Racism in America: Crisis in Levittown, Pennsylvania Documentary Part 1 (1957)

1957 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802717950?ie=UTF8&tag=doc06-20&link... Watch the full film: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/11/crisis-in-levittown-1957.html

Levittown is a census-designated place (CDP) in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States, within the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The population was 53,966 at the 2000 census. It is 40 feet (12 m) above sea level. Though not a municipality, it is commonly recognized as the largest suburb of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania except for Upper Darby Township, (which is the largest suburban township in the three surrounding Pennsylvania counties).

Levittown is a suburban community planned and built by Levitt & Sons. The majority of the land on which it is built was purchased in 1951. Houses built in Levittown consisted of just six models, including the Levittowner, the Rancher, the Jubilee, the Pennsylvanian, the Colonial and the Country Clubber. Levitt & Sons constructed only single-family dwellings in the community, each surrounded by a lawn, with only modest exterior variations, modern in style, with built-in appliances and landscaping. The homes were moderately priced and required only a low down payment. Construction of Levittown began in February 1952, soon after completion of Levittown, New York, located on Long Island. Levittown, Pennsylvania was the second "Levittown" built by William J. Levitt, who is often credited as the creator of the modern American suburb. To speed up construction, Levitt and Sons perfected a 26 step rationalized building method that was essentially an assembly line type of homebuilding. The house remained stationary, while the construction workers moved from house to house. Each worker had one task. Pouring slabs, framing, installing electric sockets, installing washing machines, etc. This enabled Levitt's workers to produce a finished house every 16 minutes. Construction of the homes commenced in 1952 and when completed in 1958, 17,311 homes were built.

What set Levittown apart from other developments at the time was that it was built as a complete community. Levitt & Sons designed neighborhoods with traffic-calming curvilinear roads, in which there were no four-way intersections. Each neighborhood had within its boundaries a site donated by Levitt & Sons for a public elementary school. Locations for churches and other public facilities were set aside on main thoroughfares such as the Levittown Parkway, likewise donated by the builder to religious groups and other organizations. Other amenities included Olympic-sized public pools, parks, "greenbelts," baseball fields and playgrounds, and a shopping center located in Tullytown Borough that was considered large and modern at the time of its construction (and in fact was the largest east of the Mississippi). The first set of 4 sample homes were put on display in a swatch of land near the future Levittown Shop-a-Rama and an estimated 30,000 people viewed them in that first weekend.

Residents (who are sometimes called Levittowners) were first expected to comply with a lengthy list of rules and regulations regarding the upkeep of their homes and use of their property. Two of these "rules" included a prohibition on hanging laundry out to dry on Sunday and not allowing homeowners to fence off their yards. These proved unenforceable over time, particularly when backyard pools became financially accessible to the working class and privacy concerns drove many to fence off their yards. In the years since Levitt & Sons ended construction, three- and four-story "garden apartments" and a number of non-Levitt owner-occupied houses have been built in Levittown.

Levitt & Sons would not sell homes to African Americans. Levitt himself did not consider himself to be a racist, rather he was bowing to the prevailing attitudes of many whites during the 1950s, considering housing and racial relations entirely separate matters. However, this did not prevent a white family from reselling a home to an African American family, and Levittown's first black couple, William and Daisy Myers, bought a home in the Dogwood Hollow section in 1957. Their move to Levittown was marked with racist harassment and mob violence, which required intervention by state authorities. This led to an injunction and criminal charges against the harassers while Myers and their supporters refused to surrender and received national acclaim for their efforts. For instance, Daisy Myers has been hailed as "The Rosa Parks of the North," who helped expose the northern states' problems with racial inequality of that time.

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[himovadere]

@IHereVoices I have more respect for a man that is honest. I rather he tell me he hates me and doesnt want me around VS a man that smile in my face but stabs me in my back.

[hojoleon]

we talked about freedom but we won't even treat a black man as a human being.

[BangSomePoo]

I want to buy 4 of those houses for no money down under a LLC, take out 2nd mortgages on each one while renting them to people I did no background check on, then walk away from as soon as I cash the checks. Anyone interested in joining my LLC ? Its all legal .. wink .. wink.

[eastafricanbreeze]

@fargonbastedge

Why are you making up lies about Islam on a video about racism in america?

Get a life!

[IsraeliteMessenger]

@whydoudance Gang bangers, beat whitety night, flash mobs and it will only get worse thanks to communist jew multiculturalism.

[whydoudance]

why r ppl racist?? its unneccessary......seriously...­who cares wat race u r?? the only thing that matters is ur personality.....not ur skin color...

[fargonbastedge]

@commonman80 Did, maybe you should man up and admit that you didn't read mine and just scimmed through it.

Q: How old was Aisha when Muhmaad raped her?

A: She was nine...

If you want to know more about islam then just ask...

[commonman80]

@fargonbastedge, Maybe you should read the post again.

[fargonbastedge]

@commonman80 uuuuh? Really. Your saying the darfur genocide is not about muslim arabs attacking christian blacks,

but instead there trying to get rid rid of "white people" in darfur. God damn your stupid. The white population in Sudan is probably less than 1%.

[commonman80]

@fargonbastedge, The problem in Dar fur deals with Religion NOT RACE. They want to get that blond haired blue eyed "Savior" out of their land..

[commonman80]

Levittown got their all white suburb, and look what happen. They can blame no one but themselves and their Racism.

Karma is a bitch ain't it..