Samuel Snipes, lawyer for 1st blacks in Levittown, dies

MORRISVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A lawyer who held off an angry mob while representing the first black family to move into the all-white development of Levittown, Pennsylvania, has died. Samuel Snipes was 99.

His family says Snipes died Dec. 31 at his family farm in Morrisville, Pennsylvania.

In 1957, Snipes represented Daisy and Bill Myers when the black couple quietly moved into Levittown.

Weeks of harassment, public protest and death threats followed their move. At one point, Snipes held off a mob of enraged white people until police arrived. The governor eventually ordered in state police.

The Myers family stood their ground, remaining in the home until 1961.

Snipes, who was white, was a Quaker activist and a conscientious objector during World War II. He later worked as a township solicitor and historian.