Levittown New York Explicitly Excludes Black Buyers by Contract

William Levitt builds Levittown on Long Island, New York, the prototype American suburb, with deeds containing explicit racial covenants barring sale or rental to non-Caucasians. Levitt uses FHA financing, which requires restrictive covenants. Of 17,000 homes built, none are sold to Black families. Levitt states publicly: 'We can solve a housing problem, or we can try to solve a racial problem. But we cannot combine the two.' Levittown becomes a template for racially homogeneous postwar suburbanization across America.