What do you think about the proposed name for the proposed town owned Country Club park district? This is one man’s take. Feel free to share your perspective.
What We Name Things Matters by Michael Miller for Anton News
“The Levitts were wrong. They didn’t need the race clauses to sell their houses. In 1963, two weeks before Dr. King gave his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial, there was Bill Levitt, Spokesman of the Industry, in headlines across America defending the right of builders to refuse to sell to African-Americans where segregated neighborhoods were the custom. He considered Long Island to be one of those places, and Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, where Levittowns II, III and IV went up, amid picket lines and state government lawsuits. There’s no clear evidence that Bill Levitt was personally bigoted. He made it clear that it was strictly business, which probably makes it all worse.
Levitt & Sons finally adopted an open-housing policy in April 1968, five days after Dr. King’s assassination.
It wasn’t Bill Levitt’s job to enlighten a population or broaden people’s minds. The Levitts made houses. It was the people who lived in those houses who made communities. The park’s name should reflect that.”