Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
An evergreen tree dedicated to local civil rights icon Daisy Myers, the first black woman to live in a Levitt-built home, toppled this week due to high winds and rain.
The tree, which sat outside the Bristol Township Municipal Building on Bath Road, was dedicated several years ago to honor Meyers and her fight against racism in Levittown.
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According to Council President Craig Bowen, the township has been busy this week analyzing all of the trees that went down in the township and getting the most information possible about the tree dedicated to Myers. Bowen noted that Township Manager Bill McCauley inquired with a tree specialist to see if the historical evergreen could be saved and it “most likely cannot”.
Bowen told LevittownNow.com that the township will “most likely” be replacing the tree since it “has such a historical significance to not only the township but also the country”.
Both Bowen and the manager have also stressed interest in researching who attended Myers’ original tree dedication and inviting any that are still around so they can be present at the new dedication, which does not yet have a date.
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Myers has been recounted in history as the matriarch of Levittown’s first black family. Her family’s August 1957 arrival to Levittown created waves of retaliation, including cross burnings, death threats and racial epithets, as noted in a 2011 article in the Trentonian.
While Levittown’s developer William Levitt insisted that he had no racial prejudice, no black family had gained access to their own slice of the American dream until the Myers moved into a house on Deepgreen Lane in the Dogwood Hollow section of Bristol Township.
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The Myers soon faced so much racial prejudice that they needed help from state police troopers and state Attorney General Thomas McBride before leaving the area in 1961 for York County.
Despite the Myers leaving, Levittown remained an integral part of the civil rights conversation.
A tree, as an apology for the pain and suffering faced by the Myers family and in honor of their role in trailblazing civil rights, was dedicated in 1999 by former Bristol Township Mayor Sam Fenton.
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“Daisy Myers was a civil rights pioneer. She exhibited strength in difficult times, Daisy was a good person to know. I was only 2 when she and her family moved here. I could never fathom what she and her family went through but, man, I was proud to have known her,” Fenton has said.
“My mom didn’t hold onto stuff, didn’t hold a grudge. And as far as the Rosa Parks comparison, mom just found herself in a situation and did what was best for our family,” said Linda Myers, who was three months old during the time. “My mom remained humble but I can say that she appreciated being recognized by Mayor Fenton and Bristol Township. She felt honored that people understood her struggle.”
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Daisy Myers passed away in 2011 at the age of 86.
