‘50s Lakewood lacked diversity

D.J. Waldie, in his paean to Lakewood and the nostalgia of the ‘50s suburban fantasy (“Finding Humility and a Kind of Paradise,” April 24), left out one particularly ugly fact regarding the dark side of that fantasy: Minorities were not permitted to purchase homes in Lakewood until the mid- to late ‘60s. Developers engaged in a deliberate, systemic policy of racial exclusion. He says, “My neighborhood in 1950 was the place where the suburban stories of L.A. were first mass-produced. They were stories then for displaced Okies and Arkies, Jews who knew the pain of exclusion, Catholics who thought they did and anyone white with a steady job.” I reiterate: “

W. Salaya

Long Beach