Levittown Research Paper
Philadelphia’s Fair Housing Laws: Post World War II
To the citizens of Levittown Pennsylvania, Tuesday, August 13, 19572 seemed like any other day. The sun rose in the east on the suburban town just outside of Philadelphia. Husbands ate their breakfast cooked by their wives, children got ready for school, and the mailman made his rounds delivering the mail. However, as the mailman made his rounds that day, something caught his attention, something he thought he should immediately inform to the community, something that had never happened before in Levittown. “It happened” the mailman alerted the neighbors of Levittown, “Niggers have moved to Levittown!”3 Bill and Daisy Myers, an African-American couple and their children, moved into Levittown …show more content…
“We spent a lot of money on our homes” yelled one white man, “They’ll be worth nothing!”4 “No one wants them here! Lets drive them out!”5 “Our houses are worth half of what they were yesterday!”6 The white citizens of Levittown felt extremely threatened that their perfect community would be ruined by an African-American family moving in. In fact, the main reason they had come to Levittown was to separate themselves from African-Americans. Many of the concerned citizens of Levittown that gathered into a mob outside of the Myers’ house made it clear that they had come to Levittown because Bill Levitt had promoted it as whites-only, “Levitt promised!”7 8 Mob formed outside of the Myers’ house in …show more content…
Interview by author. E-mail. Philadelphia, PA., April 9, 2013.
Hillier, Amy “Redlining in Philadelphia,” The Cartographic Modeling Laboratory, accessed May 5, 2013, http://cml.upenn.edu/redlining/index.html.
Keeley, Elsie F. Racism Under Cover in the Suburbs: A Collection of Real- Life Stories Solicited from Multiethnic People Living in the Suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1st ed. Souderton, PA: Diversity Dialogue Press, 1996.
Kirp, David L., John P. Dwyer, and Larry A. Rosenthal. Our Town: Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995.
Kushner, David. Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America 's Legendary Suburb. 1 US ed. New York: Walker & Co., 2009. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0821/2008026319.html.
Logue, John and Temple University. Suburban Report: The Problem of Organizing Countywide Civic Organizations in the Suburbs of Philadelphia. Villanova, Pa.: Communities Research Institute, School of Law, Villanova University, 1960.
McAllister, David M. Between the Suburbs and Ghetto: Racial and Economic Change in Working-Class Philadelphia, 1933-1965
To the citizens of Levittown Pennsylvania, Tuesday, August 13, 19572 seemed like any other day. The sun rose in the east on the suburban town just outside of Philadelphia. Husbands ate their breakfast cooked by their wives, children got ready for school, and the mailman made his rounds delivering the mail. However, as the mailman made his rounds that day, something caught his attention, something he thought he should immediately inform to the community, something that had never happened before in Levittown. “It happened” the mailman alerted the neighbors of Levittown, “Niggers have moved to Levittown!”3 Bill and Daisy Myers, an African-American couple and their children, moved into Levittown …show more content…
“We spent a lot of money on our homes” yelled one white man, “They’ll be worth nothing!”4 “No one wants them here! Lets drive them out!”5 “Our houses are worth half of what they were yesterday!”6 The white citizens of Levittown felt extremely threatened that their perfect community would be ruined by an African-American family moving in. In fact, the main reason they had come to Levittown was to separate themselves from African-Americans. Many of the concerned citizens of Levittown that gathered into a mob outside of the Myers’ house made it clear that they had come to Levittown because Bill Levitt had promoted it as whites-only, “Levitt promised!”7 8 Mob formed outside of the Myers’ house in …show more content…
Interview by author. E-mail. Philadelphia, PA., April 9, 2013.
Hillier, Amy “Redlining in Philadelphia,” The Cartographic Modeling Laboratory, accessed May 5, 2013, http://cml.upenn.edu/redlining/index.html.
Keeley, Elsie F. Racism Under Cover in the Suburbs: A Collection of Real- Life Stories Solicited from Multiethnic People Living in the Suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1st ed. Souderton, PA: Diversity Dialogue Press, 1996.
Kirp, David L., John P. Dwyer, and Larry A. Rosenthal. Our Town: Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995.
Kushner, David. Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America 's Legendary Suburb. 1 US ed. New York: Walker & Co., 2009. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0821/2008026319.html.
Logue, John and Temple University. Suburban Report: The Problem of Organizing Countywide Civic Organizations in the Suburbs of Philadelphia. Villanova, Pa.: Communities Research Institute, School of Law, Villanova University, 1960.
McAllister, David M. Between the Suburbs and Ghetto: Racial and Economic Change in Working-Class Philadelphia, 1933-1965