Expectations:

Reality:

Planned Homogeneity

William and Alfred Levitt, Levittown’s designers, builders, and owners, wanted to keep this new development pristine and pure: “white.” They claimed that an influx of any color, especially blacks, would drop the property values; they did not want to jeopardize their profits.

The Levitt brothers were able to keep Levittown’s entire 6.9 square mile radius free from blacks and lower class families for the first six years of its existence, successfully isolating the suburb from the realities of post WWII America (61).

Miscalculated Means and Motives

In the beginning, Levittown was legally permitted to exclude non-caucasian individuals from buying homes. But in 1948, the Supreme Court ruled discrimination by race unconstitutional and logistically problematic (Kushner 43). Blacks were allowed by law to buy property in Levittown, yet, the Levitt brothers continually escaped prosecution (68).
Additionally, William and Alfred Levitt’s own grandfather was a Jewish immigrant from Russia. Before WWII, Jews were not considered white in America. They faced similar forms of racism as blacks did. However, after WWII, as soldiers returned, Jews, Italians, etc., became socially and legally “white.”

William Levitt claimed his Jewish ancestry exempt him from racist behavior and used this as a shield against accusations of his discriminatory housing policies. He believed that he couldn’t simultaneously combat racism and the housing shortage (76). However, towns near Levittown, such as Ronek Park and Concord Park opened their doors to all races and saw no negative effects (66). Concord Park especially thrived, as its home values increased by one thousand dollars in a short span of time (96). Other racially integrated neighborhoods witnessed improvements in prices as more and more people of different races wanted homes (84).

 Ironically, Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Congress played a large role in ending racial segregation in housing in Levittown (65). William Levitt, a “long… supporter of Jewish causes” deliberately ignored this movement (97).

Perfection as Protection from Changes and Communism

As sixteen million veterans flooded back into the United States, securing a home meant restoring an American way of life. At the close of WWII, houses were much more than homes. Americans believed that “home ownership was an explicit way… to keep the nation strong” against communism (28). Those who protested against Levitt’s housing discrimination faced similar treatment to those emotionally affected by Emmett Till’s death: they were deemed communists (44, 53).

Levittown was supposed to be sublime. The houses, each equipped with the latest technological fashions, looked identical. The mind-numbing order of the neighborhood attracted veterans who were looking for a normalcy that had ceased to exist after World War II. In fact, Levittown reinforced pre-war nuclear gender roles, encouraging men to be the masculine bread-bearer and women to be the respectable mother and housewife.

Everything in Levittown was set in perfect order; even the yards were pristine. Abe Levitt, the father of Levittown’s creators, used to patrol the neighborhoods, swooping in to complete unfinished yard work. After making sure each lawn was indistinguishable from the next, he’d leave a bill on the doorstep. Everything, right down to the very tips of grass, was meant to radiate flawlessness.

Internally Broken and Corrupt

While rape, drugs, and hate were present in the real world, Levittown residents considered themselves removed from the evils of humanity and societal problems. But, Levittown residents were far from perfect.

In 1954, a young veteran raped and killed a fifteen-year-old girl (73). The world was shocked that such an event could occur in the haven that was Levittown.
Critics also tokened Levittown a “feminine… ghetto”, and for legitimate reasons (75). Women, left home alone all day, were essentially isolated from aspects of both city and rural life. While men drove the family car to work, woman rarely found escape from the cookie-cutter neighborhood because Levittown’s street size required hours of walking before one would reach a cityscape.

Additionally, Levittown was home to a biker gang that ran “the largest crystal meth-operation” in the vicinity (202). Several homes were sites of “Nazi paraphernalia,” and the KKK stationed itself among the developing racial tensions (202).

As for communism, Levittown’s white walls failed. Bea and Lew Wechsler, two white, radical supporters of communism moved into Levittown unnoticed.
Hatred and conflict bred inside Levittown, and despite the perfect lawns and happy faces, Levittown was far away from the Utopia advertised and ingrained in the minds of Americans.

A Place for Peace

America was supposed to be a land of opportunity. The Quakers founded Pennsylvania as a shelter for those oppressed and in danger (104). Suburbs were made for families. Levittown was intended to be inhabited by the best American citizens.  And after one of the most gruesome wars in history, the public wanted to keep violence behind closed doors.

Bill and Daisy Myers didn’t move to Levittown to instigate an uproar. They were ordinary people, hoping for an affordable home, equipped with a garage just large enough to accommodate their growing children.

Terrible Turbulence

Although Bill and Daisy entered Levittown with the same intentions as their white neighbors, they questioned whether or not they could “live a normal, happy life” there even before they moved in (83). Is questioning one’s safety a common characteristic of the picturesque American suburb? Yes, if you’re black.

When the Myers family entered Levittown, violence broke out and hate penetrated the community. Mobs gathered with their confederate flags outside the Myers’ home, trashing their yard, pelting rocks through their windows, filling their mailbox with threats, and leaving terrifying phone calls. Crosses were burned outside and the letters KKK were painted on their home, branding Levittown as a neighborhood of intolerance (175).

Leaders of the mob insisted that they didn’t encourage violence, yet they did nothing to stop it (114). Daisy and Bill, fearful for their lives, found comfort in the fact that if they were to be murdered, their baby would be “too young to know” (120).
Overall, the police failed to protect the family. At first, they threatened to give the crowd parking tickets, but the mob members returned whenever the police turned their backs (101).

Time and time again, the family wondered how the mob could persist when the cops were supposed to be defending their home from harm (151). When the police eventually attempted to stand between the Myers and the mob, the mob had grown to four hundred people, and the police were, more or less, powerless (133).