Welcome to our site! We are the Macalester College American Studies 101- Explorations of Race and Racism class taught by professor Duchess Harris. This site is our class project seeking to create a balanced portrait of the history of suburban Levittown, Pennsylvania.

Levittown is seldom portrayed as more than the story of the first successful suburb in the United States. However, “[t]here are stories that are true and stories we want to believe,” and the real tale of Levittown involves much more than sparkling white picket fences and large backyards (Kushner xi). The reality of Levittown is a book we don’t want to open, for it exposes the nation’s post World War II anxieties, the boundaries surrounding the American Dream, society’s racial construction and contradictions, and the intersectionality of racism. It’s the opposite of  comfortable, of pretty, and entirely unsafe. And this is exactly why we read.

20 Aug 1957, Levittown, Pennsylvania, USA — 8/20/1957-Levittown, PA- Mr and Mrs. William Meyers, Jr., the first Negro residents in the 15,000-home, all-White community of Levittown, are shown after they moved into their new home today. Although there had been many meetings and protests by Levittown residents, there was no disorder when the Myers family moved in. More than 30 policemen had been assigned to the area to head off a demonstration that never developed. Photo by Sonnee Gottlieb. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

The main objectives of this introductory course are: to explore the historical construction of racial categories in the United States; to understand the systemic impact of racism on contemporary social processes; to consider popular views about race in the light of emerging scholarship in the field; and to develop an ability to connect personal experiences to larger, collective realities. We will engage several questions as a group: What are the historical and sociological foundations of racial categories? When does focusing on race make someone racist? What is white privilege, and why does it matter?

Sources:

Kushner, David. Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America’s Legendary Suburb. New York: Walker, 2009. Print.