Levittown: The Destruction Of The American Dream

As the phenomenal politician Bernie Sanders once said, “For many, the American dream has become a nightmare.” In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by Scott Fitzgerald, the “American Dream” plays a crucial role in the plot. Gatsby devotes his life to accomplish his American Dream which consists of wealth and Daisy’s love. But is the American Dream actually what it seems to be? Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald utilizes the symbolic value of the Valley of Ashes, East Egg, and the significance of the color yellow to constantly establish that opulence and the American Dream is deceiving as it leads to moral and societal corruption.

Different areas of the private sector took control of the racial segregation. Areas such as real estate, banks, labor, and toxic waste locations have participated in some way to continue the segregation and inferiority of people of color. “African Americans and other communities of color are often victims of land-use decision making that mirrors the power arrangements of the dominant society” (Bullard [1994]2004:269). The land-use decisions are used by the real estate industry. The real estate industry along with the bank industry have worked together in order to make it almost impossible for people of color to acquire their own homes. When individuals of color do obtain their own homes the real estate industry corrals them all into one zone. Then the banks charge homeowners in these zones high interest rates on the mortgages needed to maintain their home ownership. “Zoning is probably the most widely applied mechanism to regulate urban land use in the United States” (Bullard [1994]2004:269). When people of color are corralled into a neighborhood the quality of the neighborhood is diminished. The

During the early 1900’s, Louisville attempted to segregate by creating regulations that kept Caucasian people from moving into a neighborhood where most of the minority races were already living and visa versa. They did not want for the races to mix so they created these laws which were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court trial “Buchanan v. Warley”(Broken Sidewalk). This also occurred in other cities but none were as prominent as the commotion created by Louisville. Because of the ruling of the Supreme Court, zonings were created where race was not able to be a reason for granting or denying the right to a house. There were still some places that were denying the sale of houses to blacks because they were in a “restricted housing covenant”. These were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1948, however, they still affected the lives and home sales of these houses that were considered “restricted”. Despite all these efforts, the neighborhoods were still heavily segregated socially and economically. People would only live with others of their same socioeconomic class which president Nixon saw as a big problem. He decided to take action in 1968 when he appointed George Romney the head of Housing and Urban development. George Romney was the governor for Michigan, and he strongly endorsed open housing and the integration of neighborhoods. Romney helped change the demographic of housing across the entire United

2003). Abraham Levitt, a prominent builder, understood the importance of providing housing to people of every income range and he responded to the situation by constructing rows of identical four room apartments at Long Island, New York, that were offered to veteran war soldiers for only $60 a month (Jackson. 1985; Clapson. 2003). Levittown, the mass housing facility designed and constructed by Levitts, was vehemently criticized by architects for producing homogenous and suffocating environment and being antithetical to lofted architectural principles (Jackson. 1985). But the critics ignored the fact that, Levitt could not incorporate the lofty and stylist architectural designs that were hallmark of most of Victorian style villas and bungalows and yet produce houses on mass scale, in quick time and provide them for sale at most affordable prices. His aim was to construct the best houses at least cost to provide most economical housing. The fact was that Levitt had successfully fulfilled the demands and dreams of many Americans of owning their own house.

The way how African Americans were treated during the 1950’s didn’t show prosperity due to the fact that whites had the upper hand in most cases. With the practice of African Americans purchasing affordable housing is a prime example of how the government used discrimination as a way to create racial discrimination between whites and blacks. For example in Document 1 it goes onto explain how local governments passed laws to prevent any new construction of single family homes to preserve white communities. With this it would have a corroboration with the Levittown because the town did not sell to African Americans but mostly to the white & middle class;

During the Cold War security was never guaranteed, and as a result during the 1950s people grasped at the idea of knowing their position in life and having no competition. Levitt homes were a prime example; they offered the public a peace of mind due to the fact that they were all built similarly and you knew what you getting (Doc 7). In addition, the historical context of Doc 4 shows social advancement through the rising abolition of segregation through Brown v. Board of

For far too long, African Americans have been neglected the rights to decent and fair housing. In “In Darkness and Confusion,” William Jones expresses his discontentment with the almost cruel living conditions of the ghettos in Harlem as he stated, “It ain’t a fit place to live, though” (Petry 261). William was especially motivated to move to a better home to protect his wife, Pink’s, ailing health. William and Pink searched high and low for more decent places to live – however, they simply could not afford decent. Though marketed to those with lower than average incomes, the ‘better’ housing for blacks were still deficient and extremely pricy. In

The realtors started to buy property that was just land and started to build apartments and other such multi-family housing. They found with those types of building they could make more money. The problem was that they couldn’t get enough people to fill the apartments. They turned to the government to find the answer.

Sugrue Thomas describes that homeowners movement was first lunched by the organizations or ‘civil associations’ founded by 192 white neighborhoods. The “color blind manner” describes the white homeowners’ reaction after U.S. supreme count ruled on Shelley v Kraemer for the unconstitutionality of restrictive covenant. (Tomas 220-221) In Shelley v Kraemer, U.S. Supreme Count held the decision of “racially restrictive covenant is unconstitutional” and is constituted state action. Because state enforcement of restrictive convents is discriminatory and violated the 14th Amendment, private owners could voluntarily agree to restrictive convents. (bostonfairhousing.org) Homeowners could not ask judicial power to enforce the covenants that are binding

Black Corona and the article White Spatial Imagination both touch upon how real estates agents favored lending and financing white families because black communities were a ‘poor lending risk’. Another tactic that the white community often use was violence, because they viewed the idea of black homeowners as a target on their own financial stability, as it would lead to property value decrease, they employed violent tactics in order to ensure the physical separation of the black bodies and to showcase Black people inferiority. Although they were no longer slaves they were treated terribly to the point where they were constantly being segregated because of the melanin of their skin.when the whites moved the factories out of the cities and whites

It was a way to constraint African Americans to areas that were far away from those with status, class, and power. Segregation led to discrimination in economic opportunities, housing, and education. The black culture has suffered from the barriers that were placed through segregation. However, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 tried to limit some of the discrimination associated with segregation. It was discovered that even a “rising economic status had little or no effect on the level of segregation that blacks experience” (Massey and Denton 87). The authors imply that “black segregation would remain a universal high” (Massey and Denton 88). The problem with the continuing causes in Segregation is that even though the Fair Housing act was placed, many realtors still discriminate against blacks “through a series of ruses, lies, and deceptions, makes it hard for them to learn about, inspect, rent, or purchase homes in white neighborhoods” (Massey and Denton 97). Segregation and discrimination have a cumulative effect over time. Massey and Denton argued that the “act of discrimination may be small and subtle, together they have a powerful cumulative effect in lowering the probability of black entry into white neighborhood” (98). William Julius Wilson had

The early Suburbs of London, and in addition a few in the United States, were constructed around the partition of diverse monetary classes. Amid the eighteenth century, rich entrepreneurs in London started to utilize landholdings around Westminster as an approach to evade the lower classes inside urban zones. After a century, the same happened in the United States around the urban areas of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Rural areas, for example, these, in view of class detachment, can best be portrayed as common enclaves. Here the rich could build up groups that mirrored their own particular qualities and convictions. After World War II finished, numerous Americans were avid to have youngsters on the grounds

In a contact that Levittown owners had to sign had a clause that stated that the house could not be lived in or used by anyone other than a white person. The Levittown in Pennsylvania was 100% white even in 1957. (Teaford) Although it was extremely uncommon a few African American families moved into suburban communities. “The new suburban tracts, however, were not necessarily open to everyone with the requisite cash. Postwar suburbia was largely white territory with few black enclaves...A few black families did move into the development in the 1950s, but blacks remained a rarity in the community.” (Teaford

During the 1950s, Bill Levitt created a town for Americans to fulfill their version of the American Dream but only allowed white people to live in the community. The story of the first black family integrating into Levittown, Pennsylvania was captured in David Kushner’s Levittown. The Myers’ family was the first black family to move into Levittown. Bill and Daisy Myers wanted to provide their children with a good home. They knew the risk of buying this home but wanted to live out the American Dream. As the Myers’ family saw their home they realized, “It had everything they wanted and more. There were three bedrooms, central air-conditioning, even a new washing machine, and dryer. The kids had plenty of space to run around the lawn; and Bill and Daisy had room to garden and barbeque” (Kushner 82). This refers to the Myers’ version of the American Dream while they were looking at the house in Levittown, Pennsylvania to purchase. Many families dreams were to live in a utopian society like Levittown. The Myers’ were not going to let their American Dream of being able to provide for their growing family be stopped by segregation. It was brought to the Myers’ attention to integrate Levittown, and after seeing one of the homes, they knew it was right for them. In short, The Myers’ American dream to own a house in Levittown and turn it into a home.

During the 1940s to 1950s discrimination occurred often throughout housing. Up to “60 percent” (The Historical Roots of Housing Segregation) of people with color were discriminated for purchasing or wanting to purchase of home. In the book A Raisin in the Sun Mr. Lindner discriminated against the Younger family trying to get them to not move into a white neighborhood, known as Clybourne park. He attempts to accomplish this by making an offer to pay them money to not move into the neighborhood. Mr. Lindner used prejudiced based sentences to persuade them to take up the offer.