Myers Family

In August 1957, William and Daisy Myers and their three young children became the first Black family to move into Levittown, Pennsylvania, a postwar suburban community that had been designed for white, middle-class families and upheld racial exclusion through both policy and practice. The Myers family had purchased a home in the Dogwood Hollow section of Levittown, seeking the same opportunity for homeownership and upward mobility that white families in the area enjoyed. However, their arrival was met with immediate and sustained hostility from white neighbors, exposing the entrenched racism that shaped American suburbia.

Almost as soon as the family moved in, a mob of more than 600 white residents gathered outside their home, shouting threats and demanding that they leave. Over the next two weeks, crowds swelled to over 1,000 people, many of whom engaged in vandalism, cross burnings, and harassment. The Myers' home was pelted with rocks, and white supremacist agitators, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, actively fueled tensions. Some neighbors even installed Confederate flags and racist signs nearby to intimidate them.

Despite the constant harassment and violence, local authorities were slow to intervene, and few arrests were made. The Levittown Betterment Committee, an all-white neighborhood group, openly opposed the Myers’ presence, arguing that integrating the community would cause property values to decline. It was only after national media attention and intervention from the Pennsylvania State Police that the worst of the riots subsided, though daily acts of intimidation continued for months.

Despite these challenges, the Myers family refused to leave. They remained in their home for several years, demonstrating extraordinary resilience in the face of racial terrorism. Their struggle became a landmark example of the fight against housing segregation, illustrating how white resistance to integration was not just a Southern issue but a national crisis.

The Myers' experience in Levittown was part of a broader pattern of racially motivated housing discrimination, from redlining to restrictive covenants, that systematically excluded Black families from homeownership and wealth-building opportunities. While the Fair Housing Act of 1968 would later make such discrimination illegal, the legacy of housing segregation persists today in patterns of racial inequality in homeownership, wealth gaps, and continued de facto segregation in American suburbs.