Godcan
1947: Housing [Municipal Code]
William Levitt, the developer of the nation's first modern-day suburb of tract housing in Long Island, NY, believed that segregation was good for business and used restrictive covenants to maintain racial homogeneity. Following the Federal Housing Administration's lead which recommended against "inharmonious racial or nationality groups," he used the following covenant in 1947 to create a segregated community:
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.
Although Levitt eliminated the racial covenants after the 1948 Supreme Court decision declaring such provisions as "unenforceable and contrary to public policy," he continued to practice discrimination in his housing developments in New Jersey and Maryland. The original Levittown never had more than a handful of black families well into the 1980s, and remains 97 percent white today. Ironically, though Levitt was the grandson of a rabbi, he also agreed to use restrictive covenants to ban Jews from his early developments. In his mind, it was strictly business. (LI History)
Cited:http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/lawsoutside.cgi?state=New York
Could this worker of despair in the name of business set a work in motion that denied many Americans fair housing for decades. Being also Jewish was this man not aware of the countless Afro-Americans that led Jewish victims form Nazi concentration camps. The Nazis claimed the millions of murdered Jews was just a business necessity as well. How can he then be paraded as some urban folk hero other than a sadistic jerk who took advantaged of the times to manipulate his greedy brand of venom that has been silenced for almost two decades. How does he span out in the halls of time?
He is widely credited as the father of modern American suburbia. But in my opnion maybe be the son on something else!
William Levitt, the developer of the nation's first modern-day suburb of tract housing in Long Island, NY, believed that segregation was good for business and used restrictive covenants to maintain racial homogeneity. Following the Federal Housing Administration's lead which recommended against "inharmonious racial or nationality groups," he used the following covenant in 1947 to create a segregated community:
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.
Although Levitt eliminated the racial covenants after the 1948 Supreme Court decision declaring such provisions as "unenforceable and contrary to public policy," he continued to practice discrimination in his housing developments in New Jersey and Maryland. The original Levittown never had more than a handful of black families well into the 1980s, and remains 97 percent white today. Ironically, though Levitt was the grandson of a rabbi, he also agreed to use restrictive covenants to ban Jews from his early developments. In his mind, it was strictly business. (LI History)
Cited:http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/lawsoutside.cgi?state=New York
Could this worker of despair in the name of business set a work in motion that denied many Americans fair housing for decades. Being also Jewish was this man not aware of the countless Afro-Americans that led Jewish victims form Nazi concentration camps. The Nazis claimed the millions of murdered Jews was just a business necessity as well. How can he then be paraded as some urban folk hero other than a sadistic jerk who took advantaged of the times to manipulate his greedy brand of venom that has been silenced for almost two decades. How does he span out in the halls of time?
He is widely credited as the father of modern American suburbia. But in my opnion maybe be the son on something else!