if i have to leave levittown i will do so. >> for some levittowners, the basic issues involved have nothingo do with intermarriage, property values, loss of status, fear of crime, neighborhood decline or of being in the minority. they saw it as a test of democracy. what was your reaction to the meyers moving in? >> i was happy to see this become more of an american community. >> there seems to be a large group opposed to the meyers. what would be your attitude toward them? >> well, i would divide -- i don't know if there are large groups of people opposed to the meyers. after all, we have some, i don't know, i guess close to 60,000 people in levittown. those mobs were never more than 500 or 600. i think if you go down to a shopping center any night the mobs were here you would have seen 10,000 people at the shopping center while those who were violently opposed to meyers moving in were engaging in what they were engaging in. >> you don't think then that a large majority is against the meyers moving in? >> well, that's not true offhand. i know some of the immediate neighbors right here who w

>> i don't think levittown is an island.t is part of the usa and is going to integrate like the rest of the country is going to integrate. narrator: in levittown as in the rest of america, there are those who believe the rights of citizenship belong to all, regardless of their race or color or creed. and there are those who believe in equality, but in a somewhat more limited sense. >> in my business, whoever has money and has good credit or wants to pay cash can buy a car. it has no discrimination, color, religion, anything of that sort. narrator: has the coming of the myers affected your home life? >> personally, my home life, it has not affected nothing whatsoever, but the neighbors, they have a right because the average white person living in levittown has four or five children. let's put it this way. if levittown is migrated with hordes of negroes, which they have a right to come here, but it is something that happens that way, pretty soon, i will have a negro son-in-law or daughter-in-law. how would that look? narrator:

>> in levittown, pa." the film is from 1957. located about 25 miles from philadelphia, levittown was the second of seven post-world war ii developments geared towards veterans. levittown management prohibited the sale of homes directly to african-americans, although they couldn't prohibit owners from doing so. the film examines attitudes of homeowners after a black family moves into the all-white development. also "all the way home.", from 1957, the film dramatizes the prejudice and rumors that arise in a fictional white suburb when a black family is seen visiting a home with a "for sale" sign on the front lawn. and about one hour, a 1957 film, "in the suburbs ."written by the film shows families with many children engaged in leisure activities at home, and the new hub of suburban activity, the shopping center. and in about 80 minutes, "american look from 1958. the film highlights industrial, product and auto designers who create mass-produced consumer goods that filled the suburbs of america. (music) (music) >> this is levittow

next on reel america, crisis in levittown, pa. it explores a man moving sboog a neighborhood and they are met with violent rock throwing crowds. >> this is pennsylvania. a new suburb and community of 60,000 people mid way between philadelphia and trenton, new jersey. with a giant shobing center, winding lanes, it is typical of communities all over america where families are pursuing the american dream to fir their children a better chance at life. they're people of modest means. a large proportion are veterans. there are a few agencies and while many have had social churches, they have not adequately served the community. most are proud and happy in their new environment. for many it is a new house of their own and it is a major financial investment. social life is mainly confined to visits with the neighbors. occasionally there are community-wide residents. levittown is built by one man for whom it is name. like many developers he set the initial policy. when the houses were should, he naturally waited true it's on slender resour

next on "reel america", crisis in levittown. it explores the attitudes of homeowners after a black family move into the all-white development and are met by violent rock throwing crowds. >> this is le virks ittown, pennsylvania, a new community of 60,000 people mid-way between philadelphia and new jersey. and a shopping center, for flowers and trees and is typical of communities all over america. where families are pursuing the american dream give their children a better chance in life. they are feem and young people a large proportion are veterans. there are few social agencies and while many religious groups have established churches, they have not had time enough to develop programs to adequately serve the community. most are proud and happy in their new environment. for many it's the first house of their own and it represents a major financial investment. social life is mainly confined to visits with the neighbors. community wide events, put it's too early for most residents to become identify ied with the broader aspects of

next, on "reel america," from 1957, "crisis in levittown, pa."his pro-integration film explores the attitudes of homeowners after a black veteran and his family move into the all-white development of 60,000 and are initially met by violent, rock-throwing crowds. ♪ >>> this is levittown, pennsylvania, a new suburban

next, on "reel america," from 1957, "crisis in levittown, p.a.."xploring the attitudes of homeowners after a black veteran and his family move into the all-white development of 60,000 and are initially met with violent, rock-throwing crowds. ♪

levittown today is over 95 percent very few minority families living there. when fix the damage that was done we just allowed all those inequalities to continue but said from this day forward we can't discriminate. it didn't fix it all of these policies and practices these systems. federal government state government local government. they come verge to sort of create concentrated poverty by the time we reach the fifty's and sixty's so that creates a situation where many urban areas you have like what george clooney would call you know chocolate cities in the little suburbs sadnesses this because the white house said that's a temporary thing there's a lot of the city. we've got to get yeah every time i don't need to get l.a. . working and. going to get out you will be. contributing to tell you. there is no clue gram a promise that a president can bake think that better the government going to come in they did it anyway they wanted to do that yes that was it. the condition of black veterans and white veterans diversion even though when they returned from the w

myers came to levittown was to show people he could get here. >> i just feel they were in their legal rights to move here, and if they move in as law-abiding citizens, i have no complaints. >> if more coloreds are allowed to move in, levittown is going to go downhill. >> i don't think the myers have anything to do with property increasing or decreasing. it is purely a white problem, not a negro problem. >> the main issue is the right of these people, lived like americans as they choose and be accepted as good neighbors. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ ♪ narrator: a quiet street in a quiet neighborhood in the middle of the 20th century. ♪ when you look for a house, what are you looking for? what do you see? when people lived in fine, square, ample houses, the slums.us many still stand, many torn down for rebuilding of the dispersal of people in neighborhoods, a way being made for the projects. signs of change in all the ci

the most famous and largest example of the postwar suburbs was in levittown in long island, 25 miles east of new york city. where abraham levitt and it is his two sons by 2000 acres a potato farm in 1946. and eventually build 70,000 houses. 17,000 houses. and do so in a way that is reminiscent of mass production. as you can see here. non-unionized workers would go from house to house and do the same task,oftentimes times very minute, over and over again. they really helped revolutionize the building process. as you can see from this aerial image, they had precut mber that came from the levitt farms. they made these call cry creek concrete slabs and dump the material out and they would quickly build a house. they were able to build a house at a rate exceeding 150 over. a week the result is that the houses were very affordable because they were built so quickly. the earliest model sold for $7,900. it is hard to do economic comparisons to today. but it would probably be something like $85, 000, $90,000 in today's money. it became very affordable for people in the middle class. people st

know many ways don't my name is nick a levittown i'm the daughter of money to. me mother was abducted. i think i. know me don't know i don't feel comfortable i don't want to keep repeating myself. between the 2. the to keep telling my story to you. i am i am. she said she'd be back in a minute. but she never came to. asia but i've traveled the length and breadth of argentina looking for my daughter and just seeing that that i've liberated dozens of girls who were in the same situation as. like go to any land mendieta and food insulin. that active so let us join forces and fight this must be a. gentleman that i. am empathy to no money to for all disappeared on her way to a hospital appointment let me just whereabouts has never been the stuff of the mother believes that she was kidnapped and forced to prostitution this whole bubble to start off with this court building is hosting a historic trial that will sue story will go forward so the case in question although murray tell their own body that all. the sun was out on by the enemy and as it were accompanied by mi

i was struck by how familiar it felt it was a connection to levittown that they both developed as post-war suburbs. i believe going and he built these houses he really built these houses for the veterans coming home from the war it was hard for him to get financing for these houses because they were so different the whole social part was his design. and. even state and so don't i'm not even going to open oh if he was a socialist and i think a lot of the people who moved in here were i'm going to get into opera from the us . my father is gregory a fairly well known. and california architect from the forty's and fifty's. so this is the letters. to say i just came into my hotel room from an interesting and unexpected visit to the basement drafting rooms that yeah why didn't have to tell of johnson's jewel that new canaan he is a real fascist intellectual. i started rummaging through some old papers and then i came across this here 200 page 10200 page file that the f.b.i. kept on him and they were watching everything he did from the mid forty's to the mid fifty's. gregory believes that decent

all black neighborhood in my life changed when we moved to south jersey not far from some of the levittown type of neighborhoods and when we came in the police had to come in with us because people were throwing things at our house and terrorizing our house at night. and we moved there because we wanted a place that was integrated and we just wanted to raise our standard of living and it was the strength of my parents that said this is where we're going to be. do you think really moving here will affect the community as a whole. definitely import way i think that well the property values well i mean to go down if they are allowed to move in here and any number do you think them are 11 property. i don't think. property. and i think a purely white. rapper. well as a result of all these policies we created a segregated system and because we've forgotten now this entire history of how it happened. white families believe that they got where they are simply by their own hard work and determination to succeed in the middle class life. but they don't understand is that their parents could have cam

you may have noticed the levittown buildings in the 1940's did not have garages. we talked about automobiles earlier in the class, but they are very rare until the 1920's. people are parking them maybe in stables. by the 1930's and 1940's we have driveways. it is not until the 1950's and 1960's that garages become integrated into the house. you can see from this floor plan of a model of the house from 1963, the garage is enormous. it takes up more than 25% of the entire square footage of the house. it can fit two cars and a whole bunch of junk. this becomes a staple of suburban architecture, these dominant garages. you may notice the first image we showed in class, the most striking architectural feature of suburban houses were these protruding garages. they are called, pejoratively, snout houses. people were critical of them because they elevate the car. but they also distanced the house from the public. it is often hard to see the front door and the connection to the people. garages are weird. they are an entire house just for your car. you can drive your car in

next on reel america, crisis in levittown, pa.t explores a man moving sboog a neighborhood and they are met with violent rock throwing crowds.

levittown today is over 95 percent white very few minority families living there. when fix the damage that was done we just allowed all those inequalities to continue but said from this day forward we can't discriminate sell it and fix it all of these policies and practices these systems. federal government state government and local government. they converge to sort of create concentrated poverty by the time we reach the fifty's and sixty's so that creates a situation where many urban areas you have like what george clooney would call you know chocolate cities in the little suburbs. this they're called the white house and that's a temporary visit. there's a lot of. we've got to get some i don't need to get. working on. you to get you.

and at 9:55, crisis in levittown, about the 1950s. >>> c-span3, exploring people and events that tell the american story every weekend. coming up this weekend, saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern, on reel america. as health officials prepare to roll out a vaccine against the coronavirus, we take you back in time with five archival films about vaccines and the fight against disease. on sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern, on "american artifacts," tour new york city's lower east side tenement museum which shows how families coped with poverty and crowded positions. at 6:30, look at eisenhower, america and the world in the 1950s. then at 9:00 p.m., a u.s. constitutional debate hosted by the colonial williamsburg foundation, hosting a reenactment between founding fathers john adams and george mason. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. >>> with joe biden as president-elect, stay with c-span with live coverage of the election process and transition of power. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. >>> author and smith college english professor michael gorra discusses his book "the sadde

, working remotely for a nonprofit, moved back to his chdhood home in the quintessential suburb, levittown new york, partly to help his parents. >> because of the economy, my parents haven't been working. i was helping with the h grocerieping with any expenditures the family had. >> reporter: and some just had more personal reasons. >> there's something really about is time that makes you want to be with people you love and who love you unconditionally. and for me, that's just my parents. >> reporter: but even this big star had some financial motives for heading home. >> there's been a lot of things that have just stopped in their tracks.and that got you know, c. >> >> i just signed a lease march 1st york.enartment in new i've paid fullfor a really expensive place that i never for this whole yeaor even once >> rr: marcellus adams never even got a chance to sign his lease. exce for college, he's lived with his parents his whole life. >> i did not want to leave and thy, come back and be like, well, i'm back. >> reporter: butecently he'd been saving up, working two jobs: one in a hospital eme

and at 9:55 more from "reel america" with crisis in levittown. >>> american history tv on c-span3. exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. coming up this weekend, saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern on "reel america," as health officials prepare to roll out a vaccine against the coronavirus, we take you back in time with five films about vaccines and the fight against disease. on sunday, at 6:00 p.m. eastern on american artifacts, tour new york city's lower east side museum with reconstructed dwellings that show how immigrant families coped with poverty and crowded conditions. at 6:30 p.m., a look at presidential leadership during the cold war with the author of "the age of eisenhower, america and the world in the 1950s." at p.m., a u.s. debate hosted by the colonial willamsburg foundation featuring a re-enactment from james madison and george mason on the issues of the bill of rights to slavery. watch american history tv, this weekend on c-span3. >>> every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3, go inside a different college

next on "reel america", crisis in levittown.t explores the attitudes of homeowners after a black family move into the all-white development and are met by violent rock throwing crowds.

she's a fifth grade teacher at garners avenue elementary school in levittown, new york.f this pandemic she's done more than i thought was humanly possible. she never fails to give 110% to her students. she still with all of this going on is able to dedicate herself fully to his students. as a fellow teacher, i hope i'm as inspirational to my students as she is to me. >> hi, my name is beni and my frontline hero is my fiance, jared, who works for u.p.s. i hear very amazing stories from jared delivering to different people and how he helps them and just takes the time to listen to them and talk to them and just get friendly with them, and that makes me feel good because this is the man i love and i just know how she is towards us and it makes me feel nice that all these people feel the same way i do about him. >> hi. my name is joyce smith and my frontline hero is my son, evan w. smith. the owner and founder of evan w. smith funeral services located in delaware. he and his colleagues were experiencing the very same issues of other frontline workers, the fear of being expos

>> we were looking for a place to buy a home, we looked at levittown and liked the advantages levittown seemed to offer in comparison to other cities. and we understood it was going to be all-white. we are very happy living here. >> have you talked to your children about myers -- about the myers? >> we have tried to keep the discussion away from the children. i feel it is something we adults should solve. we are doing it for the children, but it'll feel they are under -- they are old enough to understand the problem as it is. >> do you think a negro family moving here will affect the community as a whole? >> definitely. property values will immediately go down if they are allowed to move here, and any others. >> do you have a basis for that judgment? >> yes. we lived in washington dc yet saw a very good example of -- washington dc and saw a very good example of that there. >> there would be no escape from living near negroes. at what of the dream of middle-class respectability? if a negro can afford what you can afford, how do you justify your feeling of superiority? the illogic of one'

eel," films made in the 1950's when the suburbs experienced unprecedented growth. " and "crisis in levittown often depicted as the quintessential american suburb, levittown refuse to directly sell homes to african-americans, even though they could not so.ibit owners from doing this pro-integration film explores the attitudes of homeowners after a black veteran and his family move into the all-white development of 60,000. in about 30 minutes, "all the way home," from 1957, dramatizing the flurry of rumors and prejudice that arise in a fictional white suburb, when a black family is seen visiting a one with a "for sale" sign the front lawn. and about one hour, a 1957 film, "in the suburbs" which is a film written by the film shows families with many children engaged in leisure activities at home, and the new hub of suburban activity, the shopping center. and in about 80 minutes, of -- "american look" from 1958. the film highlights industrial, product and auto designers who create mass-produced consumer goods that filled the suburbs of america. ♪