. B6.

  198 “To paint Levitt”: “At 50, Levittown Contends with Its Legacy of Bias,” New York Times, December 28, 1997, p. 1.23.

  198 “Levittown was an”: Ibid.

  198 “The National Housing Hall”: “Father of Suburbia William J. Levitt Named to National Housing Hall of Fame,” National Association of Home Builders, June 13, 2007, www.nahb.org/nets.

  198 “We are ashamed”: “Levittown Negro Invited to Join Neighborhood Group,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 14, 1957.

  200 “Of course there are some”: “First Negroes in Levittown Are ‘Making Out Fine’ Now,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, December 14, 1958.

  202 After a 2000 census: “Memories of Segregation in Levittown,” New York Times, May 11, 2003, p. L13.

  202 The New York Times wrote: “After Gang Threat, It’s Cap, Gown and Lockdown,” New York Times, June 10, 2006, p. A1.

  203 “Tonight we want”: Daisy D. Myers Sticks ’n Stones: The Myers Family in Levittown (York, PA: York County Heritage Trust, 2005), xiii.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  These books were helpful in my research.

  Ambrose, Stephen E. Eisenhower: Soldier and President. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.

  Bailey, Beth, David Farber, et al. The Fifties Chronicle. Lincolnwood, IL: Legacy Publishing, 2006.

  Baxandall, Rosalyn, and Elizabeth Ewen. Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

  Beuka, Robert. SuburbiaNation: Reading Suburban Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Fiction and Film. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

  Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

  Carson, Clayborne, David J. Garrow, Gerald Gill, Vincent Harding, and Darlene Hine Clark. The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

  Cohen, Robert. When the Old Left Was Young: Student Radicals and America’s First Mass Student Movement, 1929–1941. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

  Coontz, Stephanie. The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

  Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zybrek, and Jeff Speck. Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press, 2001.

  Ferrer, Margaret Lundrigan, and Tova Navarra. Levittown: The First 50 Years. Dover, DE: Arcadia Publishing, 1997.

  ———. Levittown: Volume II. Dover, DE: Arcadia Publishing, 1999.

  Gabler, Neal. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

  Gans, Herbert. The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967.

  Garrow, David J. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. New York: First Perennial Classics, 2004.

  Halberstam, David. The Fifties. New York: Villard Books, 1993.

  Hayden, Dolores. Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820–2000. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.

  Jackson, Kenneth. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

  Kaplan, Judy, and Linn Shapiro. Red Diapers: Growing Up in the Communist Left. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998.

  Keats, John C. The Crack in the Picture Window. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1956.

  Kelly, Barbara M. Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.

  Kimmel, Chad. “Levittown, Pennsylvania: A Sociological History.” Diss., University of Western Michigan, 2004.

  Labovitz, Sherman. Being Red in Philadelphia: A Memoir of the McCarthy Era. Philadelphia, PA: Camino Books, 1998.

  Liell, John Thomas. “Levittown: A Study in Community Planning and Development.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1952.

  Loewen, James W. Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. New York: The New Press, 2005.

  Matarrese, Lynne. The History of Levittown, New York. Levittown, NY: Levittown Historical Society, 1997.

  McCullough, David. Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

  Mumford, Lewis. The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1968.

  Myers, Daisy D. Sticks ’n Stones: The Myers Family in Levittown. York, PA: York County Heritage Trust, 2005.

  Nicolaides, Becky M., and Andrew Wiese. The Suburb Reader. New York: Rout-ledge, 2006.

  Roberts, Gene, and Hank Klibanoff. The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

  Robinson, Jackie. Jackie Robinson: I Never Had It Made, an Autobiography. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.

  Rovere, Richard H. Senator Joe McCarthy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

  Steinberg, Ted. American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006.

  Wechsler, Lewis. The First Stone: A Memoir of the Racial Integration of Levittown, Pennsylvania. Chicago: Grounds for Growth Press, 2004.

  Williams, Juan. Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965. New York: Penguin Books, 1988.

  Wilson, Sloan. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002.

  Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.

  A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR

  David Kushner is the author of Masters of Doom and Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, Wired, and IEEE Spectrum, and an essayist for Weekend Edition on NPR. His work has appeared elsewhere, including the New York Times, New York, Mother Jones, and the Village Voice. He teaches graduate journalism at New York University, and lives in New Jersey with his family, not far from Levittown, Pennsylvania. He can be reached at www.davidkushner.com.

 

 

  m.Net