Pickets Demand Home Sales to African Americans: 1963
Two boys watch picketers outside of the sales office of the Levittown Belair subdivision in Bowie, Md. August 10, 1963 demanding that segregation in housing be ended.
The group staged an all night sit-in, but within a week an injunction against picketing was granted against protests on the private streets of the subdivision. Picketers moved out on to Maryland Route 450.
The picketing led by the Prince George’s County Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) chapter went on and off for several months and resulted in several dozen arrests when the group employed civil disobedience.
Levitt remained steadfast in his segregation stance despite the successful battle to integrate some of his other developments in New Jersey.
The development was eventually desegregated when original homeowners began to sell homes to African Americans and the federal government began enforcing no discrimination on FHA and VA loans and the federal 1968 Civil Rights Act was enacted. In the interim, Maryland voters rejected an open housing law by referendum in 1967.
For more information and additional images, see flic.kr/s/aHsk4S6zrA
Photo by Owen Duvall. Courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Pickets Demand Home Sales to African Americans: 1963
Two boys watch picketers outside of the sales office of the Levittown Belair subdivision in Bowie, Md. August 10, 1963 demanding that segregation in housing be ended.
The group staged an all night sit-in, but within a week an injunction against picketing was granted against protests on the private streets of the subdivision. Picketers moved out on to Maryland Route 450.
The picketing led by the Prince George’s County Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) chapter went on and off for several months and resulted in several dozen arrests when the group employed civil disobedience.
Levitt remained steadfast in his segregation stance despite the successful battle to integrate some of his other developments in New Jersey.
The development was eventually desegregated when original homeowners began to sell homes to African Americans and the federal government began enforcing no discrimination on FHA and VA loans and the federal 1968 Civil Rights Act was enacted. In the interim, Maryland voters rejected an open housing law by referendum in 1967.
For more information and additional images, see flic.kr/s/aHsk4S6zrA
Photo by Owen Duvall. Courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.