Sundown town
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sundown towns were (and, in some cases, are) towns and cities in the United States where non-whites were systematically excluded from living. They became common in the late 19th century. Sundown towns existed throughout the nation, but more often were located in the northern states that were not pre-Civil War slave states.
In some cases, signs were placed at the towns border with statements similar to the one posted in Hawthorne, California which read "Nigger, Don't Let The Sun Set On YOU In Hawthorne" in the 1930s.[1]
In addition to the expulsion of African-Americans from many small towns, Chinese-Americans were driven out of towns where they lived. For example, in 1870, Chinese made up one-third of the population of Idaho. Following a wave of violence and an 1886 anti-Chinese convention in Boise, almost none remained by 1910. The town of Gardnerville, Nevada blew a whistle at 6 p.m. daily alerting Native Americans to leave by sundown.
In addition, Jews were excluded from living in some sundown towns.
In some cases, the exclusion was official town policy. In others, the racist policy was enforced through intimidation. This intimidation could occur in a number of ways, including harassment by law enforcement officers.
Though no one knows the number of sundown towns in the United States, the largest attempt made to determine how common they were estimated that there were several thousand towns throughout the nation.
The list here refers to historic sundown towns, not necessarily current ones. Sundown towns included:
- Anna, Illinois[2]
- Ashland, Illinois[2]
- Benton, Illinois[2]
- Berwyn, Illinois[2]
- Casey, Illinois[2]
- Cicero, Illinois[2]
- Cullman, Alabama[3]
- Darien, Connecticut[4]
- Dearborn, Michigan - see article
- Edina, Minnesota[2]
- Hawthorne, California [1]
- Highland Park, Texas[5]
- Kennewick, Washington[2]
- Myakka City, Florida[2]
- Pana, Illinois[2]
- Pekin, Illinois[2]
- Pinckneyville, Illinois[2]
- Vidor, Texas[5]
- Vienna, Illinois[2]
- Virden, Illinois[2]
- West Frankfort, Illinois[2]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Laura Wexler, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Washington Post, October 23, 2005, p. BW03. A review of Loewen's book. Accessed online 9 July 2006.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Loewen 2005
- ^ Sarah Wildman, Pride across America - life of gays and lesbians in small towns, The Advocate, June 20, 2000. Accessed 10 April 2006.
- ^ Future Research Areas on James Loewen's website at the University of Vermont. Accessed 10 April 2006.
- ^ a b Jerome Weeks, Shining a light on sundown towns, Dallas Morning News. November 7, 2005. Accessed 20 March 2006.
[edit] References
Loewen, James W. (2005). Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. New Press. ISBN 1-56584-887-X. (Article relies heavily on this reference.)
