A Tale of Two Cities: Stories of Race, Place, and Lead Contamination in Trenton, New Jersey and Levittown, Pennsylvania, 1950-1960

by Gabriella Zalot

Site Description:

“Trenton makes, the world takes.” Although this reference to Trenton’s successful, industrial history remains emblazoned across the Lower Trenton Bridge, the current reality in New Jersey’s capital is much bleaker than its bustling past. Trenton is facing an environmental health crisis by way of elevated levels of lead in its soil. Caused by both abandoned industrial sites and the use of lead paint, the levels of lead in Trenton’s soil are much higher than the levels in surrounding communities. This project will specifically examine the history and causes of health disparities between Trenton and Levittown, Pennsylvania, a suburban, racially restrictive town only a ten minute trip from Trenton by way of the Lower Trenton Bridge. How did Levittown’s construction and the racist policies that surrounded it during the 1950s change the demographic and economic realities in Trenton? How and why, despite houses in both Trenton and Levittown being built prior to the passage of legislation regulating the use of lead paint, has removal and surveillance of lead been treated so much differently in these communities? Not only does this project seek to uncover the forces at play in 1950s Trenton, but it serves to illustrate America’s bigger problem of disparate responses to similar problems in minority versus white communities.



Author Biography:

Gabriella Zalot is an undergraduate student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, working towards her degree in Law, Technology, and Culture. She grew up in the quintessential suburb of Levittown, Pennsylvania and is interested in the correlation between race, place, and inequality. As a Levittown native and daughter of a Trenton Public School teacher whose school is built on lead contaminated soil, she was drawn to the often overlooked connection between these two particular communities.

Final Report:

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Primary Sources:

Title: Crisis in Levittown, Pa; directed by Lester Becker and Lee R. Bobker; released January 31, 1957

Link:https://www.c-span.org/video/?478354-1/crisis-levittown-pa

Location: C-Span American History TV

Description: This source, a short documentary full of interviews, will highlight the attitudes of Levittown residents towards African Americans and further emphasize the racially exclusionary practices of the town. A large part of my argument, the impact of redlining practices, remains front and center in these interviews as many residents cite the deterioration of property value as a central reason they are wary of African American families moving into the neighborhood. 

 

Title: RENT Housing Profiles: Trenton Housing Profile; Written by Maulin Mehta, Zoe Baldwin, Ellis Calvin, Amy Cunniff, and Leah Robinson; Published January 2023

Link:https://rpa.org/work/reports/trenton-new-jersey-renter-empowerment-and-neighborhood-tools-nj-rent#demographics

Location: Rental Plan Association Reports

Description: This report, released by the Regional Plan Association, has a section specifically dedicated to the type of housing available in Trenton, noting that 51 percent of Trenton’s housing is occupied by renters, the median income of these renters is about half that of the home owning residents, and the fact that 86.8 percent of Trenton’s housing stock was built before 1970. While there are other supporting statistics in this document, these in particular are pivotal for underscoring the relevance of the argument that residents in Trenton are highly affected by the lead based paint in their homes because the majority are living in old, rented properties overseen by landlords that do not take the necessary steps to keep their tenants safe. This document will be used in conjunction with others that highlight the role of the Trenton landlords in these situations. 

 

Title: Lead in Trenton Schools is Old News and a Problem that Needs Serious Action; Written by L.A. Parker for the Trentonian; published February 4, 2024

Link:https://www.trentonian.com/2024/02/08/lead-in-trenton-schools-is-old-news-and-a-problem-that-needs-serious-action-l-a-parker-colmn/

Location: Trentonian website

Description: This Trentonian article gives a voice to community action group Isles who asserts that children are poisoned by lead through paint dust 80 percent of the time and underscores the notion that much of the damage is being done in rental properties that are rarely ever screened for lead. Taken in conjunction with my source on the makeup of Trenton’s housing stock and the sheer lack of news stories describing any lead related problems in Levittown, this source’s characterization of lead in Trenton as “old news” is useful to my argument that despite Trenton’s clear struggle with lead, not much has been done to stop it from affecting future generations of residents. 

 

Title: Plans to Halt Jim Crow in Federal Housing Aired; Edited by James A. Hamlet Jr. at the Plaindealer of Kansas City, Kansas (Associated Negro Press News); Published on January 29, 1954

Link:https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/apps/readex/doc?p=EANX&docref=image/v2%3A12ACD7C7734164EC%40EANX-12C8B5FEFB8AC858%402434772-12C8B5FF09AA80A8%400-12C8B5FF37F418C0%40Ike%2BOpposed%2Bto%2BBias%2Bin%2BU.%2BS.%2BHousing%2BPlans%2Bto%2BHalt%2BJim%2BCrow%2Bin%2BFederal%2BHousing%2BAired

Location: Newsbank Readex database 

Description: This newspaper article describes a meeting between President Eisenhower and members of the NAACP, where main points of contention were the exclusion of African Americans from Levittown and the ways in which this discrimination not only fueled shortages of housing and job opportunities for African Americans, but was also heavily subsidized by the Federal Government. Along with my newspaper source detailing the negative connection between Levittown and Trenton, this source strengthens my argument that the federally subsidized loan practices fueling Levittown’s growth created economic and housing problems that would harm minority groups in Trenton and ultimately lead the two communities to be treated quite differently down the line in regards to their environmental status. 

 

Title: Neighbor’s Boom Worries Trenton, Trenton’s Negroes Short on Housing, U.S. Steel Blamed For Discrimination, ‘Perfect Planning’ At Levittown, Pa. (all four articles published together to discuss the effects of the development of Levittown on Trenton); Written by Luther P. Jackson, Published January 24, 1954

Location: Newark Public Library Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center

Analysis: This series of four articles, published in 1954 by journalist and civil rights advocate Luther P. Jackson, discusses the impact that the Fairless Hills Steel Mill and the construction of Levittown had on residents of Trenton, especially those who were Black. The first of these articles notes the economic impact that the new steel mill, along with the new development, will have on Trenton, noting the loss of many residents as a main point of concern. Jackson then asserts in the next article that the discriminatory practices of the Levittown community will contribute to Trenton’s shortage of housing for its Black residents. Although it is noted that Black Trentonians make enough to afford their own housing, the lack of viable options has caused a shortage and problem throughout the city. The next article illustrates the complicity of the Federal Government in creating the exclusionary Levittown community, while also pointing to U.S. steel as a source of discrimination. Finally, Jackson ends his discussion by including the voices of Levittown residents, with some accepting the racial homogeneity of the community and others, especially the Quakers, rejecting it. Although touted as a model suburb, Levittown, Pennsylvania was founded and federally funded on racist ideals that further exacerbated both the economic struggles and Black housing crisis in nearby Trenton. 

The federal funding of this project is primarily discussed by Jackson in the third article when he asserts that between the two, the FHA and VA “have underwritten 98 per cent of the homes at the ‘all white’ Levittown, Pa”, even quoting a spokesperson from the FHA who announced that they “were not empowered to withhold insurance from any builder as long as his investment [was] economically sound”. Comparatively, he notes in the second article that the FHA was only in the works of funding a paltry 325 units for minorities in the area, highlighting their disinterest in pouring as much money into the housing of these communities. Additionally, Jackson stresses the negative economic impact that Levittown had on Trenton when he states that “Trenton [had] absorbed many of Bucks County’s headaches without sharing in its prosperity”. According to Jackson, a central reason that Trenton was so negatively impacted was the shift of 1,482 registered voters from Mercer County to Bucks county. Despite the exodus of white residents to Levittown, Trenton was left to grapple with already crowded Black neighborhoods. As asserted by City Counsel Louis Josephson, “the shortage [was] so acute that in one house in South Trenton Negroes [were] ‘sleeping in closets’”. With white tenants moving out of the city into federally funded Levittown and Black residents being left behind in crowded, unkempt sections of the city, Trenton’s problems only became more prominent with the construction of “perfectly planned” Levittown. 

Secondary Sources:

Harris, Dianne, ed. Second Suburb: Levittown, Pennsylvania. Pittsburg, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010. J.ctt83jhq9.2 

This source is a book that combines a section of personal essays, a chapter of photographs, and a section of chapters providing historical analysis and background about the development of Levittown, Pa. Not only does this source provide background information on the construction and makeup of Levittown, but it has a specific chapter that details the struggles of integration within the town. This chapter will be of the utmost importance as I describe why Black residents of Trenton could not follow their White counterparts into the Pennsylvania suburb. It also links the ways that the Federal Government, through programs like the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC)  and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), originally subsidized developments like Levittown, New York and supported their racial covenants. Even as these racial barriers were deemed unconstitutional in the case Shelley v. Kraemer, the Levitts continued to market their communities as open to Whites only. Detailing the racial policies of the Levitt’s and the ensuing racial unrest in the community, this chapter will allow me to make the connection between Levittown’s staggering whiteness and minority Trentonians’ inability to move across the river, to a town that would eventually be much less affected by lead contamination. Compared to my other sources regarding the connection between Levittown and the Federal Government, this source provides a much more specific look into the makeup and ideals held by Levittown and its developers. 

 

Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass frontier : the suburbanization of the United States. New York City, NY: Oxford University Press, 1985. https://primo.njit.edu/permalink/01NJIT_INST/dcbe8h/alma995290778205196

As a whole, this book examines the rise of the suburbs, from the home of the elites, to the proving ground of middle class status. While the book as a whole provides useful background information that can be used to contextualize the rise of Levittown, my focus with this source will be to analyze the chapter that explains how Federal programs worked, especially as they refer to redlining. The practice of redlining, established through the HOLC practice of predicting where loans would be stable, often labeled minority districts as being risky and undeveloped and therefore marked with the Fourth Grade red marking. As these mapping techniques gained traction, FHA programs adopted them, pulling middle class residents out of cities and placing them in more attractive suburbs. This background knowledge of these programs and the development of suburbs overall will add to my discussion of Trenton’s inability to keep hold of its middle class residents and Levittown’s ability to lure them across the river. 

 

Karp, Robert J. “Redlining and Lead Poisoning: Causes and Consequences.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 34, no. 1 (02, 2023): 431-446. doi:https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2023.0028. https://login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fredlining-lead-poisoning-causes-consequences%2Fdocview%2F2811705259%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D13626.

This source is a journal article that links practices of redlining to increased levels of lead contamination. According to the article, low-income children of color were at much greater risk of inflated lead levels. While the causes of lead in redlined neighborhoods were set in motion before the redlining maps were created, the lack of prevention and clean up in these undervalued communities is what now leads children in these communities to have higher blood lead levels. I will use this source in my discussion of lead contamination that is much more prevalent in Trenton than Levittown today. Although the causes of lead contamination, like the use of lead based paint and the neglected remnants of industrial plants, were present in Trenton before the HOLC maps or Levittown’s construction, the lack of care and resources poured back into the undervalued Trenton community has led to a greater rate of lead contamination today. In addition to the connection between redlining and lead contamination, this piece also describes different policies that have been enacted over the years to try to remedy the presence of lead. If the right policies were implemented in these highly affected areas, it seems that many more lives could have been saved. The discussion of policy can be used to describe why Trenton has struggled with the problem of lead and what can possibly be done in the future to mitigate this issue.

 

Kumar, Nitish., and Amrit Kumar. Jha, eds. Lead Toxicity: Challenges and Solution. 1st ed. 2023. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2023..https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37327-5 

This source is a book that examines both the effects and possible remedies of lead pollution. When discussing the effects of lead, the book reveals that lead can cause developmental delays, learning difficulties, hyperactivity, irritability, and seizures in children. Additionally, lead exposure can make adults experience headaches, memory loss, confusion, fatigue, and depression. This book also describes the sources of lead exposure which include contaminated soil, household dust, drinking water, and lead-glazed pottery. I will utilize this section to emphasize why lead exposure in Trenton is so dangerous and significant. In order to explain why this research is worthwhile, I will need to describe the terrible health effects that are associated with environmental lead exposure. Additionally, I will focus on the way that lead induced cognitive impairment in children can lead to poor performance in school, a key factor involved in the cycle of poverty. This cycle of poverty is a key element discussed in the connection between redlined neighborhoods and lead exposure, an important piece of my overall argument. 

 

Raum, John O. History of the City of Trenton, New Jersey: Embracing a Period of Nearly Two Hundred Years. Trenton, NJ: W.T. Nicholson & Co., Printers, 1871. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t56d6ht7s

This is a book that covers the history of Trenton, NJ from 1676 to 1871. It highlights the development of the city from its founding, noting the great industrial potential of the community. Walking through the early history of Trenton, the book examines the community’s first government, the ways that the population of Trenton changed over time, the city’s religious and cultural institutions, and the main sources of industry. This source will set the background for my analysis of Trenton’s changing demographic and economic fortunes. Acknowledging the early history of the city and the ways in which industry shaped its development will allow me to have solid grounding of what Trenton was known for prior to deindustrialization and ensuing demographic shifts. While the development of Levittown is more contemporary, the history of Trenton is necessary to be able to make comparisons of how the city was perceived before and after the population changes seen with the construction of neighboring suburbs like Levittown. Additionally, this book covers the incorporation of multiple pottery companies, an industry whose lead contamination continues to be a problem in Trenton’s soil. Identifying the specific companies that contaminated the city will be a key aspect of examining the ways that lead affects Trenton residents today. 



Image Analysis:

Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. Crowd protests African-American family from moving into Levittown (1957). Temple Digital Collections. Temple University. Accessed 2024. https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p15037coll3/id/4481. 

Although many residents of Levittown, Pennsylvania, both past and present, have attempted to block out the horrific, racist events of 1957 when the Myers, the first African American family, moved into Dogwood Hollow, photographs like the one above have kept the true history alive. Retrieved from the Temple University Special Collections Research Center, this picture was first published by the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in 1957, with the title, Crowd Protests African-American Family From Moving Into Levittown (1).The image depicts James Newell, executive director of the Levittown Betterment Committee, towering above the rest of the crowd with a paper megaphone in hand (2). This agglomeration of men, women, and children have gathered on Haines Road, across from the Dogwood section of Levittown, in an attempt to “discuss” their next steps in protest of the Myers’ moving in.

Levittown, Trenton’s point of comparison in this project, was a pivotal factor in altering Trenton’s economic prospects and racial makeup, primarily because Levittown offered federally backed mortgages to White Americans, like James Newell, while excluding Black families like the Myers. As discussed in more detail elsewhere, Trenton’s housing stock for minority tenants was quite inadequate and only exacerbated by nearby Levittown’s racial housing policies (3). Overall, this image illustrates the fact that Levittown residents not only viewed the presence of Black families as a threat to their traditional, homogenous way of life, but also believed that through protests their concerns would be heard and the “correct” order of things would be restored. 

One of the key indicators that these Levittown residents believed that they would successfully dispel the Myers family without much pushback, is the abundance of smiles throughout the crowd. The figures in the photograph appear to be happy and confident, seemingly not worried about the potential for any police force being used. One man sporting glasses, with his head facing directly towards the camera, is one of the most striking examples of a comfortable and positive demeanor. With the viewer’s eye drawn to the man quickly after examining the focal point, James Newell, his smile and relaxed posture suggest that he is at ease and pleased with how the event has been progressing. The woman standing to his right, also facing the camera, adds to this perception of positive energy with her noticeable grin. Typically, protesters are characterized as those who angrily oppose the system, fighting vigorously to make change. However, in this instance the protesters themselves appear to be quite unfazed, as if they know that with a little resistance, the homogenous, traditional order will be reestablished. 

Another aspect of the photo that adds to the seeming confidence of the protesters is the presence of children. Although strewn throughout the sea of people, one child, resting on their father’s shoulder, draws the viewer’s eye right below the towering Newell. The presence of this child, along with others throughout the crowd, suggests that the parents in attendance feel that a racist protest, intended to move a Black family out of their neighborhood, is not only a safe place for the children, but morally appropriate for them as well. Presumably, if the parents felt threatened they would not bring their children to attend the protest, highlighting their sense of safety at the event. Additionally, the parents most likely felt that the racist ideals being acted on in this photograph were at worst benign, and at best important lessons to teach their children. This ostensible sense that what they are protesting for is morally right, should be passed down, and will not be opposed by much force, illustrates the culture of Levittown at the time and the values that had been instilled through the Levitts’ racially restrictive housing policies. 

Finally, the homogenous nature of the group portrayed in the photograph emphasizes the culture of conformity and the great uniformity that Levittown is known for. Most importantly, everyone pictured is white, emphasizing the racial nature of the issue. They are also dressed similarly, with many wearing plain white shirts. Many of the men are also seen sporting similar clean cut hairstyles. There is also a lack of women in the crowd, with only a few seen throughout the entire frame. This dearth of female participants suggests that many of the women may still have been at home, adhering to the rigid duties that women were responsible for as a part of the traditional nuclear family. Although the traditional Levittown family in many sense, with a working father and a handful of children, the Myers family did not quite fit into this mold that is exhibited in the picture, simply because they were black. Despite their comfort in the legitimacy of their beliefs, this group of Levittowners was seemingly threatened by the presence of a family who could potentially tarnish the homogenous makeup of their community.

The racial exclusion in the Levittown community in the 1950s and 60s, as illustrated by this image, was a key factor in the deteriorating condition of cross river neighbor, Trenton. With the housing of African Americans already becoming a problem in Trenton, the construction of a well-made suburb across the bridge seemed to be a beacon of hope. However, the racially restrictive policies implemented by the Levitts and backed by Federal Housing Authority (FHA) loans and the mapping procedures of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), only exacerbated the problem (4). This photograph of Levittowners protesting the arrival of the first black family, full of smiling faces and children in tow, illustrates how widely accepted this racial exclusion was at the time. 

Not confined to just the stories of Levittown and Trenton, the percentage of Americans who lived in suburban communities, like Levittown, grew from a mere 19.5% in 1940, to 30.7% in 1960 (5). In conjunction with the inability for minority families to move into these communities due to a reliance on redlining maps and discriminatory loan practices, they continued to be restricted to crowded, often environmentally compromised, cities. Sadly, this trend was not confined to the 1950s and 60s, and instead has a longstanding legacy. This legacy of unequal housing stock and quality continues today, where in places like Trenton, subpar housing, often occupied by renters and controlled by inattentive landlords, has an elevated likelihood of containing untreated toxic substances like lead paint (6). Despite also being built prior to the regulation of lead paint, more financially stable, white communities like Levittown are less likely to experience such environmental hazards. While these environmental inequalities are not directly caused by housing policies and racist sentiments of the past, the systems that these programs and attitudes produced perpetuate disparate environmental outcomes today.

Footnotes:

  1. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Crowd Protests African-American Family from Moving into Levittown (1957), Temple Digital Collections (Temple University), accessed 2024, https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p15037coll3/id/4481
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer, “Civil Rights Standoff in Levittown,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 16, 1957, https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/local/20090803_Civil-rights_standoff_in_Levittown.html#loaded.
  3. Accessed at the Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center at the Newark Public Library: Luther P. Jackson, “Trenton’s Negroes Short on Housing,” January 24, 1954
  4. Accessed at the Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center at the Newark Public Library: Luther P. Jackson, “U.S. Steel Blamed for Discrimination,” January 24, 1954.
  5. Joseph L. Locke and Ben Wright, eds., “The Affluent Society,” essay, in The American Yawp (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019), 288–313, 291.
  6. L.A. Parker, “Lead in Trenton Schools Is Old News and a Problem That Needs Serious Action,” The Trentonian, February 8, 2024,https://www.trentonian.com/2024/02/08/lead-in-trenton-schools-is-old-news-and-a-problem-that-needs-serious-action-l-a-parker-colmn/.



Data Analysis:

City Boundaries of Trenton, NJ

City Boundaries of Levittown, PA

United States Environmental Protection Agency. 2023 version. EJScreen. Retrieved: March 16, 2024, from www.epa.gov/ejscreen

Trenton, New Jersey and Levittown, Pennsylvania, two communities separated only by a ten minute car ride, are the subjects of this environmental data analysis. When utilizing the EJScreen database, both sites have been bound by their city boundaries. I have decided to use these boundaries as I will be comparing the cities as a whole, not only looking at a certain sector of the city or the effects of a singular toxic waste site. Instead, I will be analyzing the prevalence of lead throughout both communities, comparing both the amount of homes constructed before 1960 and the number of children who have actually been affected by elevated blood lead levels.

While Trenton and Levittown may seem to be quite removed from each other, separated by the Delaware River, the construction of Levittown in the 1950s altered the trajectory of Trenton, both economically and demographically (1). This led to minority communities being confined within Trenton city limits, unable to purchase homes in the newly constructed suburban Levittown. Today this pattern persists, with Levittown being composed of majority white home owners and Trenton being composed of majority minority home renters. Although EJScreen shows that both Levittown and Trenton have housing stocks that are highly contaminated by lead paint, the differences in demographics, home ownership status, and elevated levels of childhood lead contamination, suggest that minority communities with low levels of homeownership, like Trenton, struggle with complications from lead exposure more often than similarly situated white homeowning communities like Levittown. 

Examining the EJScreen lead paint measure, defined as the “percent of housing units built before 1960, as [an] indicator of potential exposure to lead paint”(2), Levittown is found to be in the 91st percentile nationally. Trenton on the other hand, is found to be in the 88th percentile nationally. Both cities are significantly above the national average in terms of housing built prior to 1960 and therefore residents run the risk of being contaminated by the lead. Despite Levittown ranking even higher than Trenton in terms of potential lead paint exposure, the number of children who have been found to have elevated blood lead levels (EBLL), with levels greater than or equal to 5 μg/dL, is much higher in Trenton. According to the Childhood Lead Exposure in New Jersey 2019 Annual Report, 5.9 percent of children under 6 in Trenton registered EBLLs (3). Comparatively, when the same measures were examined in Levittown by the 2014 Childhood Lead Surveillance Annual Report (2014 used because it is the most recent report to specify lead numbers by city), only 2.16 percent of children in Levittown were found to have EBLLs (4). While the numbers are clearly disparate but not staggeringly different, it is also notable that children up to 16 years old were tested in Levittown, while only those up to 6 years old were tested in Trenton. Although not certain, with the nature of lead consumption among children, it would be reasonable to hypothesize that Trenton’s levels may be even higher if they included older children who had more possible years to consume the lead. 

In addition to the environmental data gleaned from the EJScreen site, there are also stark socioeconomic differences between the two communities. For instance, Levittown’s population is only 14 percent low income and 19 percent people of color, while 53 percent of Trenton’s population is low income and 87 percent people of color. Although this data is recent, collected many decades after the construction of Levittown in 1952, it reflects the racially restrictive housing policies that kept Levittown predominantly white and confined minority communities to urban areas like Trenton. Additionally, the EJScreen data reveals that while 87 percent of Levittown homes are owner occupied, only 38 percent of Trenton homes are. This discrepancy is also pivotal, as rented homes have a higher likelihood of exposing people to elevated lead levels, as landlords often do not complete required testing and maintenance meant to keep residents safe. 

Taken together, this data suggests that people of color, in rented homes, are being disproportionately affected by lead exposure. Despite Levittown’s housing being even more prone to lead exposure, with it ranking in a higher national percentile, the problems associated with lead paint manifest much more frequently in Trenton. Not only does there seem to be a correlation between lower homeownership and higher levels of lead exposure, but also a link between elevated levels of poverty and minority populations, as Trenton outpaces Levittown in all three of these categories. Although not directly caused by the construction of Levittown, the elevated number of minorities and low income populations within Trenton can be traced back to the racist systems that were used and imposed by both the Federal Government as a whole and the Levitt brothers specifically. With redlining and loan procedures forcing minorities into cramped, subpar housing in the 1950s, it only makes sense that these same communities would continue to struggle with issues, like lead contamination, that are associated with their housing arrangements and the system that perpetuates it. 

Overall, marginalized communities often face harsh environmental and health realities more frequently than white communities. Despite having similar housing stocks, Trenton’s lead problem, as displayed by childhood lead reports, is much more acute than Levittown’s. Redlining and the racial division of housing has been linked, in studies like Robert Karp’s, with worse lead related outcomes (5). This notion that minority communities bear a heavier environmental burden is not only seen in cases of lead like this, but are also apparent in the placement of toxic waste facilities. The 1984 Cerrell Report, funded by California tax payer dollars, revealed that businesses should target low income, rural, or minority areas for toxic facilities as they were deemed to have less economic and political power to fight back (6). Although a separate issue from the lead exposure seen in Trenton, the idea remains true that less affluent, minority communities are disproportionately affected by environmental risk factors and are less likely to receive the help and attention that they deserve. 

Footnotes:

  1. Accessed at the Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center at the Newark Public Library: Luther P. Jackson, “Trenton’s Negroes Short on Housing,” January 24, 1954.
  2. Environmental Protection Agency, “EJScreen Map Descriptions,” EPA, January 3, 2024, https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen/ejscreen-map-descriptions#poll.
  3. New Jersey Department of Health, “Childhood Lead Exposure in New Jersey Annual Report” (Trenton, New Jersey, 2019), 19.
  4. Pennsylvania Department of Health, “Childhood Lead Surveillance Annual Report,” 2014, 47.
  5. Robert J. Karp, “Redlining and Lead Poisoning: Causes and Consequences,” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 34, no. 1 (February 2023): 431–46, https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2023.0028.
  6. Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, “We Speak for Ourselves: The Struggle of Kettleman City,” essay, in From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2000), 1–9, 3.

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