Chances are that if you are white you have lived in a “Sundown Town”. According to author Kate Kelly, there were at least 10,000 'sundown towns' in the United States as late as the 1960s. So the likelihood of you having been born in or lived in a Sundown town is very probable. My wife and I come from Sundown Towns - Western Springs, Illinois, and Goshen, Indiana. Note these are Midwestern towns. Historical records indicate that the highest concentration of Sundown towns have been in the Midwest. Dr. James W. Loewen’s book pictured below tells the tale of this stream of racism. Loewen led the way to the current understanding of the history of Sundown towns.
Sundown towns are communities in which people of color were not welcome. The name comes from signs that used to be posted telling minorities to be gone before the sun set for the day. Nonwhites had to leave the city limits by dusk, or they could be picked up by the police or worse.
The following are notes on Goshen and Western Springs from History and Social Justice website with link following:
On March 17, 2015, the city passed (unanimously) a resolution that concludes, “It happened, it was wrong, it’s a new day.” This resolution “Acknowledge[s] the racist and exclusionary aspects of Goshen’s ‘sundown town’ history, along with the pain and suffering that these practices caused; … [and] “Pledge[s] to work toward the common good in building a community where people of all races and cultural backgrounds are welcome to live and prosper.” Goshen thus transcended its sundown past.
A less formal Human Relations Commission had been established in 1996, but there was no ordinance providing for statutory powers. It came together as a result of urging by the mayor at that time, and was a joint venture between City of Goshen, the Ministerial Association, and the Chamber of Commerce in reaction to a couple appearances of the Ku Klux Klan in Goshen. When the Klan came to Goshen the first time, a group got together and had an alternative “Diversity Day” rally that day. That celebration lives on and grows each year. The second time the Klan came, people organized a “Pledge Against Prejudice. People could pledge any amount of money per minute that the Klan demonstrated. The proceeds were then split between the local Human Relations Commission to help fund “Diversity Day” and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Since the town offered to do it every time the Klan came, I think that may have pissed the Klan off, as they haven’t been back since.
Also in reaction to the Klan, Goshen passed a “no mask” ordinance, claiming that anonymous speech need not be tolerated. The Klan showed up in robes at the City Council meeting, but they weren’t allowed to speak unless they followed the rules of the council and gave name/address for the record, and removed the hood to speak. Their leader complied, with agreement from news media that his face would not be shown on TV. He tried to give a fictitious name, but the Police Chief in the back of the room shook his head, so he was asked for his real name and he gave it. His real name appeared in the newspaper, and supposedly he was fired from his job.
Western Springs notes from 2007
When I was a kid, there was a black family who moved in across the
street. We played with the boy, who was a couple years older than I and
a couple years younger than my brother (his sister was older than my
brother and not in our play set). I don’t recall him going to our public
school, though, and they didn’t live there long. They moved, and I later
learned it was because of threats and hostility towards them. (They did
keep a menacing German shepherd who scared the beejezus out of me when I
would walk home from school. I bet it was a good deterrent from petty
mischief.)There was another family, a white family with a few kids, who adopted a
black baby girl. They, too, left town due to hostility and threats.My sister lives there now, and my niece works at a butcher shop
in town (highly regarded in the suburbs.) One of the butchers (white) is married to a black woman, and one day (probably last year) she was
waiting outside the shop for her husband to get off work. She was merely sitting on a bench on the sidewalk, and a cop came by and asked her her business. She said she was waiting for her husband, he said something along the lines of “oh, we had a call,” and that was it. She doesn’t pick him up at work any longer.Around 1950, a black surgeon bought a lot. The Park District responded by condemning the lot for a park. The owner of the lot sued and won. He built on the lot and lived there.
https://justice.tougaloo.edu/sundowntown/western-springs-il/
Can you imagine being Black and traveling in the U.S.? It would be difficult to dodge 10,000 towns or cities with Sundown “laws”. From 1936 through 1966, a former postal worker and World War I veteran from New Jersey named Victor Green, published a travel guide to help Black travelers travel safely throughout racist America. Green published the guide under various names: “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” “The Negro Travelers' Green Book,” or “The Travelers' Green Book.” Green Book is a film that captures the traveling realities lifted up in Victor Green’s guide.
https://wheretianatravels.com/navigating-sundown-towns-as-a-black-traveler-in-america/
Below is a brief discussion of Sundown Towns.
Reflecting back on my living in Goshen I have realized that I lived in a totally white town except for the African and Afro-American students at Goshen College. What was it like for those students? I remember a snack shop conversation. A white student ask a black student, “What country are you from?’ He said, “St. Louis.” Embarrassing and uncomfortable for those around the table, but an example of the rocky road black folks have had to walk.
Has it changed? The outright discrimination, the deep prejudice, the fear, and the tragedy of racism? It is interesting that in at least two of the major Trump indictments, the leaders are two black women. That is positive change! That is good! May there be more change and may it be deep, not only in key roles in government, business and culture, but deep in our souls.