Checkerboard Neighborhood

Abstract

In 1957, local newspaper the Princeton Packet announced plans to develop integrated housing in Princeton and West Windsor Townships, New Jersey. These developments and the events surrounding them illustrate the racial and class implications of integration in the 1950s. Decisions made about the occupancy of these developments highlight decisions that would lead to an affluent suburb by 1970 that was decreasingly affordable and accessible to middle- and low-income African Americans and whites.