Levitt Discrimination Case Hits Federal Court

    PRESS RELEASE ® 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
107 WEST 43 STREET 

ARTHUR B. SPINGARN 
President 

WALTER WHITE 
Secretary 

NEW YORK 36, N. Y. JUdson 6-8397 

THURGOOD MARSHALL 
Director and Counsel 

ROBERT L. CARTER 
Assistant Counsel 

ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS ARNOLD DE MILLE 
Treasurer Press Relations 

January 13, 1955 

LEVITT DISCRIMINATION CASE HITS FEDERAL COURT 

PHILADELPHIA, Jan, 13.--The long-awaited discrimination suit 

against Levitt & Sons, Inc., the world's largest builders of private 

homes, reached the Federal District Court today. 

The legal action against the builders and developers of Levittown, 

Pa., and Levittown, Long Island, was brought in a complaint filed with 

the U, S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania by attorneys for NAACP 

Legal Defense in behalf of six Negro veterans who were denied the right 

to buy homes in the new Bucks County, Pa., community developed by Levitt. 

The legal action seeks an injunction restraining the firm of Levitt 

& Sons, Inc,, from discriminating against Negroes in the sales of homes 

in the Pennsylvania community as log as he uses the credit, guarantee, 

insurance, approval and assistance of the Federal Government, 

Levitt, throughout the years, has consistently refused to sell to 

Negro families in any of his projects. He has resisted pressure from 

every source and once indicated that he would never allow a Negro te 

buy a home in the newly developed Bucks County community. 

Three of the Negro veterans in whose behalf the suit is brought 

tried to purchase homes in the Levitt's Bucks County development as 

early as 1951 when he opened his first model home and the others as 

late as June of 195k. 

When the Levitt's Bucks County community is completed, it will 

consist cf 16,000 small homes which will be sold to individual purcha- 

sers, The mortgages on these homes are either insured by the FHA or 

guaranteed by the Veterans Administration, 

The suit against Levitt also seeks an injunction restraining 

Levitt from refusing to sell to Negroes on the ground that Levittown, 

Pa., is, in reality, a town and Levitt!s policy of barring a person be- 

cause of race or color is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and 

the statutes of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 



bs e @ 
S2e 

In the complaint, the attorneys state further that since Levitt has 

a monopoly on all new construction in Levittown, he is serving the pub- 

lic in the same manner as a public utility and should not be allowed to 

continue his anti-Negro policy and practices, 

Filed at the same time and with the complaint against Levitt, is 

another suit which asks the court to restrain the agents of FHA mortgage 

insured housing developments in Philadelphia from discriminating against 

Negroes. 

This action was brought by Legal Defense attorneys in behalf of J, 

Ralph Pearson, his wife and other Negroes who have been refused apart- 

ments in FHA mortgage insured developments, The Pearsons were refused 

an apartment in the Olney Gardens project at Chew and Wister Streets by 

the renting agents. 

In the complaint, the attorneys ask that all mortgage insured 

housing developments in the City of Philadelphia be restrained from bar- 

ring a person because of race or color. 

Named in the suit with the agents of the Olney Gardens are Norman 

P, Mason, commissioner of the FHA and William A. Kelly, director of the 

Philadelphia Insuring Office of the FHA, 

The action against Levitt followed two years of negotiations with 

FHA officials and Housing and Home Finance Agency officials in Washingtor 

in an attempt to get the FHA to establish a non-discrimination require- 

ment in FHA developments of this kind, 

Named in the suit with Levitt are the commissioner of the FHA; the 

director of tho Philadelphia Insuring Office of FHA; Harvey V, Higley, 

Administrator of Veterans Affairs, and Charles E, Engard, Director of 

the Loan Guarantee Soction of the Philadelphia Regional Office of the VA, 

The two cases represent the first court action in the East te open 

to Negro occupancy in FHA mortgage insured sales housing developments 

and FHA rental devolopments, which comprise 90% of all new construction 

in the Philadelphia area, 

Attorneys for the Negroes in both cases are Thurgood Marshall, 

director-counsel of Legal Defense, Mrs. Constance Baker Motley, Legal 

Defense associate counsel, Walter A, Gay, Jr., member of the Legal Re- 

dress Committee of the Philadelphia NAACP Branch, and David E, Pinsky 

of Philadelphia. 

-30- 



alas 

CONSULTANTS TO AID DESEGREGATION PROGRAMS 

NOTE: RELEASE DATE: January 17, 1955 o.m. 

NEW YORK.--In an effort to assist Southern states in the chango 

over from sogregated to non-segregated schools, NAACP Legal Defense and 

Educational Fund has established a new Social Science Department, 

Thurgood Marshall, Director-Counsel of Legal Defense announced today. 

The new Department, Mr. Marshall said, will make available to edu- 

cators, school officials and civic organizations, findings and materials 

of social science which will aid desegregation programs, 

The new Department is made possible by an $8,000.00 grant from the 

Prince Hall Masons, Mr. Marshall disclosed, The Masons, during the 

past three years, have contributed more than $6,000.00 to underwrite 

legal research which was an important factor in the preparation of tho 

cases presented before the Supreme Court, he said, 

The work of the Social Science Department will be guided by a Com- 

mittee of Consultants consisting of many of the nation's leading social 

scientists, and headed by Dr. Alfred McClung Leo, Chairman, Sociology 

Department, Brooklyn College, Mr. Marshall added, 

Serving with Prof. Lee on the Committce of Consultants which will 

direct the Department, are 43 sociologists, anthropologists, economists, 

historians, theologians, and educators on the faculties and staffs of 

28 universities, colleges, research institutions and governmental com- 

missions, Located in 18 states and tho District of Columbia, the social 

scientists' panel includes men and women working in such southern states 

as Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, as well as 

border states like Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and 

Pennsylvania where in some areas segregated public school still persists, 

Mr. Marshall stated that Legal Defense's former field secretary, 

June Shagaloff, has been appointed executive secretary of the Social 

Science Department, 

The findings of some of the social scientists on the panel were 

cited by Chicf Justice Earl Warren in reading the Court's unanimous 

opinion outlawing segregation in public and elementary schools, the 

Director-Counsel of Legal Defense asserted, "Many of these social scion- 

tists have also assisted NAACP attorneys in recent years by testifying 

to the affects of segregation on the development of Negro and white 

children, in court arguments and the preparation of the briefs for the 

Supreme Court arguments," 



ane 

"During the initial period of school desegregation last fall, mem- 

bers of the social scientists committee served as observers in areas 

where disturbances developed including White Sulphur Spring, West 

Virginia; Milford, Delaware; Baltimore and Washington," Mr, Marshall said. 

"It is our hope that long-standing prejudices, misconceptions and 

fears can be overcome," Mr, Marshall and Professor Lee in a joint state- 

ment said, "Through understanding work with the positive elements to 

be found among the Negro and white populations of cvery community, North 

and South, great gains can be made," 

"A groat victory for human rights has been won in the court," they 

declared, "We hope tht the broad implications of the Supreme Court!s 

ruling can be realized throughout our land through mutual understanding 

among people, and without recourse to the courts. When necessary, legal 

action will continue to be taken, but the new Department of Social 

Science, under the direction of the Committee of Consultants, will pro- 

vide us with tools to assure the rights of Negro children through 

cooperative efforts." 

Members of the Committee of Consultants are: 

James Luther Adams, Meadville Theological School 
Gordon W. Allport, Harvard University 
Herbert Blumer, University of California 
Samuel W. Blizzard, Union Theological Seminary 
Isadore Chein, New York University 
Martin P, Chworowsky, University of Pemsylvania 
Carroll D. Clark, University of Kansas 
Kenneth B, Clark, City College of New York 
Stuart W, Cook, Head, Graduate Psychology Department, New York 

University 
Bingham Dai, Duke University 
John A, Davis, City College of New York 
John P. Dean, Cornell University 
Dan W. Dodson, Research Center for Human Relations, New York Univorsity 
Winston W. Ehrmann, University of Florida, Gainesville 
Mabel A, Elliott, Chairman, Department of Sociology, Pennsylvania 

College for Women 
E. Franklin Frazier, Head, Department of Sociology, Howard University 
Else Frenkel-Brunswik, University of California 
Noel P, Gist, University of Missouri 
Earl G, Harrison, Former Dean, University of Pennsylvania Law School 
Floyd N. House, University of Virginia 
Louisa Howe, Berkeley, California 
Charles S$, Johnson, President, Fisk University z 
Kenneth D, Johnson, Dean, New York School of Social Work, Columbia 

University 
John J. Kane, Department of Sociology, Notre Dame University 
Alfred H. Kelly, Wayne University 
Eugene P, Link, Chairman, Department of Social Science, University of 

the State of New York, Platz 
Ernest Manheim, Kansas City University 
Robert Merton, Columbia University 
J. Kenneth Morland, Chairman, Department of Economics and Sociology, 

Randolph-Macon Women's College 
Gardner Murphy, Director of Research, Menninger Foundation 
Theodore M. Newcomb, University of Michigan 
Frederick B, Parker, Chairman, Department of Sociology, University of 

Delaware 



Pi 

Robert Redfield, Chairman, Department of Anthropology, University of 

Ira de A, Reid, Haverford College 
Harry W. Roberts, Head, Department of Sociology, Virginia State College 
Arnold M, Rose, iversity of Minnesota 
S. Stansfeld Sargent, Columbia University 
George Schermer, Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations 
Charles H, Thompson, Dean, Graduate School, Howard University 
Whitney M, Young, Jr., Dean, School of Social Work, Atlanta University 
Carolyn Zeleny, Wilson College 

= 30 = 

CONNECTICUT HOUSING BIAS IN SUPREME COURT 

HARTFORD, CONN.--The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors was asked 

ast week to reverse a lower court's decision which denied a Nogro 

couple the right to take possession of 2 lot in West Haven, Conn, 

The couple Mr. & Mrs. William Harris of New Haven, Conn., bought 

the contract rights of Peter Horbick, white, who had entered into a 

written contract with the owners of the lot, Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Clinton 

also of New Haven, 

Clinton, a real estate operator, had sold the lot on contract to 

Horbick, a stone mason, in the ordinary course of business and using 

the usual form of agreement. Horbick had planned to build a house of 

stone on the lot but later changed his mind. He was buying the lot on 

the installment plan and had asked and gotten permission of the Clintons 

to sell his interest, However, when Horbick advised Clinton he was 

selling to a Negro couple, Clinton objected and refused to relinquish 

the title to the lot to the Negro couple, although the balance of the 

contracted amount was offered. 

The Negro couple brought suit against tho Clintons, but the court 

upheld the action of the white owners on the ground that they proved to 

the satisfaction of the jury that they had an oral agreement with 

Horbick prohibiting him from selling his interest to anyone without 

first securing their consent and approval, 

On appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors in 1952 the 

lower court's opinion was reversed and sent back to the first court 

for a new trial. 

In taking the case back to the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, 

Ralph Lockwood of Bridgeport and Mrs, Constance Baker Motley of NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund staff, attorneys for the Harris’, 

charged that the lower court was in error in handing down an opinion 

which denicd the Harris! the right to acquire title to the property. 



The judgment of the lower court violates the Harris! constitu- 

tional right, the attorneys declared, because the refusal on the part 

of the Clintons to relinquish the title of the property was based 

solely on the fact that the Harris' are Negroes. 

-30-