A Restricted Community?
Unfortunately, there was also a discriminatory side to Levitt’s developments. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) allowed developers to discriminate/segregate within public housing. Mortgages were offered by the FHA to non-mixed communities, which in turn caused developers not to accept any buyers who weren’t White. Levitt’s stance was that it was in the business's best interest to not sell to Black families.
According to a Newsday article from November 19, 2017, in a 1954 interview with the “Saturday Evening Post,” Levitt explained his racial exclusion policy this way:
“If we sell one house to a Negro family, then 90 to 95 percent of our White customers will not buy into the community. That is their attitude, not ours. We did not create it, and we cannot cure it. As a company, our position is simply this: we can solve a housing problem, or we can try to solve a racial problem. But we cannot combine the two.”
| Deeds included this restriction: “The tenant agrees not to permit the premises to be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race, but the employment and maintenance of other than Caucasian domestic servants shall be permitted.” —Levittown Corporation Lease (1948) |
Levitt didn’t look at this as discriminatory. In his view, it was intended to maintain the value of the properties. Jews were also discriminated against. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated racial covenants/deed restrictions. Levitt didn’t remove his clauses until 1949 but continued to sell to White families only. Only after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King did Levitt open up sales to families of color. By 1960, a third of the population of Levittown was Jewish, with another third Roman Catholic, and a third Protestant. Still, not one resident in Levittown was African American, with Hicksville following suit.
