a new suburban community up sixty thousand people

midway between philadelphia and trenton new jersey

with his talents shopping center winding lanes

nine purple hours and trees

it is fairly typical of communities all over america

where families are pursuing the american dream

to give their children a better chance in life

medical counters or people of modest means

nearly all our young people

a large proportion of reference

varaku social agencies and while many religious groups have established

churches

they have not yet had time enough to develop

programs to adequately serve the community

most led the counters are proud and happy and then you environment

for many it is the first house of their own

and it represents a major financial investment

socializes mainly confined to visits with the neighbors

okays leather community-wide events

but fewer yet for most residents to become a bit of died but the broader

aspects of community living

letdown was built by one man for whom it is name

like many commuter developers

he set the initial policy

and provided a minimum of essential services

when the houses were sold naturally he withdrew its own slender resources

in august nineteen fifty-seven

levittown pennsylvania attracted international attention

when violence erupted and as william myers junior

and his family moved in with three bedroom house

adaptability and beat green lines

it almost all respect to the marriage family is close to the letter paramore

they have three small children

youngest only one month old

myers service and a half years in the army

miscarriages baths are doing

you worked at the laboratory technician

and this begging for a degree has an electrical engineer

his wife daisy is a college graduate

admired home is modestly burnished and they're like by the family car was

bought one parent

they're very close

levittown norm except in one respect

william myers junior and his family

heart negroes him involved white community

levittown reacted in a number of ways to the new arrivals

there were several hundred who congregated on the street in front of

the meyers house

and there were those among them who felt strongly enough to throw a rock

through the picture web

but there was another

of large group who were repelled by this kind of behavior

and organize to help levittown except its first negro neighbors

the vast majority of levittown ours went peacefully about their daily activities

but in the stores and that the school's and on the front loans

levitt counters

discussed the matter

well i first read a small article newspaper in its first our family and in

this community

and um...

following i am where the engineer on the radio and reading the newspaper

that there was some disturbance around this home at the same people had thought

what was your day michell reaction

always terribly shocked

to find it

there were people in this community would be so violently opposed to it

bratislava had only just accept it as i know

was the community prepared to many wait for the entrance of the first big group

family in the world wide levittown

well there was an attempt by uh... i'll group of ministers who formed a group

called a human relations council

and they were just getting started on their work i don't know how they

expected altimetry accomplish a purpose of educating everyone

that i know that they had a an open forum

one time

and uh...

just within the last year four months

and results other were published in the paper

do you feel it was a bad b

not really the drop in the pockets and

not very many people even read or where they are the color of the meeting that

preceded it

although there have been a little interest in the formation of a human

relations council some weeks before

the mars became the main topic of conversation for the people of levittown

within a few hours of their arrival

in the absence of facts and the start date of information on a situation like

this

rumor and gossip sweep through the community

as the stories passed from one person to another

because hardly anybody knows the truth

what everybody assumed becomes the fact

all i have lots of though as i was busy

telling people out of the lead hat but karen

well i think they spotted

cheaply i mean people presented

after they heard it surrender needed a wreath at hearing that there are some

outside group had deliberately moved

these people in but they were sponsored a paid by an outside group to do this

very thing

and uh... i had been stolen but are you that wasn't true at all and uh... so i

told people that atlas

do you feel that understanding the facts of the situation will help

so you decide to i'm sure that

uh... more reasonable attitude is going to prevail in this community

and have great faith in the people here and that they live

we'll soon find that there is no need for a time

some cubans have been coming and indicate acceptance of the back

but for others the myers moving into levittown

constitutes an infringement of their own liberties

and under the impact of this situation

they react with anger and force

but they say he reveals their deepest fears and frustrations

why did you select levittown philip

we were looking for a place to buy a home we looked at level town we'd like

to homes here we liked the advantages of levittown seemed to offer a handout

comparison to other cities

and we understood that was going to be all right we're very happy to buy a home

here

about your children have you come up with them about marriage

we have tried to keep

other discussions away from the children

uh...

i figured i i feel that something that we had options solve about bringing

each other kind of any more than we have to wear doing it for their children

but i don't feel that they are all you have to understand the problem incidents

do you think of negro family moving here will affect the community as a whole

definitely

in what way i think that while the properly that is what i mean did it go

down here

they're allowed to moving here and a number

can you give a basis for that judgment

yes we used to live in washington d_c_ we saw very good example of that there

repetition of an experience that would be grateful

is there to be no escape from living near negroes

and part of the dream of middle-class respectability

if the negro family can't afford what you can forward

how do you justify your feeling of superiority

the illogic of one's own position becomes apparent

and instead of just a case in the old travel myths are involved

what other objections aside from the federal property values do you have

against america

the whole thing

centers around at work integration

well mister myers said because has promised that anything but peaceful

since you again

he's got three children

and uh... evidently he

philosophy or be accepted socially

and uh...

i don't feel that they ever will be

but the hall of trouble with this integration business deals

that day and the amt at probably well end up with

what makes it socially

and you will have

i concur anal sex marriages in

becoming people with a white

but the only way they buy into that despite education and by bettering

themselves not by pushing in the way they have here

do you intend to move

at the time now

that's not very impossible situation we have

we have our home here

and if the cardinal going on

and run realistic that is down there a lot of us

the g_i_s particularly who are going to be

wallace welfare moms

as the lines are drawn

those on either side become more adamant

pension develops

and feeds on suspicion and mistrust

but has been the effect of the mars coming here

well it's it's created a great deal of attention laptop from neighbors because

we all feel the site

but uh... it's actually machine

everyone ten summer home

i mean this test is affecting our homes

and uh...

it's bound to create tension

it's the subject just talked about all the time

but there are others who are part of the matter is

yes i cared about him for palm trees and do you think do they support the

mariners

frankly i don't know what reasons they come up for it

if there are marcyle at that time i don't think what reasons they can have

four

do you think minds will be able to live here comfortably

comfortable

what course of action are you going to follow

i'll do what i can object help

to get them out legally and peacefully

and as far as accepting them socially that's a charming act

to take sides in such a situation

is more than a matter of one's own country

firemen believes becomes a subject for community-based

for those who believe a man has a right to live anywhere he wishes

answers are simple and straightforward

has this affected your relationship with neighbors

in all week disgusted

freely and people for anything and that we've tried to keep

depicting the stack

that was the important thing

have you heard any rumor

many

nammal

i'll call repeat them because i think you'd like to repeat rumors

and i don't think it's

there to keep them allowed

do you think rumors contributed to the reaction of those opposing the marriage

shirley dead

uh... we had some very interested citizens here who left

pledged themselves to

a fact-finding pro-family tryptophan i'll those rumors as quickly as they

were started by fax

do you think the marriage will be able to live comfortably in levittown

i think that i helped out i think

majority of people here will allow

grow accustomed to lead and i realized that

old they are for the weekend the good neighborhoods which i'm sure they are

i think the majority of people here or not

but the violent

uh...

well violent group that we have heard so much of that

do you think the marriage then let it be a little bit property values

uh... i don't think that the miners had anything to do a little town

property decreasing or increasing i think if

purely a white problem money ground brown

in what way

i think it is the feeling of uh...

drying croak

which will influence

the property not

the minority group

those who want an integrated community take their spam

based on their own v feelings are part of a community should be

do you feel that the marriage will lead to a large numbers of other to growth

coming here from now i don't think that i pain uh...

there will be are probably a normal

odd

entrance and but might be a little time people

who want the harmful come here it's not

um... what people think that bad

hoping flock won't be any that's paying namphy in normal

how

health and that point i would like to see integrative group here

and i would like to see