The Color of Law A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (z-lib.org).epub

The Veterans Administration subsidized the “Sunkist Gardens” development in
Southeast Los Angeles in 1950, for white veterans only.
The FHA’s involvement was so pervasive that full-time government
inspectors were stationed at the construction sites where Levittown and
similar projects were being built. As William Levitt testified before
Congress in 1957, “We are 100 percent dependent on Government.”
In 1960, a New Jersey court concluded that Levitt’s project in that state
was so dependent on the FHA that it was “publicly assisted housing” and
that it therefore could not refuse to sell to African Americans under New
Jersey law. The court opinion included a detailed description of the
numerous ways in which the FHA directed the project’s design, construction,
and financing, as well as Levitt’s acknowledgment of his dependence on
government involvement. The case had no national consequences because
the order to sell to African Americans was based on New Jersey, not federal,
law.
Although Levittown came to symbolize postwar suburbanization,
Levittown was neither the first nor the only such development financed by
the FHA and VA for white families. Metropolitan areas nationwide were
suburbanized by this government policy. The first was Oak Forest, built in