Crisis in Levittown, PA (1957)

[Music] this is levit toown Pennsylvania a new suburban community of 60,000 people midway between Philadelphia and Trenton New Jersey with its Giant shopping center winding Lanes named for flowers 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 levit Towners are people of modest means nearly all are young people a large proportion are veterans there are few social agencies and while Many religious groups have established churches they've not yet had time enough to develop programs to adequately serve the community most levit Towners are proud and happy in their new environment for many it is the first house of their own and it represents a major Financial investment social life is mainly confined to visits with the neighbors occasionally they're CommunityWide events but it's too early yet for most residents to become identified with the broader aspects of Community Living levit town was built by one man for whom it is named like many Community developers he set the initial policy and provided a minimum of essential Services when the houses were sold naturally he would to its own slender resources in August 1957 levit toown Pennsylvania attracted International attention when violence erupted as William Myers Jr and his family moved into the three-bedroom house at daffodil and deep green Lanes in almost all respects the Myers family is close to the levit town Norm they have three small children the youngest only 1 month old Myers served for 2 and 1/2 years in the Army and was discharged as a staff sergeant he works as a laboratory technician and is 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 lvit town Norm except in one respect with William Myers Jr and his family are Negroes in an all white Community lat Town reacted in a number of ways to the new arrival 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 window but there was another large group who were repelled by this kind of behavior and organized to help lavit Town accept its first gr neighbors the vast majority of levit Towners went peacefully about their daily activities but in the stores and at the schools and on the front loans levit Towners discussed the Myers well I first read a small article in the newspaper that the first colored family had moved into this community and um following that why I began to hear on the radio and read in the newspaper that there was some disturbance around this home that these uh people had bought what was your initial reaction I was terribly shocked to find that there were people in this community who would be so violently opposed to it I rather thought that everyone would just accept it as I would was the community prepared in any way for the entrance of the first negro family into allh levit town well there was an attempt by a group of ministers who formed a group called The Human relations Council and they were just getting started on their work I don't know how they expected to ultimately accomplish their purpose of educating everyone but I know that they had a an open Forum one time and um just within the last three or four months and the results of it were published in the paper do you feel it was effective no I afraid it was just a drop in the bucket it uh not very many people even read or were aware of the article more of the meeting that preceded it although there had been little interest in the formation of the human relations Council some weeks before the Myers became the main topic of conversation for the people of levit town within a few hours of their arrival in the absence of fact and authoritative information on a situation like this rumor and gossip sweep through the community as the stories pass from one person to another because hardly anybody knows the truth but everybody isum becomes the fact oh I Heard lots of rumors I was busy telling people not to believe them what kind well that they had been sponsored chiefly I think people resented after they heard this rumor and believed it they resented feeling that some outside group had deliberately moved these people in that they were sponsored and paid by an outside group to do this very thing and uh I had been told on good authority that that wasn't true at all and uh so I told people that it wasn't true do you feel that understanding the facts of the situation will help oh yes I do I'm sure that uh a more reasonable attitude is going to Prevail in this community and I'm I'm have great faith in the people here and that they'll uh they'll soon find out there's nothing to be afraid of some view the incident calmly and indicate acceptance of the fact but for others the Meers moving into levit town constitutes an infringement of their own Liberties and under the impact of this situation they react with anger and force what they say reveals their deepest fears and frustrations why did you select levit town to live we were looking for a place to buy a home we looked at levit town and we like the homes here we like the advantages that Lev Town seem to offer in uh comparison to other cities and we understood that it was going to be all white we were very happy to buy a home here how about your children have you talked with them about the Myers we have tried to keep uh the discussions away from the children uh I figure I I feel that it's something that uh we adults should solve without bringing the children into it any more than we have to we're doing it for the children but I don't feel that 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 in what way I think that well the property values will immediately go down if uh they are allowed to move in here in any number can you give a basis for that judgment yes we used to live in Washington DC and we saw a very good example of that there repetition of an experience that was distasteful is there to be no escape from living near Negroes and what if the dream of middle class as respectability if a negro family can afford what you can afford how do you justify your feeling of superiority the illogic of One's Own position becomes apparent and in self-justification the old tribal myths are invoked what other objections aside from the effect on property values do you have against the Mars the whole thing centers around the word migration Mr Meers said because his home has been anything but peaceful since he moved in he's got three children and uh evidently he feels that they will be accepted socially and uh I don't feel that they ever will be but the whole trouble with this integration business is that in the end it probably will end up with with mixing socially and you will have well I think their aim is mixed marriages and becoming equal with the whites but the only way they're going to do that is by education and by bettering themselves not by pushing in the way they have here do you intend to move at the time no it's a pretty impossible situation we have uh we have our home here and if the colored move in and run real estate values down there are a lot of us the gi's particularly who are going to be more or less stuck with their homes as the lines are drawn those on either side become more addent tension develops and feeds on suspicion and mistrust what has been the effect of the Myers coming here well it's it's created a great deal of tension not uh among the neighbors because we all feel the same but uh it's naturally made everyone tense in their home I mean this this is affecting our homes and uh it's bound to create tension it's the subject that's talked about all the time but there are others who are for the Myers yes I've read about them for what reason do you think do they support the Myers frankly I don't know what reasons they can have for it if there are homeowners in Lev town I don't see what reasons they can have for it do you think Myers will be able to live live here comfortably comfortably no what course of action are you going to follow I'll do what I can uh to help to to get them out legally and peacefully and as far as accepting them socially if that's what you mean I could never do that to take sides in such a situation is more than a matter of One's Own conscience what a man believes becomes a subject for Community debate for those who believe a man has a right to live anywhere he wishes the answers are simple and straight forward has this affected your relationship with neighbors no we've discussed it freely we found people for and against but we've tried to keep uh keep it being discussed that was the important thing have you heard any rumors many many I won't repeat them because I don't like to repeat rumors and I don't think it's fair to keep them alive do you think rumors contributed to the reaction of those opposing the Myers uh surely they did but uh we had some very interested citizens here who uh pledge themselves to a fact finding group and they tried to dissolve those rumors as quickly as they were started by facts do you you think the Myers will be able to live comfortably in levit town I think so I hope so I think majority of people here will uh grow accustomed to it and uh realize that oh they are they can be good neighbors which I'm sure they are and uh I think the majority of people here are not VI the violent um well violent group that we have heard so much about do you you think the Meyers staying in levit town will affect property values uh I don't think that the Meyers have anything to do with the um property decreasing or increasing I think it's purely a white problem not a negro problem in what way I think it is the feeling of uh the majority Group which will influence the property not the minority group those who want an integrated Community take their stand based on their own deep feelings of what a community should be do you feel that the Myers will lead to large numbers of other Negroes coming here no I don't think so I think that um there will be a probably a normal um entrance and uh not a deluge I mean people who who want these homes will come here it's not um what people say this um oh influx there won't be any such thing there'll be normal I I hope I hope and uh because I would like to see an integrated group here and I would like to see uh well my child and I hope my children go to uh and live in a group that is representative of the world and uh not being an integrated group it is it is not now a representative of society um of course we've all discussed this and we've all said that the um answer to the problem is eventually when you find that there are no more areas to which a white person can move without having a negro family in well that would be the the best uh end that there could be to uh segregation and it is probably um something that will happen in the future perhaps in the near future for some the answer is tremendously complicated tied up in a maze of past associations and present influences sometimes opinions are expressed with grave misgivings and a sense of guilt the past slips through despite what is said Being for Myers can be difficult if one's background rejects this decision some of the people are definitely against integration and they have told my children that they have to marry and my child doesn't even know what a is but from the sound it has scared them and they have come home just crying mommy do I have to marry negras and my answer in handling all the fears that children come in is that you can marry who whomever You Wish by the way we both seem to be from below the Mason and Dixon line where are you from I come from Kentucky had you known any Negroes before you came to levit town um my father had a business in an area where there were several col people and I can honestly say my one of my best friends was a colge girl and as children have no Prejudice we became very close friends and in her later years she has become a registered nurse and trying very hard to raise her children in a clean atmosphere and we have talked now since we both have been married and it's such a disadvantage to see her children try to grow up healthy in the atmosphere that they have to live in a personal relationship and sympathy with a negro who is trying to improve her circumstances seems to make a difference I uh have found uh several colored people that I have enjoyed their friendship uh I would not let that determine whether I become friend to them by their color uh of their skin have you heard any rumors uh I had heard several rumors of which that I have just taken as rumors go but the one that bothered me most was the fact that the Myers family has moved in to several all-h sections and trying to be the first colored family to move in to start the other ones to come in that they have done this before now I believe that if they do come here to cause trouble then I'm against what they're doing their principal but if they're just trying to find a better place to live and to bring up their children than I'm for of them there are those who live in levit town who like it and intend to stay they have no intention of according the same privilege to the Myers some of them find it more comfortable to talk in a group you're aware that a negro family has moved into levit town yes I heard about it what was your reaction dynamite dynamite what have you done about it well uh I guess we just discussed it how do you feel about the Myers moving in well I'm very definitely against it before coming to lvit town did you have any contact with negro well when I came from a small town where we didn't have any colored people and at the that time I had uh well I had no feelings either way while we were waiting for our house to be built we lived in Trenton for 9 months and uh well that was my first contact with them both in work and going through colored sections to work and I was very happy I was moving into an all-white Community have you ever discussed the Myers at home with your children never before in our house was anything mentioned Pro or con about colored people because I feel that they have to uh be in contact with them to a certain extent and why should their minds be prejudiced but since they have moved here uh they have heard remarks and uh well I'm afraid that they are going to dislike the idea they they were uh there were colored children in the school my son attended last year for the first time and he often came home and said there had been trouble between them during the day at school it becomes convenient to exaggerate one's own fears and to help a neighbor increase hers my boy he likes Sports and he used to go down there every Saturday with the few of the boys from the neighborhood and uh there was an argument occurred something real silly my boy and a colored boy got in an argument well from that time on for the whole remainder of the summer the boy was afraid to get down there because the colored boys got a gang together it and every time they would get near my Jimmy they would beat the devil out of me I've went to the principal and everything about it a major factor is fear fear of economic loss loss of status fear of violence and fear of intermarriage do you think other negro families will come to levit town definitely yes what do you think will happen well uh just what's happening already I don't know it's a rumor I read in the paper where they have two colored uh School teachers now in levit town so that's just a good example of what is going to happen what's wrong with that I do not like I I have uh two daughters and two sons and if there's too many colored people around here I definitely will get out I'm not thinking I don't want her associating with colored people period Well I'm very definitely against mixed marriages and that's eventually what it's going to come to if children are raised together they're not going to think of anything of marrying together well I just could not live beside them I don't feel that they should be oppressed but I moved here one of the main reasons was because it was a white community and that's the only place I intend to live if I have to to leave levit town I will do so for some levit Towners the basic issues involved had nothing to do with intermarriage or 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 Myers moving in well I was happy to see this become more of an American Community there seems to be a large group opposed to the Myers 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 Myers after all we have some I don't know I guess close to 60,000 people in ltown those mobs were never more than five or 600 and I think if you'd gone down to the shopping center any night at the time the mobs were here you would have seen 10,000 people at the shopping center while they those who are violently opposed to Myers moving inward engaging what they were engaging in you don't think then that a large majority is against Myers moving in well that's not true off hand I know some of the immediate neighbors right here who uh the Myers moving in I wouldn't Hazard a guess of what the proportion of that welcomes the Myers and how and what proportion is opposed to it but I don't think that's the main issue involved in this case anyway what is the main issue the main issue is the right of these people to live like Americans as they choose be accept as good neighbors what are you going to do about it I intend to try to be a good neor do you feel that the Myers coming to levit town will lead to large numbers of other Negroes coming here I I don't know do you think the Myers will be able to live here comfortably I I think it'll take a little time but they will eventually have you heard any rumors about the M oh dozens and dozens of rumors what kind oh that he was being paid by the NAACP that the Reds were behind it that the Jews were behind it that this group and that group was behind it uh there were all kinds of rumors I guess some of them were being spread deliberately some were just a result of Hysteria uh there was all kinds of malicious rum there were some of them were so ridiculous you would you couldn't see how people could accept them but in the atmosphere some people did accept them and spread them what course do you think the future of levit town will take well I'll tell you I don't think levit Town's an island it's part of the USA and I think it's going to integrate like the rest of this country is going to integrate in levit town as elsewhere in America there are those who believe that the rights and privileges of citizenship belong to all regardless of their race or color or Creed and there are those who believe in equality too but in a somewhat more limited sense in my business whoever's got money and has good credit or wants to pay cash can buy a car it has no discrimination color religion or any type of that sort has the coming of the Myers affected your home life personally my home life it hasn't affect nothing whatsoever but on the neighbors they have a right because the average white person living in Leviton has four and five children well let's put it this way if the Leviton has migrated in hordes of negroes which they have a right to come here but if something that happens that way pretty soon my neighbor will be having a negro son-in-law or daughter-in-law how would that look wasn't Myers within his rights as a citizen to move wherever he pleased well let's put it this way Mr Myers and all the Negroes have right I'm no better than them they're as good as I am they can go anywhere they want I mean they have a a god-given rights and and being a good American they have the rights to the Civil Rights they have the right to pursue to happiness but by the same token we have uh mixed communities and it's a proven fact that those mixed communities are over a third empty he could have stayed there he had a beautiful home there the only reason that Mr Myers came into Lev toown is to show people they could get here it wasn't that he wanted to come to Le town but my personal opinion is this there is something bigger behind this is that your personal opinion only or is it a fact no I say it's a fact and I would tell anybody I mean Barn nobody I would tell them in a meeting including uh the gentleman that this uh the head of this committee for bring in Mr Myers here i' tell him when did you first hear of Myers moving in I heard about Mr myON I was having a coffee in a restaurant where he worked as a utility man dishwasher I don't know it was supposed to be a part-time job but I've seen him there 700 in the morning till 9:00 at night then the paper says he was an engineer where did you hear it that's where I heard it from the waitresses in there they asked me did you see your new neighbors and I didn't care to discuss it in public what did you do I didn't do anything there you have it an American Community C suddenly in a moment of Crisis neighbor set against neighbor as they differ on what should be done about one negro and his family who have come to share with them the American dream of a better way of life for their children many seem convinced that property values must decline when a community or a neighborhood becomes integrated but studies which have been made prove the opposite to be true property values go up provided there's no wave of panic selling and even when there is panic after the situation is stabilized prices climb back and frequently go even higher than they were when the initial sale to a negro was made does the integration of negroes into white community Community result in a higher rate of crime violence or juvenile delinquency not at all Negroes living in predominantly white communities show a lower incidence of crime than the average for the general population is intermarriage the ultimate goal of negroes in seeking to integrate into previously white communities the studies show that of all the reasons Negroes have for seeking equality of opportunity intermarriage is the least and of all the fears that whites Express this is the greatest Negroes seek only the right to buy or rent the kind of housing on the open market which they can afford this basic principle of the free enterprise system of which we're justly proud is now denied to them in many communities the exclusion of negroes from White communities and their restriction to all negro neighborhoods fixes negative ideas about them which are carried over from generation to generation these false Notions cause the abandonment by the white population of large areas within our great cities at a tremendous cost to the nation aided by prosperous post-war economy Negroes have held fast to their wartime gains and have sought to improve their lot in life advances against discrimination have been made in many fields fi a new and much larger negro middle class has grown up able ambitious and confident these families are determined to leave the old densely packed segregated neighborhoods and they're economically able to do it they have the money to buy their way out of the slums what happened in levit town is merely the beginning of what is to follow in communities all over the country during the next few years as NE gr like all other Americans get better education better jobs and accumulate more savings can we prepare our communities to receive these new neighbors in dignity and peace or will we wreck our communities with violence and abandon them in panic this is a challenge posed for us as levit Towners sum it up for themselves I don't think you can take a middle of the stand here either you're for them or against them I've taken a stand for for peace and nonviolence and no intimidation of the Myers is I don't have any prejudice against color just that I wouldn't like to have one as a neighbor we would act to them as we' act to any other neighbors we would be friendly towards them and speak to them and visit with them I wouldn't care to live in the community where the Negroes would be living I think that the majority of people here will accept things and uh believe as I believe that that a good neighbor is not one whose color is white or black just as a good citizen as such Mr Myers and all the Negroes have a right I'm no better than them they're as good as I am but the only reason that Mr Myers came into Leviton is to show people they could get here I I just feel that they're within their legal rights to move in here and if they move in and law- abiding citizens I have no complaint if more colored are allowed to move in levit town is going to go downhill I don't think that the Meyers have anything to do with the property decreasing or increasing I think it's purely a white problem not a negro problem the main issue is the right of these people to live like Americans as they choose and to be accepted as good neighbors [Music]