Levittown

[Scrabjan1]

I never remember that line from June about Levittown. In Larry’s Club Ward tells June he told Beaver about castles to explain clubs who keep out others. Ward says I wonder what people who live in castles tell their children. June says they tell them about Levittown. I had no idea it was the first all white community that banned any African American buyer even after it was deemed unconstitutional. Did you all know about Levittown?

[stevea]

I've heard of Levittown (in Pennsylvania, right?) but I'd never heard the banning story, either.

I remember the line--now it makes sense.

[Scrabjan1]

I thought I was savvy to every bit of LITB dialogue. So when I heard that line I was very surprised. I guess there were a lot of Levittowns that cropped up. It reminded me of A Raisin in the Sun when a community tries to discourage a Black family from moving in.

[Tankeryanker]

I knew about Levittown but not because of the racism, but because of the engineering and building marvel that it was. Most communities had restrictions as to who could live there and who could not.

Neighborhoods were kinda a new thing until after the war. Once they started being built in masses, then the concept of keeping certain people out started. Before the war, mostly only whites had any kind of money and there wasn't THAT much of it.

After the war, lots of GI's of all races had money. Time for the restrictions. I bet the neighboorhood the Cleavers lived in had them too. I had a co-worker honored for his part of removing such restrictions from his area in 2007. Nobody knew they were there and all races lived in the area. It did take a judge to strike them from the contracts. Lots of people over the years bought homes and signed contracts, but apparently, nobody read the contracts.