History of the United States II / Unit 13 USH2 1833 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Levittown
The idea
William Levitt built the first Levittown on Long Island in nineteen forty-six, the Yawp records, buying large tracts, subdividing lots and building houses at scale to sell affordable homes to veterans and their families. The anchor adds that Levitt wrote clauses into his sales agreements so that only White families could buy.
In practice
Rows of identical new houses, open to veterans who were White.
Where people slip
The misreading teaches Levittown as the democratisation of the American dream without its terms. Both halves are true at once. The houses were affordable, and the Federal Housing Administration and the GI Bill made them more so; and the communities were closed to Black veterans by design. In May nineteen forty-eight, Digital History records, the Supreme Court ruled that restrictive covenants barring sales to Black and Jewish buyers could not be enforced in court.
Your place on the trail
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