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LONG ISLAND, New York After William “Bill” Levitt fought alongside Black soldiers as a Navy lieutenant in World War II, he returned home to pioneer the American suburb. In contrast to the nominal racial integration of the Navy, however, Blacks were banned from living in Levitt’s ticky-tacky neighborhoods.
With Jewish roots in Austria and Russia, the Levitt family did for houses what Henry Ford did for automobiles. To build Levittown on Long Island, their first successful suburb, Levitt & Sons deployed a high-tech 26-step process. The firm’s methods and policies were imitated in thousands of suburbs all over the country.