What is a ‘sundown town’?

American history is littered with racial bias. Much of the country has left that past far behind and moved into the modern age, but as the country embraces a multiethnic future, there are a few insular communities that refuse to leave their racist pasts where they belong.

Those laws that allowed the white ruling class to keep people of color out of their neighborhoods are dead and gone, but their echo remains. Terrible H.O.A. regulations, sneaky real estate tactics, and good old-fashioned violent coercion, have allowed towns across the U.S. to maintained their snow-white populations. Census data shows that sundown towns are alive and well in modern-day America, but their dangers are rapidly fading from memory as folks across the U.S. look for the perfect holiday photo op.

What is a sundown town?

More than 500 towns, counties, and suburbs are still considered sundown towns. And they aren’t confined to the American South; nearly 2/3 of Illinois cities are trapped in the backward mindset. The term refers to areas that used city ordinances, local bylaws, and threats of violence to keep people of color from moving into desirable areas. They’re one of Americas dirty little “secrets,” one that minorities have been warning each other about for decades.

The term is was taken from signs favored by whites-only towns. Tom Drake, the Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, anecdotally shared a story about one sign along the railroad track that read, “N*****, don’t let the sun set on your head in Cullman County.” The signs clearly implied violence against people of color once the sun sets, and they weren’t just directed at African-Americans. Many non-white Anglo Saxon Protestant ethnicities experienced some form of sundown town-style discrimination; Chinese, Italian, Mexicans, Japanese, Jewish, Irish, and Native Americans have all been considered “undesirable” by exclusionary communities.

These days, there is no legal way to prevent Black Americans and other POC from settling in an area. Anti-discrimination laws put in place after the Civil Rights Movement have largely tamped out the practice, but despite the illegality, there are still plenty of places that still lean into the racist skid. 

Why do sundown towns exist?

Sundown towns are as old as America itself, though the concept has changed throughout the years. The first instance can be traced back to 1714, in Colonial New Hampshire. The state implemented a law that prevented Black people, Native Americans, or really anyone vaguely brown from existing in public after 9PM to, “Prevent Disorders in the Night.” The laws’ structure strongly reflects the English “Poor Laws,” legislation from Great Britain that restricted the British poor. It claimed to target crime, but in reality, the laws were an excuse for townships to ignore the poor and remove any unwanted visitors from the streets.  

After the American Civil War, slavery was formally over in the U.S., but racist local Jim Crow laws only intensified. Virginia outright banned Black Americans from moving to the state, and Illinois, Iowa and Missouri all followed suit. If an African American stayed in Illinois for longer than 10 days, they were forced to pay a fine. If they couldn’t cough up the cash, their punishment was — you guessed it — to perform unpaid forced labor. Michigan, on the other hand, welcomed freed slaves, providing they could pay a $500 deposit, roughly $18,000 today, narrowing the pool to the wealthy.

Indiana built registries during the Reconstruction era to keep an eye on Black citizens, and other local governments followed suit. The territory of Oregon, which never had legalized slavery, nevertheless forbade Black citizens from establishing residency in the state. If caught, they were subjected to “no less than 20” and “no more than 39” lashings. Across the country, towns declared themselves Black-free zones. Local and state governments wrote charters and by-laws to prevent African Americans from purchasing land, or living in certain zones. 

In 1911, Kentucky pushed the envelope with a law banning Black residents from purchasing real estate in certain desirable areas. The unconstitutional statute was struck down, but it paved the way for private enterprises to sweep in and slap similar regulations in community bylaws. Realty services relied on “exclusionary covenants,” essentially vague promises, to keep Black homeowners out. The private entities were able to maintain whatever racist stipulations they desired, allowing the modern day version of sundown towns to rear their ugly head; Chicago’s infamous red-lining of home ownership is one example.

When charters failed to keep minorities out of “whites only” areas, Caucasians resorted to violence and harassment. It only intensified after Brown Vs The Board of Education made racial segregation in schools illegal. Census data shows that Black Americans fled from southern states like Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky, as angry white segregationalists prevented them from attending the recently integrated schools.

These days, there are far fewer sundown towns, but historian James W. Lowen’s work has shown that there are plenty that are thriving. He calls them, “second generation sundown towns,” which rely on threats of violence to maintain their status quo.

Where are the remaining sundown towns?

What we know about the remaining sundown towns is mostly spread by word of mouth. Lowen organized a countrywide project to keep track of the remaining towns, and the list is regularly updated by the Justice.Tougaloo.edu website hosted by Tougaloo college. 

So before you voyage out to take some cute pictures in that small town you saw on social media, make sure to check this website to ensure you’re not walking straight into 1914.

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