Read Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism Online
Authors: James W. Loewen
Sundown Towns Are Almost Everywhere
This History Has Been Hidden
My Own Ignorance
Sundown Towns Are Recent
The Role of Violence
Sundown Nation
Why Dwell On It Now?
Sundown Towns Persist
The Plan of the Book
The Penultimate Denial of Human Rights
Residential Segregation Lives On
Impact of the Civil War
Anti-racist Idealism During and After the Civil War
Welcoming African Americans, 1862–1890
The “Fusion” Period, 1877–1890
The “Three I’s”
The Nadir of Race Relations Sets In
How the Nadir Gave Birth to a Sundown Town
African Americans, Not Racism, Become “the Problem”
History, Popular Culture, and Science Legitimize the Nadir
The Nadir Continued to About 1940
Setting the Stage for the Great Retreat
Aching to Be All-White
The Chinese Retreat
The Chinese Retreat and the Great Retreat
The Great Retreat Was National
County Populations Show the Great Retreat
The Great Retreat and the Great Migration
The Great Retreat in the Heartland
Sundown Towns in the Far North
The Great Retreat Did Not Strike the “Traditional South”
The Great Retreat from the Rest of the South
The Great Retreat in the West
Sundown Subregions and “Dead Lines”
The Great Retreat from Prime Real Estate
Almost All Suburbs Were Sundown Towns
Sundown Neighborhoods
Creating All-Black Towns
Black Townships
Alternatives to the Great Retreat
The Great Retreat Was No Solution
Creating Sundown Towns by Violence
Creating Sundown Towns by Threat
The Role of the Ku Klux Klan
Creating Sundown Towns by Ordinance
Ordinances, Legal or Illegal?
Creating Sundown Towns by Official Governmental Action
Creating Sundown Towns by Freeze-out
Creating Sundown Towns and Suburbs by Buyout
Creating Sundown Suburbs
All Planned Suburbs Were Intentionally Created All-White
Most “Unplanned” Suburbs Were Also Created All-White
Regardless of the Creation, the Result Was the Same
The Importance of Suburbs
The Good Life
Avoiding the Problems of the City
Blacks as a Key Problem to Be Avoided
Suburbs Start to Go Sundown
Sundown Cemeteries
Keeping Out Jews
Sundown Suburbs Explode After World War II
The FHA Helped Create Our Sundown Suburbs
Too Little, Too Late
Why African Americans?
The Nadir Made Sundown Towns Possible
Tautological “Causes”
Sundown Suburbs Are Not “Natural” and Not Due to Class
Other Nonsensical “Causes”
Political Ideology as a Cause of Sundown Towns
A Different Pattern in the Upland South: Many Unionist Areas Later Expelled ...
White Ethnic Solidarity
Labor Strife
Labor Strife as Excuse
On the Knife Edge
Claims to Equality Led to Sundown Towns
Threat of School Desegregation Led to Sundown Towns
Other Catalysts
Interracial Rape as Catalyst
Black “Crime Waves” as Catalyst
Catalysts Do Not Explain
Vague or Mislaid Catalyst Stories
Contagion as Catalyst
Catalyst Stories as Origin Myths
Historical Contingency: The Influence of a Single Individual
Contingency Again: The Positive Influence of an Individual
Knowing and Not Knowing About Sundown Towns
The Unsuspecting Researcher
American Culture Typically Locates Racism in the South
A Conspiracy of Silence
Silence on the Landscape
Local Newspapers Don’t Say a Thing and Vanish if They Do
Chambers of Commerce Stifle Coverage
Historical Societies Help to Suppress the Truth
Absent from the History Books
Defining “Sundown Town”
All-White on Purpose?
Oral History
Ordinances, Written or Oral?
Ordinances Are Real, Written or Not
Errors of Inclusion and Exclusion
The Inadvertent Visitor
Public Transportation Through Sundown Towns
Automobile Travel Through Sundown Towns
“Driving While Black”
Sundown During the Daytime
Night Work in Sundown Towns
Economic and Social Ostracism
Harassing Invited Guests
The Importance of the City Limits
Zoning
Defended Neighborhoods
Policies and Ordinances
Restrictive Covenants
Real Estate Agents as the Front Line of Defense
Other Elements of the “System”
The Grosse Pointe System
Picking on Children
How One Town Stayed White Down the Years
Violence
Developing a Reputation
The 1964 Civil Rights Act Made Little Difference
African American Servants
Hotel Workers
Refugees, Soldiers, Students, and Other Transients
Having a Protector