On a stretch of Manhattan's lower East Side once ridden with slums, the clean, monotonously similar buildings of Stuyvesant Town stand as a symbol of housing progress. They are also a symbol of the North's brand of Jim Crow.
Negroes have been barred from the 8,700-apartment development since it was built by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. with some generous financial help from New York City (the city condemned the property so that Metropolitan could buy it easily, exempted the company from real-estate taxes on the new buildings for 25 years). Three Negro veterans, denied apartments, went to court. They argued that the city itself was encouraging racial discrimination.
Last week, New York State's highest court, by a 4-10-3 vote, upheld Metropolitan's Jim Crow policy. The Negroes' next stop: the U.S. Supreme Court.