Morris Milgram

Morris Milgram (May 29, 1916 – June 22, 1997) was an American real estate developer, civil rights activist, and writer. Milgram built integrated housing for over 20,000 people in several states and the District of Columbia between the 1940s and the 1960s. Milgram was a pioneer in the construction of integrated housing prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which banned racial segregation in real estate. Notable integrated developments built by Milgram include Greenbelt Knoll in Philadelphia and Concord Park in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Milgram developed the first integrated apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland, as well as integrated apartments in Washington, D.C. for diplomats at the request of President John F. Kennedy. Milgram also built housing in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia.

Early life Milgram was born in New York City in 1916. His parents were poor Orthodox Jewish refugees who had fled persecution in Czarist Russia and worked as garment workers on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His father was a peddler. His parents imbued him with socialist principles as a child, which informed his later activism. As a young man, Milgram attended the City College of New York, and was expelled in 1934 for organizing protests against Italian fascism. In 1939, he graduated from Dana College in Newark, New Jersey.

As WDL secretary, Milgram attended the 1942 funeral of Odell Waller following his execution by the Commonwealth of Virginia. He was the only white person in attendance, as other white people had been asked not to attend. According to one reporter, "[the black community] did not want 'Odell Waller's murderers' to look on his face in death".

During the 1940s, Milgram and his wife Grace often invited African-American friends and activists to the apartment they shared in Washington, D.C. Southern army officials living nearby took offense to this and convinced Milgram's landlord, who was also Jewish, to evict the couple. The eviction attracted the attention of the African-American press and the Anti-Defamation League.

Between 1952 and 1957, Milgram developed the integrated Greenbelt Knoll neighborhood of Philadelphia. In order to promote his goal of integration, Milgram required that 45% of all homes in the neighborhood be sold to non-whites and 55% to whites.

In 1962, Milgram was asked by President John F. Kennedy to purchase all-white apartments in Washington, D.C. and convert them into integrated apartments to ensure that diplomats of all races would have access to housing. The integration of the apartments occurred without controversy.

Death and legacy Milgram died on June 22, 1997, at the age of 81 at the Attleboro Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania maintains an archive of Morris Milgram's papers from 1923 to 1994.