the myers family is close to the levittown, norm. up three small children the youngest only one month old myers served for two and a half years in the army and was discharged as a staff sergeant. he works as a laboratory technician and the studying for a degree as an electrical engineer. his wife daisy is a college graduate. the myers home is modestly furnished and their late model family car was bought on time. they're very close to the levittown norm except in one respect. william myers, jr. and his family are negroes in an all 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 myers house. and there were those among them who felt strongly enough to throw a rock through the picture wounded. but there was another a large group who were repelled by this kind of behavior and organized to help levittown accept its first negro neighbors. did you select levittown to live we were looking for a place to buy a home? we looked at levittown and we

levittown was the 1st community. nation no but everybody thought it was going to fail because he built 10000 how it is like that. coming out of the 2nd world war the idea of mass production became something that was truly a reality they. look. all new world. the idea that came to a man named bill levitt what this wind up mass produced the elements that go to make up all the auto industry does with the parts that go into a new law. when i was living there it was at a very particular moment and that was coming out of the post war trajectory and that created the need for that type of housing. to train to that you can house friends little as a $100.00 down and that $99.00 a month and that was probably because the federal government was constrained your market. may have the g.i. bill intrudes in construction of new home so the whole idea is your government wants you to have a home so this was an easy way to sort of jump start the housing industry and make homeownership possible without those subsidies lower middle class f

levittown today is over 95 percent white a 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 the federal government state government local government pass and then 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 will call you know chocolate cities in the little suburbs and i was saddened to see this there call it the white house and that's a temporary visit. there's a lot of. these guys that get every time i don't need to get. working on. you to get you the review it's yours. interesting to tell you. there is no clue gram a promise that a president can bake think that the government's going to come in. and and do that yes. that is. the condition of blacks veterans and white veterans diverged even though when they returned from the war they

and it was not that long after that that we moved to levittown. bridge. how much you want 30. $3800.00 here did you. ever count is not a rich neighborhood as you can see but what i love about this town is. what i consider to be the backbone of america where in america fights inch wars people like us who go. to town for the 1st community. like this in. nation no but everybody thought it was going to fail because he built 10000 and it is like that. coming out of the 2nd world war the idea of mass production became something that was truly a reality they. look. all new world. the idea that came to a man named bill levitt was the wind up mass produced the elements that go to make up all the auto industry does what the parts the going off. when i was living there it was at a very particular moment and that was coming out of post war trajectory that created the need for that type of housing. retraining shii you can house for as little as $600.00 down and about $99.00 a month and that was partly because the federal government and was constrain your market so. yo

it's interesting because levittown and the houses were meant to evolve and change as families evolved and changed over time. the idea was that this home would be livable all your life you could have one bedroom or 3 bedrooms to. going on what your needs were at the time. this area was put in the extension of the living room or it could be closed off and become a bedroom door in the same clothes here. as you can. be enclosed here. and you can enter. from the hall. so i am coming out from the. bedroom hallway you know where all the entrances are to the best ones so it could be a one bedroom or 3 bedroom right now we created one bedroom here and there really are one bedroom that could be partitioned with a rolling wall so it will become 2 bedrooms. there was an extension of the dynamic coming out of postwar idea of what the house provided wasn't really about the upscaling or the supersizing of the how those consider that relationship between the growth of the physical house was still somehow in balance subsequently people began to make the scale shift where the houses became just warraic

i yell 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 that said from this day forward we can't discriminate sell it and fix it all of these policies and practices these systems the federal government state government or 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 hear like what george clooney will call you know chocolate cities in the little suburbs and i was 7 and he says they still call it the white house but that's a temporary because. there's a lot of city. we've got to get. to get to. work and. to get a new review it's yours. be . interesting to tell you. that. there is no clue gram a promise that a president can take think of that better the government's going to come in. and do that yes. that is. the condition of black veterans and white spectrum's diversion even though when they return from the war they were economicall

all black neighborhood in my life change 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. 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 in what way i can get all the property values what i mean to go down if they're allowed to move in here and any number do you think them are 11. i don't think i'm irish. property. and i think a purely white problem not a rap. well as a result of all these policies we created a segregated system and because we 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 ca