Editing Levittown (section)

== Controversy ==

William J. Levitt refused to sell Levittown houses to people of color. The FHA included racial covenants in each deed when authorizing Levitttown loans, making each Levittown a [[Residential_segregation_in_the_United_States|segregated community]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Rothstein |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Rothstein |url=https://archive.org/details/coloroflawforgot0000roth/ |title=The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America |date=May 2, 2017 |publisher=Liveright |isbn=978-1-63149-286-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/coloroflawforgot0000roth/page/82/ 82-83]}}</ref> However this did not affect who the houses were resold to.

In 1957, William and [[Daisy Myers]] bought a second-hand house at 43 Deepgreen Lane in Pennsylvania's Levittown. William was a World War II army veteran and Daisy was a school teacher. The couple had three young children at the time. Attacks began immediately in the previously all-white neighborhood.<ref name=":0" /> For days, members of the community would gather hundreds at a time outside the Myers' home in violent demonstrations. Townspeople formed a group called the "Levittown Betterment Committee", dedicated to evicting the Myers and making Levittown all white once more. They would meet in a nearby home, which they dubbed "The [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] House." The [[Modern display of the Confederate battle flag|Confederate flag]] flew outside and "[[Dixie (song)|Dixie]]" was blasted on repeat from a record player.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Remembering the Battle to Integrate Levittown |url=https://jewishcurrents.org/remembering-the-battle-to-integrate-levittown |access-date=2025-02-01 |website=Jewish Currents |language=en}}</ref>  

The Myers' struggle gained national attention. The [[Quakers]], [[American Jewish Congress]], and the William Penn Center helped organize a 24-7 citizen patrol. White couples volunteered to babysit the Myers’ children and cleaned up damage in wake of attacks. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and other black civil rights leader met with the family and wrote to them. <ref name=":1" />

The couple managed to stay four years more, until William Myers got a job in [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg]], Pennsylvania.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=25 July 2019|title=Trailblazers: The Story of the Myers Family in Levittown, Pennsylvania|newspaper=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/trailblazers-the-story-of-the-myers-family-in-levittown-pennsylvania}}</ref> Their plight helped lead to the passage of the [[Fair Housing Act]] in 1968.