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.