APPENDIX A

Comparative data on FHA-insured operations in 4 States-2 with fair housing practice laws and 2 without such laws

Commissioner GRISWOLD. Mr. Bernhard.

Mr. BERNHARD. I would like at this time to call Mr. Paul P. Cooke, national vice president of the American Veterans Committee, and W. B. Reynolds of Webb & Knapp to come to the witness stand so that we can question all of the witnesses together.

Commissioner GRISWOLD. Mr. Cooke and Mr. Reynolds, will you please stand so that you can be sworn? Will you please raise your right hands? Do you and each of you swear that the evidence which you will give at this hearing will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. COOKE. I do.

Mr. REYNOLDS. Yes.

Commissioner GRISWOLD. Thank you.

Mr. BERNHARD. Mr. Cooke.

TESTIMONY OF PAUL P. COOKE, NATIONAL VICE CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN VETERANS COMMITTEE

Mr. COOKE. Gentlemen, I am national vice chairman of the American Veterans Committee. My name is Paul Cooke. I'm also acting dean of the District of Columbia Teachers College, the public institution in this city for higher education, and a professor of English. I am privileged to bring to the attention of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission this statement of AVC on the subject of racial limitations on housing. The American Veterans Committee, at its last convention in New York, reaffirmed in its statement of principles the following clause:

AVC supports the active intervention of Government, primarily of the Federal Government, in the economy and general welfare of our country to stimulate and provide employment, to improve the physical conditions of our cities and towns, of our housing and our schools, to bring all the greatest benefits from the development and conservation of our natural and industrial resources, and to provide for the general welfare and health of our people.

This reference to housing is of specific interest to the Commission. From our platform on government and liberty, the Nation's freedom, Bill of Rights, we have the following plank:

We urge the enactment of Federal, State, and local legislation to prevent discrimination, whether through segregation or otherwise, because of race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, or old age, and also the denial of equal opportunity in housing by legislation aimed at cutting off Government aid at all levels to builders practicing racial or religious discrimination.

On the local level our chapters have followed this interest up in Washington, D.C., in urging the local newspapers to end the practice of placing race in real estate ads, especially the sale of housing. We have supported Neighbors, which is a group which will come before your Commission to explain what it has done to maintain housing inte

gration in the Northwest area of this city. So, this is both a national and local interest of the American Veterans Committee.

This morning I would like to direct the attention of the Commission especially to suburban housing and, as a symbol or representative of suburban housing, particularly large development housing, Levittown in Belair, Md. That's approximately 9 miles from the District line. Bowie, Md., by Levitt, is a large development which eventually may have as many as 20,000 people and at the present time has about 900 homes occupied. Here is a statement by a Negro:

My name is Edmund Millard.

I live in Washington, D.C., but have been concerned with buying a home in the suburbs. Accordingly, I visited the new Belair, Md., development of Levitt on Wednesday, June 28, 1961. I talked with a salesman about a home. I looked through model homes and looked at floor plans. I found a home that I liked. The salesman said, "These homes are being sold to whites only." The salesman said that he could not sell to colored people. He said he could not sell to me. The sales manager joined us also to say that they "don't sell to Negroes."

This was June 1961. Now, here, March 20, 1962, is another Negro:

My name is Joseph Edwards. I live at 940 Westminster Street NW., Washington, D.C., and have for some time been interested in buying a home. I have looked at houses within the city and recently decided that I might buy in the suburbs. On March 19, 1962, I went to the Levittown development in Belair, Md., and looked for homes for sale there. In the sales office a salesman asked me what house I was interested in. I indicated the type of home to him. He then said, "There's one problem. At the present time we don't sell houses to colored." I asked him why Levitt didn't sell houses to colored people and would not sell to me.

This is Mr. Edwards—

He said that in the present market Levitt "could not afford to sell to Negroes when other developers were not doing so."

Now, I, myself, was present at this and serve as a witness to this statement. My own statement is included in the testimony presented to the Commission. I heard the salesman. I witnessed the conversation, and I questioned him, too. I asked him why he felt this competition was so unfair that he could not, as a large developer, have it opened up, as Mr. Barringer said, in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania and in New York, why he couldn't open up in Maryland. This was a salesman, though, and he could not answer that question, because this is a policy question. I asked the salesman whether Levitt would sell to an African or Asian diplomat. He said that they would have to make a decision in this individual case, not on the basis of color or texture of the skin of the person. Incidentally, this is a little different answer from what they gave in June of 1961, but it is still not to say whether Levitt would sell to an Asian or African diplomat, but it is quite clear that he will not sell to an American Negro.

When this incident took place last year, the American Veterans Committee directed to the President of the United States his attention to this matter. We called to his attention that here are 4,000

homes being built in the metropolitan area from which Negroes will be excluded. This is often referred to as the white noose around the black core, with Negroes heavily in the center of the city and the white noose of suburban America around this core. The President of the United States did not answer, but from the White House we have an answer from his Presidential assistant, Mr. Harris Wofford, who discussed this matter with us in July, with the national chairman, Mr. Murray Gross, of the American Veterans Committee; with me; our executive director, Mr. J. R. Feldman. Mr. Wofford was of the opinion that an order would come out in 1961, but as the Commission is well aware, no such order barring the Federal assistance to these large developments has come out in 1961, nor yet in 1962. Copies of that correspondence and the testimony are in the written statement presented to the Commission. We have directed this matter to the attention of HHFA Director, Mr. Robert Weaver. I think Mr. Weaver's answer is very important. Although he could not, he believed, himself, issue an order from his agency banning the Federal assistance to these developers who discriminate on account of race, he did make several observations.

These observations are in the statement. I would like to repeat them: (1) That he concludes that the fact that individual buyers in the Levittown area receive FHA aid-although Levitt, himself, may not receive direct Federal assistance, the fact that the individual buyers receive assistance-is evidence of Federal aid to this project. This is an important thing because you, in your excerpts, and in your housing statement last year, have an important recommendation. The recommendation of the Commission is-and this appears on page 74 of your report, from excerpts:

That the President direct FHA and VA, on a nationwide basis, to take appropriate steps to assure that builders and developers will not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, or creed in the sale or lease of housing built with the aid of FHA mortgage insurance or VA loan guarantees

Now, what does this mean? What does it mean to the Commission? Does the Commission mean, for example, that if this aid goes to individual home buyers that that is Federal assistance or must this aid go only to the developer? The American Veterans Committee urges on the Commission to take the interpretation, since it is not spelled out-it is blurred in the excerpts and in the report-to take the position that if any Federal assistance going to the home buyer or to the developer is available and that developer discriminates on account of race then that aid should not be provided the developer.

We're asking you, if you agree with our interpretation, to make the language clear. If you don't agree with our interpretation— at least if this doesn't-we hope that at the end of this session you will take the position that any sort of aid, whether aid goes to the indi

vidual home buyer or goes to the developer, is Federal assistance and should not be provided to a developer who discriminates on account of race. There are other aspects of this, too. Mr. Barringer has emphasized the need for State legislation. We agree. Our letters here to Governor Tawes, in our testimony, point out that this matter has been formally brought to his attention, that Levittown refuses to sell to Negroes. I stop for a moment to say that I believe there's no doubt that Levitt refuses. We have a letter from your Staff Director, Mr. Bernhard, in which he refers to our allegation. I believe it is no longer an allegation. I would hope the Commission in its investigation would substantiate this and establish as fact that Levitt refuses to sell to Negroes. But back to the point of Governor Tawes: It seems to me that, strongly, the legislatures of these States must be called on for the legislation like that of New Jersey and New York that would bar any sort of aid within the State, whether it be for roads or schools or sewers or anything that makes it possible for a developer to turn out a large number of homes of this sort, to deny him this assistance so long as he refuses to sell to people on account of their race.

Incidentally, I would like to establish, before ending, the quality or the ability of these people to pay. One of the persons who applied, professor of medicine, the School of Medicine at Howard University,

says:

I visited the Levitt subdivision, Belair, and was told that I would not be allowed to purchase a home in this development. I was told that these homes would be sold for white occupancy only.

This is Bernice Brown, School of Medicine, Department of Psychology, Howard University.

Here is a teacher at the local junior high school:

I visited the Levitt housing development in Bowie, Md. I looked for a house for quite some time. Upon reading an advertisement in the Washington Post, I decided that this development would suit my needs perfectly. I looked at each model home and decided upon one that I qualified for and would like to purchase. At the office I was told that I could not make application since this development was restricted to white only.

This is a public school teacher, a man whose wife, incidentally, is a psychiatrist at Freedmen's Hospital.

Here is another one-the School of Medicine, Department of Neurology and Psychiatry at Howard University-and I know you are well aware that one of the Commission members is a dean of the School of Law at Howard University. It would be interesting were he to try and to be turned down solely on account of his race.

Here is a medical doctor at Howard University by the name of Eva Rose Towns:

I visited the Levitt's project called Belair and was refused the opportunity to purchase a home in this subdivision. I was told this was to be a strictly white community.