Product and auto designers who create massproduced consumer goods that filled the suburbs of america. Narrator this is levittown, pennsylvania, a new suburb and community of 60,000 people midway between philadelphia and trenton, new jersey. With its giant Shopping Center, winding names winding lamed named for flowers entries, it is typical of communities all over america, where families are pursuing the American Dream to give their children a better chance in life. Are people of modest means. Nearly all our young people. A large proportion our veterans. And while many religious groups have established churches, they have not yet had time enough to develop programs to adequately serve the community. Most levittowners are proud and happy in their new environment. For many, it is the first house of their own ad represents a major financial investment. Social life is mainly confined to visits from the neighbors. There are communitywide events, but it is too early yet for most residents to become identified with the broader aspects of community living. Levittown was built by one man, for whom it is named. Like Many Community developers, the initial policy provided a minimum of essential services. Wenthouses were sold, he to his own slender resources. , pennsylvaniatown attracted International Attention when violence erected and his familys moved into a threebedroom house. Family has three small children, the youngest only one month old. Myers served two and a half years in the army and was discharged at his as a staff sergeant. He is working on his degree as an electrical engineer. His wife daisy is a college graduate. Home and their late model family car was bought on time. They are very close to levittown except for one respect, William Myers and his family are knee negroes in an allwhite. Some of them felt strongly enough to throw a rock through the picture window. But another large group was repelled by this kind of behavior and organized to help levittown accept its first negro neighbors. The vast majority of levittown ers went about their daily activity peacefully, but at the schools and on front lawns, levittowners discussed the myers es. I saw an article in a newspaper that the first color family moved into the community, and following that, i began to hear on the radio and read in the newspaper that there was disturbance around the home that these people had bought. What was your initial reaction . I was terribly shocked to find that there were people in this community who would be so violently opposed to it. I rather thought everyone would just accept it, as i would. Was the community prepared for the entrance of the first. Egro into levittown myers there was an attempt by a group of ministers who formed a group called the Human Relations Council. They were just Getting Started on their work. I dont know how they expected to compass the purpose of educating everyone, but i know that they had an open forum on within the last three or four months, and the results of that were published in the paper. Do you feel it was effective . No, im afraid it was just a drop in the bucket. Not very many people read or were aware of the article or the meeting that preceded it. Although there has been little interest in the formation of a Human Relations Council became aore, the myers topic of conversation for the people of levittown within a few hours of their arrival. Rumor and gossip swept through the community. As stories passed from one person to another, because hardly anybody knows the truth, when everybody assumes becomes a fact. I heard lots of rumors. What kind . That they had been sponsored. Chiefly, i think people resented, after they heard this rumor, resented the feeling that some outside group had deliberately moved these people in, that they were sponsored and paid by an outside group to do this very thing. And i had been told that wasnt true at all, so ive told people it wasnt true. Narrator do you feel that understanding the effects of the situation will help . Yes. I do. I am sure a more reasonable attitude is going to prevail in this community, and i have great faith in the people here, that they will soon find out there is nothing to be afraid of. Narrator some viewed the incident calm will he and excepted the facts, but for moving intomyers levittown constituted an infringement of their own liberties, and they would react with anger and force. What they say reveals their deepest fears and frustrations. Why did you select levittown to live . We were looking for a place to buy a home, we looked at levittown and liked the advantages levittown seemed to offer in comparison to other cities. And we understood it was going to be allwhite. We are very happy living here. Narrator have you talked to your children about myers about the myers . We have tried to keep the discussion away from the children. I feel it is something we adults should solve. We are doing it for the children, but itll feel they are under they are old enough to understand the problem as it is. Narrator do you think a negro Family Moving here will affect the community as a whole . Definitely. Property values will immediately go down if they are allowed to move here, and any others. Narrator do you have a basis for that judgment . Yes. We lived in washington dc yet saw a very good example of washington dc and saw a very good example of that there. There would be no escape from living near negroes. At what of the dream of middleclass respectability . Negro can afford what you can afford, how do you justify your feeling of superiority . The illogic of ones own position becomes apparent, and old tribal myths are invoked. What besides Property Values do you have against the myers . The whole thing centers around the word integration. Own has beens his anything from peaceful since he moved in. He has got three children. Feels thatly, he they will be accepted socially. And i dont feel that they ever will be. But the trouble with this integration business is that, in the end, it probably will end up with mixing socially, and you will have, i think their aim is mixed marriages and becoming equal with the whites. But the only way they are going to do that despite education and by bettering themselves, not by pushing in the way they have here. Narrator do you intend to move . At the time, no. It is a pretty impossible situation. We have our home here. And if the coloreds movie in and run real estate values down, there are a lot of us who are going to be [inaudible] with their homes. Narrator as lines are drawn, tensions developed and breeds suspicion and mistrust. What has been the effect of the myerses coming here . It has created a lot of attention, not among the neighbors, because we all feel the same. But it has naturally made everyone tense in their homes. This is effect that this is affectingour homes our homes and it is bound to create tension. It is a subject that is talked about all the time. Narrator but there are others who are supportive of the myers . Frankly, i dont know what reasons they can have for it. If they are homeowners in levittown, i dont see what reasons they can have for it. Narrator do you think myers will be able to live here comfortably . Comfortably . Narrator what course of action are you going to follow . Help,ill do what i can to to get them out legally and peacefully. And as far as accepting them socially, if that is what you mean, i could never do that. Narrator to take sides in such a situation is more than a matter of ones owns conscience. What a man believes becomes a subject for community debate. For those who believe a man has a right to live anywhere he wishes, the answers are simple and straightforward. Has this affected your relationship with neighbors . No. We discussed it freely. We find people for and against, but we have tried to keep it being discussed. That was the important thing. Narrator have you heard any rumors . Many. Many. I wont repeat them because i dont like to repeat rumors, and i dont think it is fair to keep them alive. Narrator do you think rumors contributed to the reaction of those opposing the myers . Surely they did. But we have very interesting citizens here who pledged themselves to a factfinding group, and they tried to dissolve those rumors as quickly as they were started, by facts. Narrator do you think the myers will be able to live comfortably in levittown . I think so. I hope so. I think the majority of people here will grow accustomed to it and realize that they can be Good Neighbors, which i am sure they are. And i think the majority of the violentare not group that we have heard so much about. Narrator do you think the myers being in levittown will affect Property Values . I dont think that the myers have anything to do with property decreasing or increasing. It is purely a white problem, not a negro problem. Narrator in what way . It is the feeling of the Majority Group which will influence the property, not the minority group. Narrator those who want an integrated Community Take their stands based on their own deep feelings about what the community should be. Will leadat the myers to large numbers of other negro es coming here . No, i dont think so. I think there will probably believe a normal entrance, not a dilution. And not a deluge. And people who want these homes will come here. It is not what people say is this influx. There wont be any such thing. It will be normal. I hope, because i would like to see an integrated repair and i would like to see my child, and i hope my children live in a group that is representative of and not being an integrated group, it is not not representative of society. We have discussed this and we have said the answer to the when yous eventually, find that there are no more areas to which a white person can move without having a negro family in, that would be the best and there could be to segregation. And it is probably something that will happen in the future, perhaps in the near future. Narrator for some, the answer is tremendously complicated, tied up in a maze of past associations and present influences. Sometimes, opinions are expressed with grave misgivings and a sense of guilt. Being for myers can be difficult if one as background rejects this decision. Some of the people are definitely against integration. Childrenhave told my that they have to marry n iggers. Niggers. My child doesnt even know what is, but from the sound, they came home crying. And my child asked, mother, do i have to marry negroes . And i said, you can marry who you wish. Narrator where do you come from . I come from kentucky. Narrator did you know any negro es for you kim to levitate before you came to levittown . My father had a business in an area where there were several colored people. I can honestly say one of my best friends was a colored girl. And children have no prejudice, we became very close friends, and in her later years, she has become a registered nurse and is trying very hard to raise her children in a clean atmosphere. And we have talked now since we both have been married, and it is such a disadvantage to see her children try to grow up healthy in the atmosphere that they have to live in. A personal relationship in sympathy with a negro who is trying to improve her circumstances seems to make a difference. I have found several colored people that i have enjoyed their friendship. Determinet let that whether i become friends with them by the color of their skin. Narrator have you heard any rumors . I heard several rumors of which i had just taken as rumors go. But the one that bothered me most was the fact that the myers family has moved into several allwhite sections in trying to be the first colored family to move income at to start the other ones to come in, that they had done this before. I believe that if they do come here to cause trouble, i am against what they are doing, their principles. But if they are just trying to find a better place to live to bring up their children, than i am for them. Narrator there are those who live in levittown who like it and intend to stay. They have no intention of according the same privilege to the myers. Some find it more comfortable to talk in a group. You are aware a negro family has moved into levittown . What was your reaction . Dynamite. Dynamite. Narrator what have you done about it . Well, we just discussed it. Narrator how you feel about the myers moving in . I am very definitely against it. Narrator before coming to levittown, did you have any contact with negroes . I came from a smalltown, and we didnt have any colored people. At that time, i had no feelings either way. While we were waiting for our house to be built, we lived in trenton for nine months and that was my First Contact with them, both in work and going through colored sections to work. And i was very happy i was moving into an allWhite Community. Narrator have you ever discussed the myers at home with your children . Our house wase in anything mentioned pro or con about colored people, because i feel that they have to be in contact with them to an extent, and why should their minds be prejudiced . But since they have moved here, and iave heard remarks, am afraid they are going to dislike the idea. Children inolored the school my son attended last year for the first time, and he often came home and said there had been trouble between them during the day at school. Narrator it becomes convenient to exaggerate ones own fears and to a neighbor increase her. My boy likes sports and used to go down there every saturday with two of the boys from the neighborhood. Argument, my an boy and the colors boy got in an colored boy got in an argument. For the rest of the summer, my boy was afraid to go there because the colored boys brought a gang together and every time they got near my community, they would scare the devil out of you. I went to the principal and everything. Narrator a major factor is fear, fear of economic loss, loss of status, fear of violence and fear of intermarriage. Do you think other negro families will come to levittown . Definitely. Narrator what you think will happen . What is happening already. Theyd in the paper where have two colored schoolteachers now in levittown. So that is just an example of what is going to happen. Narrator what is wrong with that . I do not like it. I have two doctors and two sons and if there is too many colored people around here, i am definitely getting out. I dont want to associate with colored people. Period. I am against mixed marriages and that is what is going to come to the children are raised together. They will think anything of being married together. I just could not live beside them. I dont feel they should be oppressed, but i moved here, one of the main reasons was because it was a White Community. And that is the only place i intend to live. If i have to leave levittown, i will do so. Narrator for some levittowners, the big issues the basic issues had nothing to do with Property Values, loss of status, fear of crime, neighbor crossed neighborhood crime or the a minority. G they saw it as a test of democracy. Become happy to see this a more American Community. Narrator there seems a large group to be opposed to the myers. What would be your attitude toward them . I dont know if there are large groups of people opposed to the myers. There is close to 60,000 people in levittown. The mobs were never more than 500 or 600. I think of you had gone down to a Shopping Center, you would have seen 10,000 people at the Shopping Center while those were violently opposed to the myers moving and were engaging in what they were engaging in. Narrator you dont think that they large majority is against the myers moving it . That is not true offhand. I know from the immediate neighbors here. I wouldnt hazard a guess as to what proportion would welcome the myers. I dont think that is the main issue involved anyway. Narrator what is the main issue . The main issue is the right of these people to live like americans as they shouldnt be accepted as Good Neighbors. Narrator what are you going to do about it . I intend to be a Good Neighbor. Narrator you feel the myers coming to levittown will lead to sarge numbers of other negroe coming here . I dont know. Narrator have you heard any rumors about the myers . Dozens and dozens of rumors. Narrator what kind . That he was being paid by the naacp, the reds were behind it, the jews were behind it, this group and that group are behind it. All kinds of rumors, some spread deliberately, some the result of hysteria, all kinds of malicious rumors. You are so ridiculous, couldnt see how people would accept them. But people did accept them and spread them. Narrator what course you think the future of levittown will take . I dont think levittown is an island. It is part of the usa and is going to integrate like the rest of the country is going to integrate. Narrator in levittown as in the rest of america, there are those who believe the rights of citizenship along to all, regardless of their race or color or creed. And there are those who believe in equality, but in a somewhat more limited sense. In my business, whoever has money and has good credit or wants to pay cash can buy a car. There is no discrimination, color, religion, anything of that sort. Narrator as the coming of the myers affected your home life . Nothing whatsoever. But the neighbors, they have a right because the average white person living in levittown has four or five children. Lets put it this way. Is migrated with hordes of new gross dashboards of negroes, which they have a right to come here, but pretty soon, i will have a negro soninlaw or daughterinlaw. Narrator doesnt myers have the right to move where he pleases . Lets put it this way. They are as good as i am. They can go wherever they want. They have a godgiven right and being a good american, they have civil rights, they have the right to the pursuit of happiness. But by the same token, we have mixed communities and it is a proven fact those communities are over a third empty. He could have stayed there, he had a beautiful home. The only reason that mr. Myers came into levittown was to show people he could get here. It wasnt that he wanted to levittown. My opinion is this, there is something bigger behind this. Narrator is that your opinion or effect . I say it is a fact. And i would tell anybody, barring nobody, i would tell them in a meeting, including the head of this committee for bringing mr. Myers here, i would tell him. Narrator when d