Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism (104 page)
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Authors: James W. Loewen
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61
I suggest two complaints, rather than the ten required under the Voting Rights Act, because to seek housing with enough tenacity to be rebuffed requires more time and energy than to try to register to vote. Moreover, the reputation set in place by sundown towns’ past policies is their first line of defense, chilling many black would-be newcomers before they even try. Finally, the main trigger for the Residents’ Rights Act, unlike the Voting Rights Act—in addition to the statistical disparities required by both acts—is the finding of a sundown past.
I suggest two complaints, rather than the ten required under the Voting Rights Act, because to seek housing with enough tenacity to be rebuffed requires more time and energy than to try to register to vote. Moreover, the reputation set in place by sundown towns’ past policies is their first line of defense, chilling many black would-be newcomers before they even try. Finally, the main trigger for the Residents’ Rights Act, unlike the Voting Rights Act—in addition to the statistical disparities required by both acts—is the finding of a sundown past.
62
Congress can act under the authority granted by Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. To ensure that the Supreme Court will find it constitutional, Congress needs to show a widespread pattern of intentional past actions by local governments across the United States to keep out African Americans. This book makes such a showing; readers can contribute additional evidence of sundown towns at my web site,
uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundown
. States can (and should) pass their own versions, tailored to their local conditions, without having to worry quite so much about a judicial challenge.
Congress can act under the authority granted by Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. To ensure that the Supreme Court will find it constitutional, Congress needs to show a widespread pattern of intentional past actions by local governments across the United States to keep out African Americans. This book makes such a showing; readers can contribute additional evidence of sundown towns at my web site,
uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundown
. States can (and should) pass their own versions, tailored to their local conditions, without having to worry quite so much about a judicial challenge.
63
An official at the Museum of America’s Freedom Trains said, “I don’t know that there was ever any talk of the Freedom Train stopping in Glendale,” but the museum staff hasn’t researched the matter, so far as I can tell. Museum official, e-mail, 7/2003.
An official at the Museum of America’s Freedom Trains said, “I don’t know that there was ever any talk of the Freedom Train stopping in Glendale,” but the museum staff hasn’t researched the matter, so far as I can tell. Museum official, e-mail, 7/2003.
64
Richard Sommer and Glenn Forley, “The Democratic Monument,” paper given at “Commemoration and the City,” Savannah, GA, 2/2002; Bob Johnson, e-mail, 1/2003.
Richard Sommer and Glenn Forley, “The Democratic Monument,” paper given at “Commemoration and the City,” Savannah, GA, 2/2002; Bob Johnson, e-mail, 1/2003.
65
She should apologize, because she knows full well how Benton has maintained its “racial makeup.” Long notorious for not letting African Americans stay after dark, Benton flirted in 1923 with the idea of barring them even during the day. Its citizens have never stopped their tradition of racist behavior. In the mid-1980s, teenage boys hurled eggs and epithets at African Americans driving through Benton after dark. In 1992, students ostracized the only African American girl in Benton High School after she accepted a social invitation from a white boy. In the late 1990s, Benton students put graffiti on the bus from visiting Carbondale High School, a nearby interracial school, according to a 2000 Carbondale graduate, and some Benton basketball players shouted “nigger” at Carbondale’s African American players. Residents throughout Franklin and Williamson counties report repeated KKK rallies and cross burnings in Benton within the last five years. In about 1998, according to a Benton High School history teacher, whites burned a cross on the lawn of an elderly Benton resident merely because he had a black physical therapist from another town work on him in his home. Among Benton’s 6,880 residents in 2000, the census found only 2 African Americans in a household with a black householder. (It did find 20 blacks, 17 of whom were males, mostly 18–44, undoubtedly temporary residents connected with some institution. Another 13 people listed two races, white and black. Indeed, all of Franklin County, of which Benton is the seat, had just 59 African Americans among nearly 40,000 residents, about 0.1%, and half of those did not live in households with an African American householder.) In 2001 and 2002, several Benton residents said they thought Benton had no black families. Benton shows no indication—including its mayor’s posture—that it is over being a sundown town. African American from Colp, 1/2004; undergraduate from Carbondale, University of Illinois, 10/2000; Benton teacher, 9/2002.
She should apologize, because she knows full well how Benton has maintained its “racial makeup.” Long notorious for not letting African Americans stay after dark, Benton flirted in 1923 with the idea of barring them even during the day. Its citizens have never stopped their tradition of racist behavior. In the mid-1980s, teenage boys hurled eggs and epithets at African Americans driving through Benton after dark. In 1992, students ostracized the only African American girl in Benton High School after she accepted a social invitation from a white boy. In the late 1990s, Benton students put graffiti on the bus from visiting Carbondale High School, a nearby interracial school, according to a 2000 Carbondale graduate, and some Benton basketball players shouted “nigger” at Carbondale’s African American players. Residents throughout Franklin and Williamson counties report repeated KKK rallies and cross burnings in Benton within the last five years. In about 1998, according to a Benton High School history teacher, whites burned a cross on the lawn of an elderly Benton resident merely because he had a black physical therapist from another town work on him in his home. Among Benton’s 6,880 residents in 2000, the census found only 2 African Americans in a household with a black householder. (It did find 20 blacks, 17 of whom were males, mostly 18–44, undoubtedly temporary residents connected with some institution. Another 13 people listed two races, white and black. Indeed, all of Franklin County, of which Benton is the seat, had just 59 African Americans among nearly 40,000 residents, about 0.1%, and half of those did not live in households with an African American householder.) In 2001 and 2002, several Benton residents said they thought Benton had no black families. Benton shows no indication—including its mayor’s posture—that it is over being a sundown town. African American from Colp, 1/2004; undergraduate from Carbondale, University of Illinois, 10/2000; Benton teacher, 9/2002.
66
“Judge Wants Courthouse Built in More Diverse Community,”
Coles County Daily Times Courier,
10/11/2002.
“Judge Wants Courthouse Built in More Diverse Community,”
Coles County Daily Times Courier,
10/11/2002.
67
Monticello attorney, 2002; Richard Stewart, “Desegregation at Public Housing Ripped by Audit,”
Houston Chronicle,
7/11/1997; Janet Heimlich and Bob Edwards, “Housing Discrimination in Texas,”
Federal Document Clearing House,
7/10/1997, morning edition.
Monticello attorney, 2002; Richard Stewart, “Desegregation at Public Housing Ripped by Audit,”
Houston Chronicle,
7/11/1997; Janet Heimlich and Bob Edwards, “Housing Discrimination in Texas,”
Federal Document Clearing House,
7/10/1997, morning edition.
68
Florence Roisman suggested this remedy to me, based on John C. Boger, “Toward Ending Residential Segregation: A Fair Share Proposal for the Next Reconstruction,”
North Carolina Law Review
71 (1993): 1608–14. Boger’s proposal is detailed and nuanced; he also suggests taxing the interest on municipal bonds issued by governments found in violation.
Florence Roisman suggested this remedy to me, based on John C. Boger, “Toward Ending Residential Segregation: A Fair Share Proposal for the Next Reconstruction,”
North Carolina Law Review
71 (1993): 1608–14. Boger’s proposal is detailed and nuanced; he also suggests taxing the interest on municipal bonds issued by governments found in violation.
69
This is already changing, however, as noted below regarding such suburbs as Oak Park, Illinois.
This is already changing, however, as noted below regarding such suburbs as Oak Park, Illinois.
70
The sanction ignores renters, but renters own no housing, so they have not participated in refusing to sell or rent to African Americans. It also seems to omit families who have no mortgages, hence pay no mortgage interest, but it does actually sanction them by making their homes less attractive to would-be buyers, thus decreasing their resale value.
The sanction ignores renters, but renters own no housing, so they have not participated in refusing to sell or rent to African Americans. It also seems to omit families who have no mortgages, hence pay no mortgage interest, but it does actually sanction them by making their homes less attractive to would-be buyers, thus decreasing their resale value.
71
Perhaps penologists may have in mind a “social Alcatraz” theory—like the frigid waters and archetypal sharks around Alcatraz (the sharks are not man-eating, it turns out), the area surrounding these prisons is presumably hostile to black escapees. More likely, the political clout of sundown legislators explains the placement of these prisons in their districts. Such locations may amount to cruel and unusual punishment. In sundown towns, African American prisoners and juveniles have few role models who look like them among guards and administrators. They have little chance to see a black psychologist or medical doctor, learn from a black teacher, meet with a black prison volunteer, or talk with a black college student intern, because there are no African Americans in the community. Family members and friends live miles away, making it hard for prisoners to maintain ties to the outside world. Visitors who do make the trip usually take care to be out of town by nightfall. In sum, locating prisons in sundown towns ensures that prisoners, many of whom are people of color, will be guarded, cared for when ill, counseled, and “rehabilitated” by people who live in towns that prevent African Americans from living within their corporate limits. This is hardly good penology. It also invites sundown town residents to grow more racist. A resident of Vienna described the discourse in that southern Illinois town after Vienna got its prison around 1970: “Since that time, you get constant remarks about black people and how bad they are. Of course, [prisoners] are the only black people they know” (Vienna resident, 2/2004).
Perhaps penologists may have in mind a “social Alcatraz” theory—like the frigid waters and archetypal sharks around Alcatraz (the sharks are not man-eating, it turns out), the area surrounding these prisons is presumably hostile to black escapees. More likely, the political clout of sundown legislators explains the placement of these prisons in their districts. Such locations may amount to cruel and unusual punishment. In sundown towns, African American prisoners and juveniles have few role models who look like them among guards and administrators. They have little chance to see a black psychologist or medical doctor, learn from a black teacher, meet with a black prison volunteer, or talk with a black college student intern, because there are no African Americans in the community. Family members and friends live miles away, making it hard for prisoners to maintain ties to the outside world. Visitors who do make the trip usually take care to be out of town by nightfall. In sum, locating prisons in sundown towns ensures that prisoners, many of whom are people of color, will be guarded, cared for when ill, counseled, and “rehabilitated” by people who live in towns that prevent African Americans from living within their corporate limits. This is hardly good penology. It also invites sundown town residents to grow more racist. A resident of Vienna described the discourse in that southern Illinois town after Vienna got its prison around 1970: “Since that time, you get constant remarks about black people and how bad they are. Of course, [prisoners] are the only black people they know” (Vienna resident, 2/2004).
72
Susan Luke, “Barbie and Ken, and All Things Presidential,”
Washington Post,
8/10/2003; Mary Otto, “Grasping for a Thread of Hope,”
Washington Post,
9/7/2004.
Susan Luke, “Barbie and Ken, and All Things Presidential,”
Washington Post,
8/10/2003; Mary Otto, “Grasping for a Thread of Hope,”
Washington Post,
9/7/2004.
73
Farley, Danziger, and Holzer,
Detroit Divided,
180.
Farley, Danziger, and Holzer,
Detroit Divided,
180.
74
Don DeMarco, talk at OPEN Conference, Philadelphia, 11/2000; Ted Hipple, e-mail, 10/24/2001; Carole Goodwin,
The Oak Park Strategy
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 1, 53; CNN/
Money
Fiserv CSW report,
money.cnn.com
, 7/2003.
Don DeMarco, talk at OPEN Conference, Philadelphia, 11/2000; Ted Hipple, e-mail, 10/24/2001; Carole Goodwin,
The Oak Park Strategy
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 1, 53; CNN/
Money
Fiserv CSW report,
money.cnn.com
, 7/2003.
75
Whites moved into majority-black census tracts on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., and made them majority-white. Between 1960 and 1970, Kirkwood, a neighborhood in Atlanta, went from being 91% white to 97% black. Then in the 1990s, some whites returned, making Kirkwood 14% white by 2000.
Whites moved into majority-black census tracts on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., and made them majority-white. Between 1960 and 1970, Kirkwood, a neighborhood in Atlanta, went from being 91% white to 97% black. Then in the 1990s, some whites returned, making Kirkwood 14% white by 2000.
76
Lesley Reid and Robert Adelman, “The Double-Edged Sword of Gentrification in Atlanta,”
ASA Footnotes
31, 4 (2003): 8; Mark Knight quoted in Nurith C. Aizenman, “Diversity Puts Vitality into Aging Mt. Rainier,”
Washington Post,
12/30/2003,
washingtonpost.com
, 1/2004.
Lesley Reid and Robert Adelman, “The Double-Edged Sword of Gentrification in Atlanta,”
ASA Footnotes
31, 4 (2003): 8; Mark Knight quoted in Nurith C. Aizenman, “Diversity Puts Vitality into Aging Mt. Rainier,”
Washington Post,
12/30/2003,
washingtonpost.com
, 1/2004.
77
D’Vera Cohn, “Integrated People, Integrated Places,”
Washington Post
7/29/2002; librarian, Decatur, 10/2002.
D’Vera Cohn, “Integrated People, Integrated Places,”
Washington Post
7/29/2002; librarian, Decatur, 10/2002.
78
Baltimore woman quoted in J.W. Dees Jr. and J.S. Hadley,
Jim Crow
(Westport, CT: Negro Universities Press, 1970 [1951]), 159; Eunice and George Grier, “Discrimination in Housing” (New York: Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, 1960), 34, citing generally Morton Deutsch and Mary Evans Collins,
Interracial Housing
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1951).
Baltimore woman quoted in J.W. Dees Jr. and J.S. Hadley,
Jim Crow
(Westport, CT: Negro Universities Press, 1970 [1951]), 159; Eunice and George Grier, “Discrimination in Housing” (New York: Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, 1960), 34, citing generally Morton Deutsch and Mary Evans Collins,
Interracial Housing
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1951).
79
Barnett quoted in Richter, “Integrating the Suburban Dream: Shaker Heights, Ohio,” 48.
Barnett quoted in Richter, “Integrating the Suburban Dream: Shaker Heights, Ohio,” 48.
80
I must admit that this racial liberalism may also result from the flight of more racist whites from these neighborhoods.
I must admit that this racial liberalism may also result from the flight of more racist whites from these neighborhoods.
81
Gary Orfield, talk at OPEN, Philadelphia, 12/2000; Carolyn Adams et al.,
Philadelphia: Neighborhoods, Division, and Conflict
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), 24.
Gary Orfield, talk at OPEN, Philadelphia, 12/2000; Carolyn Adams et al.,
Philadelphia: Neighborhoods, Division, and Conflict
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), 24.
82
Three Dog Night, “Black and White,” 1972; the “sundown policies” quatrain is mine, with apologies.
Three Dog Night, “Black and White,” 1972; the “sundown policies” quatrain is mine, with apologies.
APPENDIX
1
Jack Blocker Jr., “Contours of African-American Migration in Ohio, 1850–1930” (Cambridge: British Society for Population Studies, 1998), tables 3, 9.
Jack Blocker Jr., “Contours of African-American Migration in Ohio, 1850–1930” (Cambridge: British Society for Population Studies, 1998), tables 3, 9.
2
Jack Blocker Jr., “Choice and Circumstance,” paper presented at Organization of American Historians meeting 4/1999, 29, 34–35. He did not use the term “Great Retreat.” Cf. his “Contours of African-American Migration in Ohio, 1850–1930,” 7; “Patterns of African-American Migration in Illinois, 1860–1920” (Edwardsville, IL: Conference on African Americans in Illinois History, 1998), and “Opportunity, Community, and Violence in the Shaping of Indiana’s African-American Migration, 1860–1930” (Minneapolis: Conference on Race, Ethnicity, and Migration, 2000).
Jack Blocker Jr., “Choice and Circumstance,” paper presented at Organization of American Historians meeting 4/1999, 29, 34–35. He did not use the term “Great Retreat.” Cf. his “Contours of African-American Migration in Ohio, 1850–1930,” 7; “Patterns of African-American Migration in Illinois, 1860–1920” (Edwardsville, IL: Conference on African Americans in Illinois History, 1998), and “Opportunity, Community, and Violence in the Shaping of Indiana’s African-American Migration, 1860–1930” (Minneapolis: Conference on Race, Ethnicity, and Migration, 2000).
PORTFOLIO
All notes for this section refer to image numbers.
2. Lynwood Carranco, “Chinese Expulsion from Humboldt County,” in Roger Daniels, ed.,
Anti-Chinese Violence in North America
(New York: Arno Press, 1978), 336; Joseph F. En-dert, “Chinese,”
Bulletin of the Del Norte County Historical Society
(3/1978 [1965]), 5–6; “DN Pioneers Load Sons of Flowery Kingdom on Boats,”
Del Norte Triplicate
Bicentennial Edition, 1976; Jean Pfaelzer, talk (Washington, D.C.: American Studies Association., 2001); Keith Easthouse, “The Chinese Expulsion: Looking Back on a Dark Episode,”
North Coast Journal Weekly,
2/27/2003,
northcoastjournal.com/022703/cover0227.html
, 2/2004.
4. “Negroes Killed or Driven Away,
Chicago Tribune,
8/21/1901; Murray Bishoff, 9/2002.
6. Donald F. Tingley,
The Structuring of a State: The History of Illinois, 1899 to 1928
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980), 291–92.
7. These towns and counties are listed on my website,
uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundown
.
9. Jimmy Allen, e-mail, 10/2002; Margaret Alexander Alam, e-mail, 11/04/2003;
Villa Grove News,
7/4/1976; seven Villa Grove residents.
11. Scott Ellsworth,
Death in a Promised Land
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 1982); Alfred L. Brophy,
Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2002); cf. William F. Pinar,
The Gender of Racial Politics and Violence in America
(New York: Peter Lang, 2001), 1174; Kelly Kurt, “After 75 Years, Tulsa Heals,” Burlington
Free Press,
6/2/96; James Allen, et al.,
Without Sanctuary
(Santa Fe: Twin Palms, 2000), #38, 179–80; W.L. Payne, “Okemah’s Night of Terror,” in Hazel Ruby McMahan, ed.,
Stories of Early Oklahoma,
on Rootsweb,
rootsweb.com/~okokfusk/cities.htm
, 5/2003.
13. “Don’t Let The Sun Set On You Here, Understand?”
Chicago Defender,
2/11/1922; “Norman Mob After Singie Smith Jazz,” Norman, OK, 2/5/1922, in
Oklahoma City Black Dispatch,
2/9/1922; “White Men Shoot Up Church Excursioners,”
Pittsburgh Courier,
8/17/1940.
15. Lin Shi Khan and Tony Perez,
Scottsboro, Alabama: A Story in Linoleum Cuts
(New York: New York University Press, 2001 [1935]), 49; “Scottsboro Trial Moved Fifty Miles,”
New York Times,
3/8/1933.
16. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.,
Breakfast of Champions,
(New York: Delacorte, 1973), 245–46; Vonnegut, 3/2005.
18. R. Bruce Shepard,
Deemed Unsuitable
(Toronto: Umbrella Press, 1997), 3.
20.
Parade of Progress: Hamilton County, 1858–1958
(Hamilton:
Hamilton Herald-News,
1958), unpaginated; Charles Titus, 6/2000; Carolyn Stephens, e-mail, 2/2001.
24. David M. P. Freund,
Making It Home
(Ann Arbor: Univeristy of Michigan Ph.D., 1999), 515; Rick Baker, “Pekin Students Veto ‘Chinks’ Name Change,” 11/28/1974 clipping in Pekin library, name of newspaper omitted; Jane White, Pekin High School, 1950, post at
Classmates.com
, 6/1/2000.
28. “The Real Polk County” (Mena: no publication indicated, 1/9?/1980), 16.
30. “A Northern City ‘Sitting on Lid’ of Racial Trouble,”
US News & World Report,
5/11/1956, 38–40; Denise Thomas, 10/2003.
31. Bill Griffith, “Zippy the Pinhead,”
Washington Post,
6/24/2002
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