WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 If I ask you to picture the suburbs, you immediately 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:05.080 have an image locked and loaded in your brain. 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:07.339 Oh yeah, instantly. You're likely seeing the 00:00:07.339 --> 00:00:11.539 curved street, the manicured lawn, maybe a sprinkler 00:00:11.539 --> 00:00:14.779 thwacking away on a Saturday morning. It feels 00:00:14.779 --> 00:00:18.579 organic. It feels timeless. Like it has always 00:00:18.579 --> 00:00:21.019 been there, just waiting for us to pull into 00:00:21.019 --> 00:00:23.420 the driveway. Exactly. Like it's just the natural 00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:26.600 habitat of the American family. Like trees growing 00:00:26.600 --> 00:00:29.690 in a forest, suburbs just sort of happen. the 00:00:29.690 --> 00:00:32.549 default setting but here is the thing that really 00:00:32.549 --> 00:00:35.189 really blew my mind when we started digging into 00:00:35.189 --> 00:00:38.929 this stack of research for today that image yeah 00:00:38.929 --> 00:00:42.229 it isn't organic at all it didn't evolve from 00:00:42.229 --> 00:00:44.670 centuries of city planning or anything like that 00:00:44.670 --> 00:00:47.369 it was manufactured You don't mean that metaphorically. 00:00:47.409 --> 00:00:49.469 No, I mean it was stamped out, bolted together, 00:00:49.649 --> 00:00:52.369 and rolled off a line exactly like a toaster 00:00:52.369 --> 00:00:56.070 or a Ford Model T. We are talking about the industrialization 00:00:56.070 --> 00:00:58.429 of the American lifestyle. Yeah. The moment we 00:00:58.429 --> 00:01:00.729 stopped building communities and started, you 00:01:00.729 --> 00:01:03.250 know, assembling them. We are talking about Levytown. 00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:06.269 And to understand Levytown, you have to completely 00:01:06.269 --> 00:01:08.609 stop thinking about architecture and start thinking 00:01:08.609 --> 00:01:11.230 about logistics. Right. It's a process story. 00:01:11.469 --> 00:01:13.870 It is. We aren't looking at a neighborhood today. 00:01:13.930 --> 00:01:16.790 We are looking at a machine, a machine that printed 00:01:16.790 --> 00:01:20.170 17 ,000 houses in a couple of years and housed 00:01:20.170 --> 00:01:23.810 84 ,000 people basically overnight. Which, just 00:01:23.810 --> 00:01:25.950 for context, that's the population of a decent 00:01:25.950 --> 00:01:28.909 sized city. Like imagine a city the size of, 00:01:28.909 --> 00:01:32.010 I don't know, Scranton, Pennsylvania, just appearing 00:01:32.010 --> 00:01:34.310 out of a potato field in Long Island. A potato 00:01:34.310 --> 00:01:36.969 field. That's literally what it was. It's a scale 00:01:36.969 --> 00:01:41.039 of operation that was previously. Completely 00:01:41.039 --> 00:01:42.799 unimaginable in the housing market. Precisely. 00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:45.239 So today, that's our mission. We're going to 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:46.700 look under the hood of that machine. We're going 00:01:46.700 --> 00:01:49.079 to dive into the mechanics of that miracle, how 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:51.579 you essentially build a house in a single day. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:54.379 And we are also going to look at the shadow that 00:01:54.379 --> 00:01:56.870 machine cast. A very long shadow. Because this 00:01:56.870 --> 00:01:59.769 perfect machine had a filter, and it was designed 00:01:59.769 --> 00:02:01.870 from the ground up to keep a lot of people out. 00:02:02.030 --> 00:02:05.109 It's a story of incredible innovation, for sure. 00:02:05.250 --> 00:02:07.590 But it's also a story of calculated exclusion. 00:02:08.030 --> 00:02:10.430 It's the story of how the modern American middle 00:02:10.430 --> 00:02:12.590 class was built. And who was left outside the 00:02:12.590 --> 00:02:14.729 gate. Yeah. So let's get the timeline straight. 00:02:14.870 --> 00:02:18.770 Let's set the scene. It's 1946, 1947. The war 00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:21.689 is over. The confetti has been swept up. You 00:02:21.689 --> 00:02:24.639 have millions of GIs coming home. What is the 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:28.979 situation on the ground? What do they find? I 00:02:28.979 --> 00:02:30.840 think that is the only word for it. You have 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:32.719 to understand, during the Great Depression and 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:35.159 then the war years, home building had basically 00:02:35.159 --> 00:02:37.759 ground to a halt. Almost 20 years. Right. There 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:40.219 was zero new inventory. So you have millions 00:02:40.219 --> 00:02:42.340 of men returning, getting married immediately. 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:44.060 This is the very beginning of the baby boom. 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:46.400 And they have absolutely nowhere to go. I was 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:48.800 reading these accounts of veterans living in, 00:02:48.860 --> 00:02:51.080 I mean, it's unbelievable, retrofitted trolley 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:54.699 cars. Chicken coops. Chicken coops. And huge 00:02:54.699 --> 00:02:57.919 numbers of them just doubled or tripled up with 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.340 their... in -laws in these tiny cramped city 00:03:00.340 --> 00:03:03.060 apartments. Right. So if you were a young family 00:03:03.060 --> 00:03:06.539 in 1947, you weren't browsing Zillow for a nice 00:03:06.539 --> 00:03:09.080 three -bedroom ranch. You were trapped. You were 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:11.199 in a tenement, maybe sharing a bathroom down 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:13.159 the hall with another family with a baby crying 00:03:13.159 --> 00:03:15.240 in the corner. It's hard to imagine that level 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:17.800 of pent -up demand. The psychological need was 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:20.780 for space. Not just a roof, but independence. 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:24.620 A patch of grass that was yours. A door you could 00:03:24.620 --> 00:03:28.080 close. Enter Abraham Levitt and his sons, William 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:31.280 and Alfred. Levitt and sons. Now, these guys 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:33.340 weren't just philanthropists trying to help out 00:03:33.340 --> 00:03:35.979 the vets. Not even close. They were business 00:03:35.979 --> 00:03:38.960 sharks who saw the single biggest market gap 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:41.099 in American history. William Levitt is the real 00:03:41.099 --> 00:03:43.020 driver here, right? Oh, absolutely. William is 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:45.759 the visionary, the showman, the engine. He looks 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:47.819 at the housing industry at the time, and he sees 00:03:47.819 --> 00:03:50.599 it as archaic. Just, you know, completely backwards. 00:03:50.819 --> 00:03:53.650 Stuck in the 19th century. Totally. He famously 00:03:53.650 --> 00:03:55.969 said, we are the General Motors of the housing 00:03:55.969 --> 00:03:58.569 industry. And that quote tells you everything. 00:03:58.849 --> 00:04:00.889 He wasn't building homes. He was building a product. 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:03.990 Exactly. He realized that if you wanted to meet 00:04:03.990 --> 00:04:07.550 this insane demand, you couldn't rely on craftsmanship. 00:04:07.590 --> 00:04:09.469 You had to get rid of it. You had to rely on 00:04:09.469 --> 00:04:11.590 industrial efficiency. This is the part that 00:04:11.590 --> 00:04:14.189 just fascinates me. The process. Because before 00:04:14.189 --> 00:04:17.120 Levitt... Building a house was a custom job. 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:19.639 It was artisanal. Right. You had a general contractor. 00:04:19.939 --> 00:04:22.300 He hires a carpenter. The carpenter frames a 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:24.639 wall, then measures a window, then cuts the sill. 00:04:24.939 --> 00:04:28.939 It's slow. It takes skill. It's expensive. Levitt 00:04:28.939 --> 00:04:31.360 fired the artisan. He didn't want carpenters. 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:33.860 He wanted assemblers. He looked at Henry Ford's 00:04:33.860 --> 00:04:35.819 assembly line, and he immediately understood 00:04:35.819 --> 00:04:37.759 the problem with applying it to housing. You 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:39.800 can't put a house on a conveyor belt. It's too 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:41.819 heavy. You can't move the house past the worker. 00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:44.970 So he inverted it. The house stays still and 00:04:44.970 --> 00:04:47.149 the workers move. The reverse assembly line. 00:04:47.370 --> 00:04:50.350 It's so simple, but it changed everything. I 00:04:50.350 --> 00:04:52.990 looked into this 27 steps figure that gets thrown 00:04:52.990 --> 00:04:55.350 around and it sounds like a random number until 00:04:55.350 --> 00:04:57.569 you see the breakdown. They broke the entire 00:04:57.569 --> 00:05:01.410 complex process of building a home into 27 distinct, 00:05:01.649 --> 00:05:04.389 repeatable steps. And they had distinct crews 00:05:04.389 --> 00:05:07.069 for every single one. It's wild. Think about 00:05:07.069 --> 00:05:09.699 the logistics of that. You don't have a crew 00:05:09.699 --> 00:05:12.300 of five guys building a whole house from start 00:05:12.300 --> 00:05:15.920 to finish. You have a crew of men whose only 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:19.579 job all day, every day, is to pour the concrete 00:05:19.579 --> 00:05:22.100 slab. That's it. They show up, they pour it, 00:05:22.120 --> 00:05:24.160 they smooth it, they move 60 feet to the next 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:26.540 lot and do it again. Right. They never touch 00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:28.720 a hammer. They never see a window. Then the next 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:32.120 crew comes in, the framing crew. But even that 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:34.060 was broken down. You'd have one guy whose entire 00:05:34.060 --> 00:05:36.540 job is to bolt the pre -assembled wall panel 00:05:36.540 --> 00:05:39.420 to the floor. Then he moves. Then the next guy 00:05:39.420 --> 00:05:41.839 comes and bolts the roof truss. It's the de -skilling 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:44.620 of labor, which, you know, sounds negative. But 00:05:44.620 --> 00:05:46.639 from an efficiency standpoint, it's absolute 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:49.279 genius. Of course. You aren't paying for 36 master 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:51.279 carpenters who know how to build a staircase 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:53.439 and hang a door and do crown molding. You're 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:55.819 paying for 36 guys to do one repetitive motion. 00:05:56.300 --> 00:05:58.339 perfectly and quickly they train them for one 00:05:58.339 --> 00:06:01.019 task i read one guy was called the floor joist 00:06:01.019 --> 00:06:03.620 man that's all he did exactly and you could train 00:06:03.620 --> 00:06:05.860 someone to do that in an hour so you have this 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:08.360 constant moving stream of specialized workers 00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:11.519 it's like a human conveyor belt If you stood 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:13.839 in one spot on the street, you wouldn't see a 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:16.100 house being built in the traditional sense. You'd 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:18.360 see a parade of workers moving past you, each 00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:21.660 adding one single layer to the structure. A swarm 00:06:21.660 --> 00:06:24.319 of activity. And the materials... Okay, this 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.600 part is just as revolutionary. The logistics 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:29.120 get wild here. This is Alfred Levitt's domain. 00:06:29.220 --> 00:06:31.279 He was the quieter brother, the logistics guy. 00:06:31.399 --> 00:06:34.389 Right, so... Levitt owned the supply chain, vertically 00:06:34.389 --> 00:06:37.629 integrated. He bought forests in Oregon for the 00:06:37.629 --> 00:06:40.829 timber. He had his own lumber mills. He made 00:06:40.829 --> 00:06:43.509 his own nails in his own nail factory. Which 00:06:43.509 --> 00:06:46.470 is already a huge cost savings. But the delivery 00:06:46.470 --> 00:06:48.750 system was the key. It wasn't just a big pile 00:06:48.750 --> 00:06:50.529 of wood in the middle of the construction site. 00:06:50.689 --> 00:06:53.009 No, no. They didn't dump all the lumber in a 00:06:53.009 --> 00:06:55.790 central yard and have workers fetch. That's wasted 00:06:55.790 --> 00:06:58.329 time, wasted motion. Right. I read about the 00:06:58.329 --> 00:07:00.769 drops. They had it calculated down to the inch. 00:07:00.970 --> 00:07:03.689 At precise intervals, trucks would drive down 00:07:03.689 --> 00:07:06.610 the unpaved streets and drop a prepackaged bundle 00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:09.990 of materials at each lot. A kit, basically. And 00:07:09.990 --> 00:07:12.490 that bundle contained exactly what was needed 00:07:12.490 --> 00:07:15.529 for that specific house. Not one extra nail. 00:07:15.769 --> 00:07:19.009 Not one extra board. No waste. It's just -in 00:07:19.009 --> 00:07:20.850 -time delivery before that was even a buzzword. 00:07:21.189 --> 00:07:24.889 The framers arrive, and the pre -cut wood is 00:07:24.889 --> 00:07:27.610 sitting there right where they need it. The roofers 00:07:27.610 --> 00:07:30.329 arrive. The shingles are on the ground. So there's 00:07:30.329 --> 00:07:32.949 no downtime, no walking back to the truck, no 00:07:32.949 --> 00:07:36.470 measuring and cutting on site. Zero. Every second 00:07:36.470 --> 00:07:39.050 was optimized. And because of all of this, the 00:07:39.050 --> 00:07:41.069 reverse assembly line, the specialized crews, 00:07:41.149 --> 00:07:44.220 the pre -cut materials, they... achieved this 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:47.180 almost mythical speed the one day house the one 00:07:47.180 --> 00:07:49.600 day house now obviously concrete has to dry paint 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:51.579 has to dry so you can't literally start from 00:07:51.579 --> 00:07:54.439 mud and finish in 24 hours comfortably but in 00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:56.420 terms of the actual construction the man hours 00:07:56.420 --> 00:07:57.920 when the schedule was clicking when everything 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:00.480 was slowing perfectly they were finishing 40 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:03.990 houses a day 40 A day. Do the math on that. That's 00:08:03.990 --> 00:08:06.050 a house completed every 12 minutes of the working 00:08:06.050 --> 00:08:08.730 day. Every 12 minutes. A family's home. That 00:08:08.730 --> 00:08:11.149 is absolutely staggering. I can't even, like, 00:08:11.250 --> 00:08:13.569 make a sandwich in 12 minutes. There's this incredible 00:08:13.569 --> 00:08:17.490 stop -motion photography from 1953 from the Pennsylvania 00:08:17.490 --> 00:08:19.930 development that captures this. You see the site. 00:08:20.110 --> 00:08:22.410 It's just mud in the morning. I've seen that 00:08:22.410 --> 00:08:25.350 footage. It's mesmerizing. Isn't it? The trucks 00:08:25.350 --> 00:08:28.870 swarm in like ants. The frames go up in a blank. 00:08:28.930 --> 00:08:31.410 The roof goes on. By the time the sun starts 00:08:31.410 --> 00:08:34.549 to set, there is a recognizable, livable house 00:08:34.549 --> 00:08:37.309 standing there. It looks like magic. It's the 00:08:37.309 --> 00:08:39.610 closest thing to magic that industrial capitalism 00:08:39.610 --> 00:08:42.809 can produce. And the demand, of course, matched 00:08:42.809 --> 00:08:45.690 the speed. Oh, the demand was a tidal wave. We 00:08:45.690 --> 00:08:47.590 talk about the latest iPhone dropping and people 00:08:47.590 --> 00:08:50.090 camping out. This was on another level. When 00:08:50.090 --> 00:08:52.649 sales began for the first Levittown in New York, 00:08:52.789 --> 00:08:57.330 March 1947, it wasn't just a line. It was a stampede. 00:08:57.409 --> 00:09:00.450 A frenzy. The stories are legendary. Thousands 00:09:00.450 --> 00:09:03.029 of people, mostly veterans and their wives, lined 00:09:03.029 --> 00:09:05.730 up for miles. And in the first three hours, they 00:09:05.730 --> 00:09:10.309 sold 1 ,400 houses. 1 ,400 contracts signed. 00:09:10.389 --> 00:09:12.450 That is almost eight houses sold per minute. 00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:14.700 They couldn't write the contracts fast enough. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.860 So this business model, this incredible speed, 00:09:17.940 --> 00:09:20.440 wasn't just about building. It allowed for rapid 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:23.220 cost recovery. You build fast, you sell instantly, 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:25.039 you get your cash back, and you pour it into 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:27.659 the next plot of land. It's an incredibly lucrative 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:30.779 and scalable model. It's a money printing machine. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:33.860 And this brings us to the why. Why were people 00:09:33.860 --> 00:09:36.480 literally fighting to get in line? Sure, they 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:38.460 needed homes, but they needed affordable homes. 00:09:38.620 --> 00:09:41.659 And Levittown was cheap. Incredibly cheap. The 00:09:41.659 --> 00:09:44.879 first model, the basic Cape Cod, sold for $7 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:49.919 ,900. $7 ,900. I mean, even adjusted for inflation, 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:53.000 that is a steal. But the sticker price wasn't 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:55.500 even the main attraction, was it? No. The real 00:09:55.500 --> 00:09:57.879 magic was the monthly payment. This is where 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:00.600 the government enters the chat. Big time. The 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:02.659 Veterans Administration, the VA, and the Federal 00:10:02.659 --> 00:10:05.679 Housing Administration, the FHA. Leavitt wasn't 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:07.929 just selling a house. He was selling a financial 00:10:07.929 --> 00:10:09.889 product that the government had created. The 00:10:09.889 --> 00:10:12.230 government guaranteed the mortgages for veterans 00:10:12.230 --> 00:10:15.289 under the GI Bill. Which was the game changer. 00:10:15.470 --> 00:10:18.590 For the bank, it's a no -risk loan. If the veteran 00:10:18.590 --> 00:10:21.789 defaults, the government pays. So the banks were 00:10:21.789 --> 00:10:24.370 eager to lend. And this meant zero down payment, 00:10:24.450 --> 00:10:27.049 right? Often zero down. Yeah. Maybe $100. And 00:10:27.049 --> 00:10:29.730 the interest rates were rock bottom, like 4%. 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:33.879 You do the math, and you can be sure Levitt Salesman 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:36.500 did the math for every single veteran who walked 00:10:36.500 --> 00:10:39.139 in the door. Yeah, I bet. The monthly mortgage 00:10:39.139 --> 00:10:42.440 payment for a brand new house in Levittown was 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:47.580 about $56 a month. $56. And the rent for a cramped, 00:10:47.659 --> 00:10:50.820 run -down apartment in the Bronx or Queens at 00:10:50.820 --> 00:10:53.269 the time. It was often more than that. That is 00:10:53.269 --> 00:10:55.169 the tipping point. That's the aha moment for 00:10:55.169 --> 00:10:56.909 the whole thing. It was literally cheaper to 00:10:56.909 --> 00:10:59.370 own a home than to rent one. You were saving 00:10:59.370 --> 00:11:02.090 money every month by buying a house. And you're 00:11:02.090 --> 00:11:03.990 not just saving money. You're building equity. 00:11:04.190 --> 00:11:06.490 You're building wealth. Instead of burning money 00:11:06.490 --> 00:11:09.820 on rent, you are investing in an asset. That 00:11:09.820 --> 00:11:11.659 is the engine of the American middle class right 00:11:11.659 --> 00:11:13.580 there. That is how generational wealth is created 00:11:13.580 --> 00:11:16.100 from that one simple calculation. So let's talk 00:11:16.100 --> 00:11:18.139 about what you actually got for that $700 and 00:11:18.139 --> 00:11:21.960 that $56 a month. Because if I hear mass -produced 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:24.159 house built in a day, I'm picturing, you know, 00:11:24.179 --> 00:11:26.580 a glorified shed. Right. Something that's going 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:29.080 to fall down in 10 years. But these were distinct. 00:11:29.179 --> 00:11:31.460 They had a specific look and feel. What was the 00:11:31.460 --> 00:11:33.740 house itself like? Well, they were small by modern 00:11:33.740 --> 00:11:36.379 standards, for sure. The basic model was about 00:11:36.379 --> 00:11:39.019 750 square feet. That's a two -bedroom apartment, 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:41.480 basically. Pretty much. And there was no basement. 00:11:41.659 --> 00:11:44.879 That was a huge cost saver. Levitt pioneered 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:47.980 the use of the concrete slab foundation with 00:11:47.980 --> 00:11:50.340 radiant heating. So the heating coils were embedded 00:11:50.340 --> 00:11:53.360 right in the concrete floor. Yep. Cheaper and 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:55.419 faster than digging a basement and installing 00:11:55.419 --> 00:11:58.120 a furnace. Yeah. But it sat on its own land. 00:11:58.500 --> 00:12:01.139 That was key. The little plot of America you 00:12:01.139 --> 00:12:04.759 could call your own. A 60 by 100 foot lot. And 00:12:04.759 --> 00:12:07.740 the house was a simple Cape Cod style. But here 00:12:07.740 --> 00:12:11.120 was the other brilliant marketing move. It had 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:14.360 an unfinished attic. Ah, the expandable house. 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:16.639 Exactly. The marketing was all about the future. 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:19.940 You buy this small house now, and as your family 00:12:19.940 --> 00:12:22.279 grows, you can finish the attic and add two more 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:24.340 bedrooms upstairs. So the house grows with you. 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:26.799 It's not just a starter home. It's a forever 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:30.000 home in the making. That was the pitch. But let's 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:31.980 look at what was inside the house when you bought 00:12:31.980 --> 00:12:35.230 it. Levitt knew that to sell the husband, he 00:12:35.230 --> 00:12:38.409 had to sell the price. To sell the wife, and 00:12:38.409 --> 00:12:41.269 the marketing was, let's be honest, heavily targeted 00:12:41.269 --> 00:12:43.269 at the wives. Oh, completely. The ads were all 00:12:43.269 --> 00:12:46.909 about no more wash day blues. Right. To sell 00:12:46.909 --> 00:12:49.330 the wife, he needed to offer modern convenience. 00:12:49.750 --> 00:12:51.929 The appliances. All included in the purchase 00:12:51.929 --> 00:12:54.669 price. A brand new general electric stove and 00:12:54.669 --> 00:12:58.720 oven. A refrigerator. And the crown jewel. The 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:01.279 Bendix washing machine. The automatic Bendix 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:05.220 washing machine. That's huge. In 1947, a washing 00:13:05.220 --> 00:13:08.559 machine was a serious luxury item. Most women 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:11.100 were still using ringers or going to a laundromat, 00:13:11.100 --> 00:13:13.120 having it built in. That's like buying a condo 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:15.080 today and getting a Tesla included in the garage. 00:13:15.379 --> 00:13:17.440 It was an unbelievable selling point. It was 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:18.940 turnkey living. You just bring your clothes, 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:21.320 your furniture, and you are done. The American 00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:24.299 dream delivered. Ready to use. But there's one 00:13:24.299 --> 00:13:26.419 architectural detail I really want to drill down 00:13:26.419 --> 00:13:28.960 on because I think it speaks to the huge culture 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:31.779 shift we mentioned earlier. The porch. The porch, 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:34.659 or more accurately, the lack of one. This is 00:13:34.659 --> 00:13:37.139 a subtle but really profound change in American 00:13:37.139 --> 00:13:40.159 life. Traditional homes, especially in cities 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:43.299 and small towns, often had shunt porches. Right. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:46.639 The porch was a transitional space. It was semi 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:49.480 -public, semi -private. You sat there, you watched 00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:51.399 the street, you waved to your neighbors as they 00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:53.600 walked by. It was the social hub of the block. 00:13:54.139 --> 00:13:57.120 Levittown houses didn't have porches. No. Levitt 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:59.820 cut them. Partly for cost, of course. It's extra 00:13:59.820 --> 00:14:02.539 lumber, extra labor, extra time. But it also 00:14:02.539 --> 00:14:05.360 signaled a fundamental shift in focus. From the 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:07.580 front of the house to the back. Exactly. He didn't 00:14:07.580 --> 00:14:10.159 give you a porch, but he emphasized the backyard. 00:14:10.750 --> 00:14:13.769 The patio. He put a big picture window in the 00:14:13.769 --> 00:14:15.909 front of the house, but the living space was 00:14:15.909 --> 00:14:17.929 oriented towards the rear. The private space. 00:14:18.289 --> 00:14:20.070 Right. The house turned its back on the street. 00:14:20.190 --> 00:14:23.169 The family unit turned inward. That big picture 00:14:23.169 --> 00:14:25.409 window facing front, you didn't open it to chat 00:14:25.409 --> 00:14:27.230 with a neighbor. You put your new television 00:14:27.230 --> 00:14:29.509 in front of it. That really changes the social 00:14:29.509 --> 00:14:31.529 fabric, doesn't it? It's a physical manifestation 00:14:31.529 --> 00:14:35.090 of a cultural shift. You go from sitting on the 00:14:35.090 --> 00:14:37.789 porch, chatting with everyone on the block to... 00:14:38.460 --> 00:14:41.679 Having a BBQ in the fence backyard with just 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:44.440 your family. It redefined what privacy meant. 00:14:44.659 --> 00:14:47.600 It solidified the idea of the nuclear family 00:14:47.600 --> 00:14:51.740 as this self -contained, self -sufficient island. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.879 You have your own washing machine so you don't 00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:55.840 go to the laundromat and chat with other women. 00:14:56.100 --> 00:14:58.039 You have your own yard so your kids don't go 00:14:58.039 --> 00:14:59.960 to the public park as much. You have your TV 00:14:59.960 --> 00:15:02.340 so you don't go to the local movie theater. Every 00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:05.129 one of those included amenities. while a convenience 00:15:05.129 --> 00:15:08.009 also served a tie to the public sphere. But despite 00:15:08.009 --> 00:15:10.629 that kind of architectural isolation, Levitt 00:15:10.629 --> 00:15:13.029 did build a community structure. It wasn't just 00:15:13.029 --> 00:15:15.529 a grid of houses plopped in a field. Oh, absolutely 00:15:15.529 --> 00:15:18.149 not. He was a master marketer. He understood 00:15:18.149 --> 00:15:20.690 he wasn't just selling houses. He was selling 00:15:20.690 --> 00:15:23.710 a lifestyle, a complete package. So they built 00:15:23.710 --> 00:15:26.820 the amenities into the town plan. They did. They 00:15:26.820 --> 00:15:29.019 built community centers, huge swimming pools. 00:15:29.139 --> 00:15:30.940 They called them swimming pools, not public pools, 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:34.320 which is a subtle class distinction. They built 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:37.460 parks, baseball diamonds, designated land for 00:15:37.460 --> 00:15:40.059 schools and churches. It was all pre -planned. 00:15:40.220 --> 00:15:42.679 So it was almost like a country club model for 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:45.720 the blue -collar worker. You pay your dues, which 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:48.460 is your mortgage, and you get access to the pool, 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:51.399 the park, the whole shebang. That psychological 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:55.629 draw was unbelievably powerful. It told a returning 00:15:55.629 --> 00:15:58.850 veteran, you made it. You're not a poor city 00:15:58.850 --> 00:16:02.009 kid anymore. You are a suburbanite. You have 00:16:02.009 --> 00:16:06.610 a lawn to mow. Mowing the lawn became this like 00:16:06.610 --> 00:16:09.730 sacred ritual. A symbol of having arrived. Totally. 00:16:09.789 --> 00:16:12.490 And this model was so wildly successful that 00:16:12.490 --> 00:16:14.789 it didn't just stay in New York. Levittown became 00:16:14.789 --> 00:16:17.269 a franchise. They basically created a template 00:16:17.269 --> 00:16:19.710 and then copied and pasted it. They took the 00:16:19.710 --> 00:16:21.889 show on the road. The first one in New York from 00:16:21.889 --> 00:16:24.759 47 to 51 was just the. Proof of concept. The 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:26.559 prototype. Then came Levittown, Pennsylvania 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:29.220 from 52 to 58. And that one was even bigger than 00:16:29.220 --> 00:16:31.120 the first, right? Near Philadelphia. Much bigger. 00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:33.919 And then Willingboro Township in New Jersey, 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:35.919 which was originally just called Levittown, New 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:37.440 Jersey. They had to change the name later. And 00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:39.820 they even went international. Levittown, Puerto 00:16:39.820 --> 00:16:43.820 Rico in 1963. Then they kept going. Bowie, Maryland 00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:48.860 in 64. Greenbrier, Virginia in 66. This project 00:16:48.860 --> 00:16:51.679 spanned decades, well into the 70s. It's an empire 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:54.679 built on 750 square foot boxes. An empire built 00:16:54.679 --> 00:16:57.779 on the American dream. So, OK, we have the miracle. 00:16:57.980 --> 00:17:00.059 We have the happy families, the washing machines, 00:17:00.259 --> 00:17:03.500 the swimming pools, the American dream mass produced 00:17:03.500 --> 00:17:05.859 and delivered on a flatbed truck. That sounds 00:17:05.859 --> 00:17:08.559 perfect. It sounds perfect. But and there is 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:11.579 always a massive but when something in American 00:17:11.579 --> 00:17:14.609 history looks this perfect. We have to talk about 00:17:14.609 --> 00:17:17.029 the filter, the sorting mechanism. The shadow 00:17:17.029 --> 00:17:18.950 over Levittown. And we need to be very, very 00:17:18.950 --> 00:17:20.849 clear here. This was not an accidental oversight. 00:17:21.049 --> 00:17:23.130 This wasn't, oh, we just forgot to mark it to 00:17:23.130 --> 00:17:25.910 everyone. This was a structural, legal, and violently 00:17:25.910 --> 00:17:28.230 enforced exclusion. We're talking about race. 00:17:28.329 --> 00:17:30.329 We are talking about the fact that Levittown 00:17:30.329 --> 00:17:33.309 was for whites only. Explicitly and intentionally 00:17:33.309 --> 00:17:35.990 for whites only. Levitt and Sons maintained what 00:17:35.990 --> 00:17:38.150 are called racial covenants. Let's just unpack 00:17:38.150 --> 00:17:41.569 that term for a second. Racial covenant. It sounds 00:17:41.569 --> 00:17:44.349 like something from a dusty old scroll, but it 00:17:44.349 --> 00:17:48.369 was a very modern, very powerful legal weapon. 00:17:48.589 --> 00:17:51.089 It was a clause that was written directly into 00:17:51.089 --> 00:17:53.630 the deed of the property. Right. The legal document 00:17:53.630 --> 00:17:55.470 that says you own the house and the land. And 00:17:55.470 --> 00:17:58.869 what did it say? Clause 25 of the original Levittown 00:17:58.869 --> 00:18:01.470 lease stated, and I'm paraphrasing slightly, 00:18:01.690 --> 00:18:04.890 that the property could not be used or occupied 00:18:04.890 --> 00:18:08.269 by any person other than members of the Caucasian 00:18:08.269 --> 00:18:11.119 race. So it wasn't just that William Levitt wouldn't 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:13.079 sell to you if you were black. It was that if 00:18:13.079 --> 00:18:15.359 you were black, you legally couldn't even live 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:17.220 there, even if you were renting from a white 00:18:17.220 --> 00:18:19.599 owner who wanted to rent to you. The only exception 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:22.279 written into that clause was for domestic servants. 00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:24.740 Wow. Which tells you everything you need to know 00:18:24.740 --> 00:18:26.880 about the social hierarchy they were building 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:29.660 and enforcing. You could be there to serve, but 00:18:29.660 --> 00:18:33.599 not to live. Now, here is where the host asks 00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:35.720 the obvious question part usually comes in. But 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:38.480 I did the reading on this. It is so easy to just 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:41.740 say William Levitt was a racist. And by all accounts, 00:18:41.980 --> 00:18:44.759 his views were certainly racist. He's on record 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:46.779 saying things like he had no personal prejudice, 00:18:46.980 --> 00:18:49.559 but that white people won't buy if black people 00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:51.619 live there. He framed it as a business decision. 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:54.839 Exactly. He claimed he was just following the 00:18:54.839 --> 00:18:57.839 market. My job is to build houses and sell them. 00:18:57.980 --> 00:19:00.740 But that is a complete deflection. Because the 00:19:00.740 --> 00:19:02.740 market itself was being rigged by the government. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.299 And this is the part that usually gets left out 00:19:05.299 --> 00:19:07.200 of the high school history books. This wasn't 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:09.299 just a private company's decision. This is where 00:19:09.299 --> 00:19:12.240 the FHA comes back into the story. This is the 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:15.539 FHA's smoking gun. The Federal Housing Administration. 00:19:15.819 --> 00:19:18.500 The very same agency that was insuring all these 00:19:18.500 --> 00:19:20.619 loans and making the whole thing possible. The 00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:23.680 agency making the dream affordable. Yes. They 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:26.420 had an official underwriting manual. It was the 00:19:26.420 --> 00:19:29.319 Bible for developers and lenders. And in that 00:19:29.319 --> 00:19:33.119 manual, they explicitly warned against the infiltration 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:36.599 of inharmonious racial groups. Inharmonious racial 00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:39.500 groups. That is the United States government's 00:19:39.500 --> 00:19:41.640 language. That is the official policy of the 00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:44.559 federal government. Their official stance was 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:47.859 that if a neighborhood integrated, property values 00:19:47.859 --> 00:19:51.430 would drop. They called it a risk factor. So 00:19:51.430 --> 00:19:54.069 they were redlining on a national scale. A national 00:19:54.069 --> 00:19:57.650 policy -driven scale. Therefore, to protect the 00:19:57.650 --> 00:19:59.670 government's investment, to make a neighborhood 00:19:59.670 --> 00:20:02.630 safe for a federally -backed loan, segregation 00:20:02.630 --> 00:20:05.789 was not just encouraged, it was required. So 00:20:05.789 --> 00:20:09.109 if William Levitt wanted the FHA guarantee, which 00:20:09.109 --> 00:20:11.349 he absolutely needed to sell these houses with 00:20:11.349 --> 00:20:14.089 zero down payment, he had to segregate. He had 00:20:14.089 --> 00:20:17.150 to. It was a vicious loop. The FHA demanded segregation 00:20:17.150 --> 00:20:19.930 to ensure the loan. The builder enforced segregation 00:20:19.930 --> 00:20:22.750 to get the insurance. The white veteran got the 00:20:22.750 --> 00:20:25.430 cheap government -backed loan. The black veteran, 00:20:25.529 --> 00:20:27.670 who fought in the same war, was eligible for 00:20:27.670 --> 00:20:29.630 the same GI Bill. He was completely locked out. 00:20:29.690 --> 00:20:31.769 Completely. And it's not just about not getting 00:20:31.769 --> 00:20:33.509 a nice new house with a washing machine. It's 00:20:33.509 --> 00:20:36.390 about wealth. It's about economics. We said earlier 00:20:36.390 --> 00:20:38.269 that buying these houses was cheaper than renting. 00:20:38.430 --> 00:20:41.789 That means for decades, white families were stacking 00:20:41.789 --> 00:20:44.950 up equity. They were building a nest egg that 00:20:44.950 --> 00:20:47.069 would pay for their kids' college, for their 00:20:47.069 --> 00:20:49.289 retirement, that they would pass on to the next 00:20:49.289 --> 00:20:52.190 generation. While black families were stuck renting 00:20:52.190 --> 00:20:55.309 in the city, building zero equity, often in neighborhoods 00:20:55.309 --> 00:20:57.750 that were being systematically disinvested in. 00:20:57.849 --> 00:21:00.130 And that wealth gap, the difference between the 00:21:00.130 --> 00:21:02.130 family that was allowed to buy in Levittown in 00:21:02.130 --> 00:21:06.049 1950 and the family that was denied, it doesn't 00:21:06.049 --> 00:21:10.119 just disappear. It compounds over and over across 00:21:10.119 --> 00:21:12.700 generations. That is the structural inequality 00:21:12.700 --> 00:21:15.359 we are still living with today. There was a legal 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:17.700 loophole, though, wasn't there? William Levitt 00:21:17.700 --> 00:21:20.619 refused to sell to people of color, but the covenants 00:21:20.619 --> 00:21:23.519 didn't necessarily stop a resale legally later 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:26.440 on. That's right. After a 1948 Supreme Court 00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:29.059 case, Shelley v. Kramer, these racial covenants 00:21:29.059 --> 00:21:31.420 were ruled to be unenforceable in court. But 00:21:31.420 --> 00:21:33.079 that didn't stop developers from putting them 00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:35.779 in, and it didn't stop the social pressure. The 00:21:35.779 --> 00:21:38.819 initial barrier was still absolute. But yes, 00:21:39.019 --> 00:21:41.660 the resale market was the only way in. And that 00:21:41.660 --> 00:21:45.279 loophole gets tested. In 1957, the unwritten 00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:47.539 and written rule of Levittown, Pennsylvania, 00:21:47.859 --> 00:21:51.279 got tested by a family named Myers. The Myers 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:54.480 family case. This is where the story turns. This 00:21:54.480 --> 00:21:56.599 is where the, you know, the bureaucratic violence 00:21:56.599 --> 00:21:59.519 of the FHA manual turns into actual physical 00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:01.940 violence on a suburban street. Let's set the 00:22:01.940 --> 00:22:05.119 scene. It's Levittown, Pennsylvania, 1957. A 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:08.900 nice, quiet, curving street. Deep green lane. 00:22:09.099 --> 00:22:11.480 43, deep green lane. And here comes William Myers 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:13.900 and his family. And honestly, if you were trying 00:22:13.900 --> 00:22:16.079 to cast the perfect neighbor for Levittown, it 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:18.779 was him. He was the absolute model of the person 00:22:18.779 --> 00:22:20.440 they claimed to be building these towns for. 00:22:20.579 --> 00:22:24.059 A World War II Army veteran. Check. College degree 00:22:24.059 --> 00:22:25.900 in engineering. A good job as a refrigeration 00:22:25.900 --> 00:22:28.380 engineer. His wife, Daisy, was a schoolteacher. 00:22:28.500 --> 00:22:30.519 They had three young children. I mean, they were 00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:33.119 the model American family by every single metric. 00:22:33.299 --> 00:22:35.319 Every metric but one. They were black. And because 00:22:35.319 --> 00:22:37.700 Levitt wouldn't sell to them directly, they found 00:22:37.700 --> 00:22:39.539 that loophole you mentioned. They bought the 00:22:39.539 --> 00:22:41.660 house from the original owner, a resale. And 00:22:41.660 --> 00:22:44.460 the owner who sold it to them was a Jewish man, 00:22:44.619 --> 00:22:47.960 a leftist, a progressive, who deliberately sold 00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:50.019 to them because he wanted to break the color 00:22:50.019 --> 00:22:52.400 barrier and integrate the neighborhood. So the 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:55.759 Myers family moves in, August 1957. It's supposed 00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:58.519 to be the happy ending to their story, the culmination 00:22:58.519 --> 00:23:00.700 of the American dream they were promised. They 00:23:00.700 --> 00:23:03.420 start unpacking the boxes. What happens? All 00:23:03.420 --> 00:23:05.940 hell breaks loose. And I don't mean a few dirty 00:23:05.940 --> 00:23:09.339 looks or a nasty comment. I mean a siege, a full 00:23:09.339 --> 00:23:12.400 -blown violent siege. The word spreads like wildfire, 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:14.339 right? The mailman finds out, tells a neighbor. 00:23:14.519 --> 00:23:16.900 Exactly. Within hours, a crowd gathers outside 00:23:16.900 --> 00:23:19.599 the house. Then that crowd turns into a mob. 00:23:19.779 --> 00:23:22.430 On the first night, Hundreds of people swarmed 00:23:22.430 --> 00:23:24.670 the property. I read about the rocks. The first 00:23:24.670 --> 00:23:27.349 night, stones smashed through their brand new 00:23:27.349 --> 00:23:29.230 picture window, that same picture window that 00:23:29.230 --> 00:23:31.230 was supposed to be the symbol of suburban bliss 00:23:31.230 --> 00:23:33.849 and transparency. It was shattered. The police 00:23:33.849 --> 00:23:36.349 were called, but their reaction was, let's just 00:23:36.349 --> 00:23:38.990 say, passive at best. There are numerous reports 00:23:38.990 --> 00:23:41.369 of officers just standing by, some even joking 00:23:41.369 --> 00:23:43.609 with the mob, while this family was cowering 00:23:43.609 --> 00:23:45.769 inside their new home. But it didn't stop after 00:23:45.769 --> 00:23:48.650 one night. This is the part that is so haunting. 00:23:49.339 --> 00:23:53.900 The sheer stamina of the hatred. They got organized. 00:23:53.940 --> 00:23:56.539 They formed a committee. The Levittown Betterment 00:23:56.539 --> 00:23:58.839 Committee. The Betterment Committee. That is 00:23:58.839 --> 00:24:03.019 just chillingly ironic. Their specific stated 00:24:03.019 --> 00:24:06.539 goal was to harass the Myers family until they 00:24:06.539 --> 00:24:09.640 left. To make their lives so miserable that they 00:24:09.640 --> 00:24:12.059 would sell the house and move out. And they utilized 00:24:12.059 --> 00:24:14.690 psychological warfare. It wasn't just shouting 00:24:14.690 --> 00:24:16.529 and throwing rocks. They took over a house next 00:24:16.529 --> 00:24:19.349 door or nearby. Yes, a neighbor offered up their 00:24:19.349 --> 00:24:21.809 home to be the headquarters for the harassment. 00:24:22.089 --> 00:24:24.569 The Confederate House. They called it the Confederate 00:24:24.569 --> 00:24:27.190 House. In Pennsylvania, remember, this is not 00:24:27.190 --> 00:24:29.549 the Deep South. They flew a giant Confederate 00:24:29.549 --> 00:24:32.890 flag from the roof. But the detail that is truly 00:24:32.890 --> 00:24:35.609 visceral that gets under your skin is a sound. 00:24:35.750 --> 00:24:38.089 The record player. They set up heavy audio equipment, 00:24:38.289 --> 00:24:40.509 loudspeakers, and pointed them right at the Myers' 00:24:40.630 --> 00:24:42.789 bedroom windows. And what did they play? They 00:24:42.789 --> 00:24:46.450 blasted the song Dixie on a loop 24 hours a day, 00:24:46.609 --> 00:24:50.079 day and night. Just imagine trying to put your 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:52.259 three young children to sleep while a mob of 00:24:52.259 --> 00:24:55.099 500 people is screaming racial slurs outside 00:24:55.099 --> 00:24:57.380 your window and Dixie is blaring through the 00:24:57.380 --> 00:25:00.380 walls. It's terrorism, plain and simple. It's 00:25:00.380 --> 00:25:02.980 domestic terrorism in the so -called peaceful 00:25:02.980 --> 00:25:06.160 suburbs. It is. And it revealed the incredibly 00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:08.940 ugly underbelly of that community spirit we talked 00:25:08.940 --> 00:25:11.900 about. The same neighbors who organized the carpool 00:25:11.900 --> 00:25:14.539 and the Little League were the ones organizing 00:25:14.539 --> 00:25:17.329 the mob. But. And this is so important to the 00:25:17.329 --> 00:25:19.930 story. The Myers didn't just pack up and leave 00:25:19.930 --> 00:25:22.029 immediately. And they weren't entirely alone. 00:25:22.250 --> 00:25:24.049 No, they weren't. And this is the glimmer of 00:25:24.049 --> 00:25:26.890 hope or at least resilience in the story. A counter 00:25:26.890 --> 00:25:29.450 protest, a resistance formed against the mob. 00:25:29.609 --> 00:25:32.569 A different kind of community spirit. Yes. Groups 00:25:32.569 --> 00:25:34.410 like the Quakers, the American Jewish Congress 00:25:34.410 --> 00:25:36.329 and the local William Penn Center stepped in 00:25:36.329 --> 00:25:38.309 immediately. But what could they actually do 00:25:38.309 --> 00:25:41.130 against a violent mob of hundreds? They used 00:25:41.130 --> 00:25:44.210 their bodies. They organized a 247 citizen patrol. 00:25:44.759 --> 00:25:46.480 They formed a human chain around the house. They 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:48.740 just stood there on the lawn as a buffer. That 00:25:48.740 --> 00:25:52.319 image is so powerful. A line of Quakers standing 00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:55.259 in silence, just absorbing the hate, acting as 00:25:55.259 --> 00:25:57.539 a human shield between the house and the screaming 00:25:57.539 --> 00:26:00.240 mob. And they were individual acts of incredible 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:03.900 bravery and kindness. White neighbors who defied 00:26:03.900 --> 00:26:06.339 the mob, who crossed the invisible picket line 00:26:06.339 --> 00:26:09.140 to come over and sit with Daisy Myers, who helped 00:26:09.140 --> 00:26:11.859 her clean up the broken glass. I read that some 00:26:11.859 --> 00:26:14.220 white couples volunteered to babysit the Myers 00:26:14.220 --> 00:26:16.579 children. They did. Just to give the parents 00:26:16.579 --> 00:26:18.759 a break. To show them they weren't completely 00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:21.259 surrounded by enemies. It really highlights the 00:26:21.259 --> 00:26:23.039 divide, doesn't it? It does. You have people 00:26:23.039 --> 00:26:25.240 blasting Dixie and throwing rocks. And on the 00:26:25.240 --> 00:26:27.000 same street, you have people coming over to sweep 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:29.519 up the glass and watch the kids. It was a civil 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:31.900 war played out on a single patch of Kentucky 00:26:31.900 --> 00:26:35.200 bluegrass. And the struggle gained national attention. 00:26:35.559 --> 00:26:38.579 It became a huge story. Martin Luther King Jr. 00:26:38.859 --> 00:26:41.000 met with the family and wrote to them. offering 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:44.400 his support. It became a symbol. Levittown wasn't 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:47.339 just a housing project anymore. It was a battleground 00:26:47.339 --> 00:26:50.240 for the soul of the nation. So how did it end? 00:26:50.440 --> 00:26:53.400 Did the mob win? Were they forced out? In a way, 00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:57.240 no. The Myers family stayed. They endured the 00:26:57.240 --> 00:27:00.140 harassment, the flag, the music, the threats 00:27:00.140 --> 00:27:03.980 for four years. Four years. That is an incredible, 00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:08.509 almost unimaginable level of resilience. I don't 00:27:08.509 --> 00:27:10.369 know if I could last four days under that kind 00:27:10.369 --> 00:27:13.490 of constant, unrelenting pressure. They eventually 00:27:13.490 --> 00:27:16.390 did move. But this is the crucial part of the 00:27:16.390 --> 00:27:18.529 story. It wasn't because they were forced out 00:27:18.529 --> 00:27:20.690 by the mob. Right. William got a job promotion 00:27:20.690 --> 00:27:22.890 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They moved for his 00:27:22.890 --> 00:27:25.470 career. They left on their own terms. That feels 00:27:25.470 --> 00:27:28.130 like a victory, a hard won, exhausting victory, 00:27:28.230 --> 00:27:30.470 but a victory nonetheless. It absolutely was. 00:27:30.730 --> 00:27:33.150 And their struggle wasn't in vain. The visibility 00:27:33.150 --> 00:27:36.230 of the raw racism in Levittown, the ugliness 00:27:36.230 --> 00:27:38.650 of it being broadcast to the entire nation, it 00:27:38.650 --> 00:27:40.869 put a crack in the facade of the happy, homogenous 00:27:40.869 --> 00:27:42.769 suburbs. It showed what was holding it all together. 00:27:42.950 --> 00:27:45.170 Exactly. And it helped build the political will 00:27:45.170 --> 00:27:47.269 for new legislation. It was one of the many, 00:27:47.349 --> 00:27:49.190 many struggles that helped lead to the eventual 00:27:49.190 --> 00:27:52.410 passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, which 00:27:52.410 --> 00:27:54.750 finally outlawed racial discrimination in housing. 00:27:55.150 --> 00:27:57.789 So the Myers family, just by trying to live their 00:27:57.789 --> 00:28:00.309 lives by refusing to be intimidated, helped change 00:28:00.309 --> 00:28:02.930 the law for everyone. They exposed the lie. They 00:28:02.930 --> 00:28:05.769 exposed the fact that the peaceful suburbs were 00:28:05.769 --> 00:28:07.950 maintained by violence and the threat of violence. 00:28:08.230 --> 00:28:10.509 So let's zoom out. We have covered a ton of ground 00:28:10.509 --> 00:28:12.809 here. We've got the assembly line houses, cheap 00:28:12.809 --> 00:28:15.369 mortgages, swimming pools and the mobs with their 00:28:15.369 --> 00:28:18.609 record players. When we look back at Levittown 00:28:18.609 --> 00:28:21.700 today. What is the final verdict? What's the 00:28:21.700 --> 00:28:24.700 legacy? It's so complicated, isn't it? It's a 00:28:24.700 --> 00:28:26.940 true duality. You cannot deny the innovation. 00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:30.299 Levittown was a genuine feat of mass production 00:28:30.299 --> 00:28:33.460 that housed thousands and thousands of veterans 00:28:33.460 --> 00:28:36.200 for a fraction of the cost. It created the modern 00:28:36.200 --> 00:28:39.059 suburb. It made the dream of homeownership a 00:28:39.059 --> 00:28:42.059 reality for a huge segment of the working class 00:28:42.059 --> 00:28:44.440 for the first time. It absolutely did. It proved 00:28:44.440 --> 00:28:46.500 that the working class could own property, could 00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:49.000 build equity. could have that patch of grass. 00:28:49.240 --> 00:28:51.839 But it also proved how ruthlessly effective that 00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:55.759 same system could be at exclusion. Exactly. That 00:28:55.759 --> 00:28:59.700 progress came at a steep, steep social cost. 00:29:00.099 --> 00:29:04.400 It solidified segregation not as a leftover of 00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:08.440 the past, but as a brand new modern government 00:29:08.440 --> 00:29:11.460 backed feature of the future. It used the power 00:29:11.460 --> 00:29:13.900 of the federal government to create these white 00:29:13.900 --> 00:29:16.519 enclaves that locked black families out of that 00:29:16.519 --> 00:29:18.619 wealth building machine for decades. And we are 00:29:18.619 --> 00:29:21.279 still undoing that damage. The neighborhoods 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:23.519 don't just magically integrate the day the law 00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:25.799 changes. The wealth gap doesn't just disappear. 00:29:26.059 --> 00:29:28.940 No. The patterns that were established in 1947 00:29:28.940 --> 00:29:31.720 in that potato field are still visible in the 00:29:31.720 --> 00:29:33.839 demographics and the wealth distribution of our 00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:36.059 suburbs today. The ghost of that machine is still 00:29:36.059 --> 00:29:38.599 with us. It's a lot to process. We really did 00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:40.759 start with white picket fences and end with the 00:29:40.759 --> 00:29:42.980 Fair Housing Act. That's history for you. It's 00:29:42.980 --> 00:29:45.269 rarely just one thing. It's usually a miracle 00:29:45.269 --> 00:29:47.410 and a tragedy all wrapped up in the same package. 00:29:47.589 --> 00:29:49.589 Before we go, we always like to leave you with 00:29:49.589 --> 00:29:51.630 something to chew on. A little food for thought 00:29:51.630 --> 00:29:53.529 to take with you on your commute or while you're 00:29:53.529 --> 00:29:55.710 doing the dishes. We talked a lot about efficiency 00:29:55.710 --> 00:29:58.690 today. The 27 steps the house built in 12 minutes. 00:29:58.769 --> 00:30:01.269 The removal of the porch to save time and money. 00:30:01.390 --> 00:30:03.650 Right. Efficiency is the American God. We love 00:30:03.650 --> 00:30:06.549 it. Faster, cheaper, better. It's our default 00:30:06.549 --> 00:30:09.549 mode. Go. But the provocative thought is this. 00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:13.319 When we design systems for maximum speed and 00:30:13.319 --> 00:30:17.559 minimum cost, like that 27 -step house, who or 00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:20.779 what gets left out of the blueprint, efficiency 00:30:20.779 --> 00:30:25.220 almost always requires standardization. And standardization, 00:30:25.220 --> 00:30:27.380 by its very nature, usually rejects anything 00:30:27.380 --> 00:30:31.119 or anyone that is considered different or inharmonious. 00:30:31.180 --> 00:30:33.759 It smooths out the inconvenient parts. It sands 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:35.839 them down. So the question is, what is the hidden 00:30:35.839 --> 00:30:38.720 cost of our obsession with efficiency? Who pays 00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:40.829 the price for that speed? And think about that 00:30:40.829 --> 00:30:42.730 physical structure again, the porch versus the 00:30:42.730 --> 00:30:45.809 patio. Yes. Next time you drive or walk through 00:30:45.809 --> 00:30:47.910 a neighborhood, any neighborhood, look at the 00:30:47.910 --> 00:30:49.670 architecture. Is it built to face the street? 00:30:49.950 --> 00:30:51.789 Does it have spaces that invite interaction? 00:30:52.230 --> 00:30:54.750 Or is it built to turn inward to create a fortress 00:30:54.750 --> 00:30:57.089 of privacy? Did we build communities or did we 00:30:57.089 --> 00:30:59.269 just build clusters of beautiful, comfortable 00:30:59.269 --> 00:31:02.329 isolation? And what did we lose as a society 00:31:02.329 --> 00:31:04.690 when we traded the front porch for the backyard 00:31:04.690 --> 00:31:08.420 fence? What conversations never happened? That 00:31:08.420 --> 00:31:10.380 is definitely going to keep me thinking next 00:31:10.380 --> 00:31:12.839 time I'm driving home. I might even wave to my 00:31:12.839 --> 00:31:16.380 neighbor. You should. You never know. Thank you 00:31:16.380 --> 00:31:18.680 for listening to this deep dive into Levittown. 00:31:18.740 --> 00:31:20.519 If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend. 00:31:20.599 --> 00:31:21.819 We'll catch you on the next one.