Banyard Disputes Concerns Over Collaboration with Openly Racist Levitt Corporation: A Letter to The Rev. Carter, on June 18, 1958

Rt. Rev. Alfred L. Banyard
(photo by J. Pruszinski of portrait at Diocese of New Jersey, Trenton, NJ)
& the Rev. Junius F. Carter, Jr.
(Detail of "NAACP Million Dollar Campaign" (2021). B. L. Hooks Papers images. 648.)

As protests over the proposed diocesan collaboration with the racist Levitt corporation began to grow, and the racist policies were reported in the national press,[1] Bishop Banyard responded to a letter of concern[2] from the Rev. Junius F. Carter, Jr. of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Elizabeth to dispute the legitimacy of the concerns.

Firstly, in his greeting Banyard uses Carter’s first name with no honorific, unlike in the letter on the same subject[3] he had just written to a younger White priest he addressed as “Father Ralph.” Without preamble he delves straight into the matter at hand.

Banyard repeats the same arguments he had already rehearsed in that correspondence with the Rev. Ralph Lasher, “countless others who have written me,”[4] and apparently to the Rev. Kenneth MacDonald and Mr. J. Arthur Jones at a Board of Missions meeting the previous week. He claims that the policy of the diocese is only to have integrated churches, implying that any church built would thus inherently be integrated (ignoring the possibility of de facto segregation). In re-stating that the Levitt policy conflicts with state laws, he also suggests that the policy would not be possible to enforce, and was thus moot. And he further states that he will establish the church “if it is at all possible to administer to our people on an integrated basis.”

He goes on to suggest that because it has been difficult to garner support for the project across the diocese, that he believes that racial concerns will only be used as an excuse for non-cooperation by “recalcitrants.” He claims to be “just as indignant about segregation as… anyone else” but pointedly singles out “the colored” for the segregation he believes they practice themselves. He claims that he did not previously bring up this issue even though it “annoyed” him, but that now he brings it up in order to argue against what he claims is “an organized campaign… to oppose the establishment of a church in Levittown.” He asks that Carter “do something about that.”

He ends with further assurances that he cares about the issue and that Carter does “not need to worry about the stand of our Diocese of New Jersey and of your Bishop.” However, Banyard ultimately chose to cooperate with the Levitt corporation in spite of their policy of racial discrimination against Black people, worked to marginalize and de-legitimize protests against the collaboration, and denigrated those who had questioned the propriety of the partnership. In fact, contrary to his promise, he chose to establish the church even though the community it served was not integrated. The full letter to Carter[5] is presented below.

Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.

Reparations Commission Research Historian

Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

 

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[1] E.g. in Tom Barrett, “N.J. Levittown Started; Negro Exclusion Stands,” New York Herald Tribune, June 8, 1958.

[2] “Junius F. Carter, Jr. to Alfred L. Banyard,” June 16, 1958. MSS held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, NJ. See also Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski "St. Augustine’s, Elizabeth hesitant to Fund Building a Segregated White Church in Levittown: A Letter from The Rev. Junius F. Carter, Jr. to Bishop Banyard, June 16, 1958," DNJRJR (August 3, 2026): https://dionj-racialjusticereview.blogspot.com/2026/08/st-augustines-elizabeth-hesitant-to.html. 

[3] “Alfred L. Banyard to Ralph C. Lasher,” June 16, 1958. MSS held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, NJ. See also Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, "Banyard’s Intent to Build a Church for the Segregated Levitt Co. Development, and Contempt for Concerned Black Leaders: A Letter to the Rev. Lasher, June 16, 1958," DNJRJR (July 21, 2026): https://dionj-racialjusticereview.blogspot.com/2026/07/banyards-intent-to-build-church-for.html. 

[4] This is likely a significant exaggeration.

[5] “Alfred L. Banyard to Junius F. Carter, Jr.,” June 18, 1958. Courtesy of the Diocese of New Jersey. MSS held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, NJ.

St. Augustine’s, Elizabeth hesitant to Fund Building a Segregated White Church in Levittown: A Letter from The Rev. Junius F. Carter, Jr. to Bishop Banyard, June 16, 1958

The Rev. Junius F. Carter, Jr. 
(Detail from "NAACP Million Dollar Campaign" (2021). Benjamin Lawson Hooks Papers images. 648.)

As reporting on the segregation policy of the Levitt Corporation became more widely known,[1] members of Black Episcopal Churches in the Diocese began to raise serious concerns about Bishop Banyard’s planned collaboration[2] with Levitt for a new Episcopal Church in Levittown, NJ. Among them was the leadership of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Elizabeth, including the Rev. Junius F. Carter, Jr.[3] The Rev. Carter wrote to Banyard on June 16, 1958, noting recent press coverage of Levitt’s anti-Black policy, and expressing his and his congregation’s concerns over the issue. He specifically states that the church might find it hard to justify participating in the funding of what he says “would undoubtedly be a segregated church” for an overtly all-white development. Carter assumes that the diocese “cannot help but take a stand against this kind of flagrant and deliberate discrimination.” Banyard would respond,[4] seeking to allay Carter’s concerns, but would not in fact ultimately “take a stand against this kind of… discrimination.” The letter shows that the leadership of the diocese were well aware of the problems with the Levitt scheme. Carter’s letter[5] is presented in full below, along with the newspaper article[6] he forwarded to Banyard.

 

Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.

Reparations Commission Research Historian

Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

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[1] E.g. Tom Barrett, “N.J. Levittown Started; Negro Exclusion Stands,” New York Herald Tribune, June 8, 1958. Reporting also appeared in the New York Times.

[2] Including Banyard’s staff soliciting a donation of land from Levitt, and the announced plan to fund the building of what would be, at least de facto, an exclusively white church through a pressure campaign on all the churches (including the Black churches) of the Diocese to donate. See Gerald R. Minchin, “Presentation of Mission Program to the Diocesan Convention,” in The Journal of the 172^nd Annual Convention of the Church in the Diocese of New Jersey Held in the Crypt of Trinity Cathedral, Trenton, Tuesday and Wednesday May 8^th and 9^th, 1956; 146.

[3] Carter was a highly respected priest in the diocese and later went on to become the first Black priest made a Canon of the Cathedral. See Laurence Fish, “Honorary Canons,” first published June 2, 2009; republished at https://dioceseofnj.org/archives/articles/2009lfcanons/.

[4] “Alfred L. Banyard to Junius F. Carter, Jr.” June 18, 1958. MSS held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, NJ. CITE DNJRJR ARTICLE.

[5] “Junius F. Carter, Jr. to Alfred L. Banyard,” June 16, 1958. Courtesy of the Diocese of New Jersey. MSS held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, NJ.

[6] Barrett, “N.J. Levittown Started.” Courtesy of the Diocese of New Jersey. MSS held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, NJ.