Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism (85 page)
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Authors: James W. Loewen
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As a former slave state, every Maryland county had at least 1,000 African Americans in 1890, except one, Garrett, the farthest west, which had 185. By 1930, Garrett had gone overwhelmingly white, with only 24 African Americans (and just 4 by 1940). Although Garrett thus didn’t quite make the cut by 1930, I have confirmed that it became and remained a sundown county. Moreover, although Maryland has no other sundown counties, it has many sundown suburbs that developed after 1890. So Maryland is no exception either.
States with only slightly greater numbers of counties with zero or fewer than ten blacks in 1930Some of the trends in
Table 1
seem inconsequential, but they are not when the huge increases in black population in Northern states are considered. Between 1890 and 1930 the black population of Pennsylvania, for example, increased almost fourfold, so for the state to show “only” a slight increase in the number of counties with few or no African Americans actually offers spectacular corroboration of the Great Retreat. The same point holds for West Virginia. Kansas had the same number of counties with no African Americans in 1930 that it had in 1890, but by the latter year its overall black population had increased by 72%. Meanwhile, the number of its counties with fewer than ten blacks actually increased. Similarly, no county in Ohio was all-white in 1890, compared to just one in 1930; one county had fewer than ten blacks in 1890, compared to just two 40 years later. Underlying this modest trend, however, are statistics like these: 13.6% of Ohio’s black population lived in small cities (2,400 to 10,000) in 1860, a proportion that rose to 18.7% by 1890. Then by 1930, that proportion fell to a mere 5.0%—dramatic evidence of the Great Retreat, verified by numerous examples of confirmed sundown towns. Nevada’s retreat was modest, but the state had only 242 African Americans in 1890 and possessed no large city to retreat to by 1930, Las Vegas being still in swaddling clothes.
1
Confirmation by Jack BlockerTable 1
seem inconsequential, but they are not when the huge increases in black population in Northern states are considered. Between 1890 and 1930 the black population of Pennsylvania, for example, increased almost fourfold, so for the state to show “only” a slight increase in the number of counties with few or no African Americans actually offers spectacular corroboration of the Great Retreat. The same point holds for West Virginia. Kansas had the same number of counties with no African Americans in 1930 that it had in 1890, but by the latter year its overall black population had increased by 72%. Meanwhile, the number of its counties with fewer than ten blacks actually increased. Similarly, no county in Ohio was all-white in 1890, compared to just one in 1930; one county had fewer than ten blacks in 1890, compared to just two 40 years later. Underlying this modest trend, however, are statistics like these: 13.6% of Ohio’s black population lived in small cities (2,400 to 10,000) in 1860, a proportion that rose to 18.7% by 1890. Then by 1930, that proportion fell to a mere 5.0%—dramatic evidence of the Great Retreat, verified by numerous examples of confirmed sundown towns. Nevada’s retreat was modest, but the state had only 242 African Americans in 1890 and possessed no large city to retreat to by 1930, Las Vegas being still in swaddling clothes.
1
Historian Jack Blocker showed the Great Retreat in the Midwest with a different statistical method. Studying communities in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, he found an inverse correlation or no correlation between the black population in 1860 and its growth by 1890. In other words, African Americans dispersed in those decades; they did not move primarily to places where blacks already lived. But after 1890 the correlations turned positive in Indiana and Ohio, and after 1910 in Illinois, as African Americans concentrated in fewer locations. As Blocker put it, after about 1890, “dispersion, the pattern of the previous 30 years, was replaced by concentration.”
2
Do more counties introduce a bias?2
Some states, mostly in the West, had considerably more counties by 1930, which might seem to make it easier to have more counties with no or few African Americans. Actually, the increased number of counties did not introduce a bias, because the populations of these states increased proportionately much more than their number of counties.
Consider Idaho, for example, which had only 18 counties in 1890 and had 44 by 1930. In 1890 its counties averaged fewer than 5,000 in total population. In 1930, its counties average more than 10,000. Based on total population, the average county had more than twice as great a chance to attract African Americans in 1930. Yet they did not. Only one Idaho county in 1890 had no African Americans; in 1930, fourteen counties had none. Only eight counties in 1890 had 1–9 African Americans; by 1930, nineteen counties had 1–9. Again, bear in mind that the 1930 counties averaged more than twice as many people, even though most were now smaller in area. Each is therefore a legitimate datapoint. Population, not geographic area, is the important variable. We are not testing whether a given array of square miles would draw black residents; rather, the assumption is that African Americans, unencumbered by prohibitions, would go where other populations go.
Notes
1
“All-white” will be defined below.
“All-white” will be defined below.
2
Mere neighborhoods won’t do, although occasionally I do briefly discuss sundown neighborhoods, especially when they are very large.
Mere neighborhoods won’t do, although occasionally I do briefly discuss sundown neighborhoods, especially when they are very large.
3
Such communities forced me to ease my definition of “all-white town” to include places with as many as nine African Americans, since a single household might easily include six or seven. Nonhousehold blacks, such as prison inmates, live-in servants, and interracial children adopted by white parents, also do not violate sundown town rules that forbid African American households, so they should be excluded from census totals. See the longer discussion in Chapter 8. From here on I will stop using quotation marks around “all-white” or “white town,” but they are implied.
Such communities forced me to ease my definition of “all-white town” to include places with as many as nine African Americans, since a single household might easily include six or seven. Nonhousehold blacks, such as prison inmates, live-in servants, and interracial children adopted by white parents, also do not violate sundown town rules that forbid African American households, so they should be excluded from census totals. See the longer discussion in Chapter 8. From here on I will stop using quotation marks around “all-white” or “white town,” but they are implied.
4
I give 1970 populations because in that year, most sundown towns and suburbs had not changed and definitely still maintained sundown policies.
I give 1970 populations because in that year, most sundown towns and suburbs had not changed and definitely still maintained sundown policies.
5
John M.Goering, “Introduction,” in John M. Goering, ed.,
Housing Desegregation and Federal Policy
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 10; Michael N. Danielson,
The Politics of Exclusion
(NY: Columbia University Press, 1976), 223.
John M.Goering, “Introduction,” in John M. Goering, ed.,
Housing Desegregation and Federal Policy
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 10; Michael N. Danielson,
The Politics of Exclusion
(NY: Columbia University Press, 1976), 223.
6
The total includes 50 towns smaller than 1,000 whose racial histories I learned.
The total includes 50 towns smaller than 1,000 whose racial histories I learned.
7
I would like to thank the Newberry Library for an Arthur Weinberg fellowship early in my research. Their staff proved very helpful even though their extensive collection of local histories, for reasons discussed in Chapter 8, did not. I also want to thank the University of Illinois, Chicago, especially Anthony Martin and his student advisors, and the University of Illinois, Urbana, especially Unit One/Allen Hall, for extending month-long residences, access to students and colleagues, and use of their libraries. The Library of Congress, the Catholic University library, and the census at the University of Maryland were also helpful, as was David Andrew Timko when he was at the Census Bureau library. David Cline was a fun and helpful intern.
I would like to thank the Newberry Library for an Arthur Weinberg fellowship early in my research. Their staff proved very helpful even though their extensive collection of local histories, for reasons discussed in Chapter 8, did not. I also want to thank the University of Illinois, Chicago, especially Anthony Martin and his student advisors, and the University of Illinois, Urbana, especially Unit One/Allen Hall, for extending month-long residences, access to students and colleagues, and use of their libraries. The Library of Congress, the Catholic University library, and the census at the University of Maryland were also helpful, as was David Andrew Timko when he was at the Census Bureau library. David Cline was a fun and helpful intern.
8
My web site,
uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundown
, contains a bibliography on sundown towns. The topic is at least mentioned in Ray Stannard Baker,
Following the Color Line
(New York: Harper Torchbook, 1964 [1908]); V.Jacque Voegeli,
Free But Not Equal
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967); Frank U.Quillen,
The Color Line in Ohio
(Ann Arbor: Wahr, 1913); David Gerber,
Black Ohio and the Color Line
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976); Emma Thornbrough,
The Negro in Indiana
(Indianapolis: IN Hist. Bureau, 1957); Howard Chudacoff,
Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Omaha
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1971); James DeVries,
Race and Kinship in a Midwestern Town
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984); Roberta Senechal,
The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990); and unpublished papers by Jack Blocker Jr. on Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. A few sources treat individual sundown towns; they are footnoted in later chapters and listed at my web site.
My web site,
uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundown
, contains a bibliography on sundown towns. The topic is at least mentioned in Ray Stannard Baker,
Following the Color Line
(New York: Harper Torchbook, 1964 [1908]); V.Jacque Voegeli,
Free But Not Equal
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967); Frank U.Quillen,
The Color Line in Ohio
(Ann Arbor: Wahr, 1913); David Gerber,
Black Ohio and the Color Line
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976); Emma Thornbrough,
The Negro in Indiana
(Indianapolis: IN Hist. Bureau, 1957); Howard Chudacoff,
Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Omaha
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1971); James DeVries,
Race and Kinship in a Midwestern Town
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984); Roberta Senechal,
The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990); and unpublished papers by Jack Blocker Jr. on Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. A few sources treat individual sundown towns; they are footnoted in later chapters and listed at my web site.
9
Malcolm Brown and John Webb (WPA),
Seven Stranded Coal Towns
(Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1941); John Coggeshall, “Carbon-Copy Towns? The Regionalization of Ethnic Folklife in Southern Illinois’s Egypt,” in Barbara Allen and Thomas J. Schlereth, eds.,
Sense of Place
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990), 103–19; C. S. Stein,
Toward New Towns for America
(Boston: MIT Press, 1966); Lewis Atherton,
Main Street on the Middle Border
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1954).
Malcolm Brown and John Webb (WPA),
Seven Stranded Coal Towns
(Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1941); John Coggeshall, “Carbon-Copy Towns? The Regionalization of Ethnic Folklife in Southern Illinois’s Egypt,” in Barbara Allen and Thomas J. Schlereth, eds.,
Sense of Place
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990), 103–19; C. S. Stein,
Toward New Towns for America
(Boston: MIT Press, 1966); Lewis Atherton,
Main Street on the Middle Border
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1954).
10
James Danky, e-mail, 6/2002.
James Danky, e-mail, 6/2002.
11
To be sure, whites still occasionally kill African Americans because they are black, the most notorious recent incident being the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck, but these incidents are not lynchings. A lynching is a public murder, and the dominant forces in the community are usually in league with the perpetrators. Byrd’s death was “merely” a hate crime and a homicide.
To be sure, whites still occasionally kill African Americans because they are black, the most notorious recent incident being the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck, but these incidents are not lynchings. A lynching is a public murder, and the dominant forces in the community are usually in league with the perpetrators. Byrd’s death was “merely” a hate crime and a homicide.
12
Historians debated Woodward’s thesis and persuaded him to recognize that he had overstated it, but 1890–1920 or so is now recognized as a crucial formative period for the “new South.”
Historians debated Woodward’s thesis and persuaded him to recognize that he had overstated it, but 1890–1920 or so is now recognized as a crucial formative period for the “new South.”
13
C. Vann Woodward,
The Strange Career of Jim Crow
(New York: Oxford University Press 1975 [1955]); Edwin Yoder Jr., “The People, Yes,”
Washington Post Book World,
6/15/2003, 6.
C. Vann Woodward,
The Strange Career of Jim Crow
(New York: Oxford University Press 1975 [1955]); Edwin Yoder Jr., “The People, Yes,”
Washington Post Book World,
6/15/2003, 6.
14
The most important national treatment of this backlash is Rayford W. Logan’s
The Negro in American Life and Thought: The Nadir,
reprinted as
The Betrayal of the Negro
(New York: Macmillan Collier, 1965 [1954]), although it too focused on the South. George Sinkler’s
The Racial Attitudes of American Presidents
(Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1971) includes some treatment of the North. Leon Litwack’s pioneering work
North of Slavery
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961) treats the antebellum North, while his later books,
Been in the Storm So Long
(New York: Knopf, 1979) and
Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow
(New York: Knopf, 1998), as the subtitle of the latter suggests, concentrate on the traditional South. Local works are cited in note 8 above and in later chapters.
The most important national treatment of this backlash is Rayford W. Logan’s
The Negro in American Life and Thought: The Nadir,
reprinted as
The Betrayal of the Negro
(New York: Macmillan Collier, 1965 [1954]), although it too focused on the South. George Sinkler’s
The Racial Attitudes of American Presidents
(Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1971) includes some treatment of the North. Leon Litwack’s pioneering work
North of Slavery
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961) treats the antebellum North, while his later books,
Been in the Storm So Long
(New York: Knopf, 1979) and
Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow
(New York: Knopf, 1998), as the subtitle of the latter suggests, concentrate on the traditional South. Local works are cited in note 8 above and in later chapters.
15
Woodward, ibid., xiii.
Woodward, ibid., xiii.
16
Du Quoin resident, 9/2002; Tim Wise,
White Like Me
(New York: Soft Skull Press, 2005), 17.
Du Quoin resident, 9/2002; Tim Wise,
White Like Me
(New York: Soft Skull Press, 2005), 17.
17
Edwina M. DeWindt, “Wyandotte History; Negro” (Wyandotte, MI: typescript, 1945, in Bacon Library, Wyandotte), 12, citing
Wyandotte Herald,
10/7/1898.
Edwina M. DeWindt, “Wyandotte History; Negro” (Wyandotte, MI: typescript, 1945, in Bacon Library, Wyandotte), 12, citing
Wyandotte Herald,
10/7/1898.
18
DeWindt, “Wyandotte History; Negro,” 4.
DeWindt, “Wyandotte History; Negro,” 4.
19
Vienna city employee, 2/2004, confirmed by two other residents;—,“Three Negro Homes Burned Here Monday,”
Vienna Times,
9/9/1954.
Vienna city employee, 2/2004, confirmed by two other residents;—,“Three Negro Homes Burned Here Monday,”
Vienna Times,
9/9/1954.
20
William Gremley, “Social Control in Cicero,” in Allen Grimshaw,
Racial Violence in the U.S.
(Chicago: Aldine, 1969), 170–83; Stephen G. Meyer,
As Long as They Don’t Move Next Door
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), 118.
William Gremley, “Social Control in Cicero,” in Allen Grimshaw,
Racial Violence in the U.S.
(Chicago: Aldine, 1969), 170–83; Stephen G. Meyer,
As Long as They Don’t Move Next Door
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), 118.
21
Peter M. Bergman and Mort N. Bergman,
The Chronological History of the Negro in America
(New York: Mentor, 1969), 527; David Lewis,
King
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 321; Norbert Blei,
Neighborhood
(Peoria: Ellis Press, 1987), 29.
Peter M. Bergman and Mort N. Bergman,
The Chronological History of the Negro in America
(New York: Mentor, 1969), 527; David Lewis,
King
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 321; Norbert Blei,
Neighborhood
(Peoria: Ellis Press, 1987), 29.
22
The term “ethnic cleansing” grew popular in the 1990s to describe what happened as Yugoslavia broke apart. From areas under Serb control, Muslims and Croatians fled, were expelled, sometimes even murdered; pretty much the same happened to Serbs and Muslims in areas under Croatian control; and so forth. The term does not mean “mass murder”; most victims fled but did not perish.
The term “ethnic cleansing” grew popular in the 1990s to describe what happened as Yugoslavia broke apart. From areas under Serb control, Muslims and Croatians fled, were expelled, sometimes even murdered; pretty much the same happened to Serbs and Muslims in areas under Croatian control; and so forth. The term does not mean “mass murder”; most victims fled but did not perish.
23
My web site,
uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundown
, lists some of these riots.
My web site,
uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundown
, lists some of these riots.
24
Since sundown towns are rare in the traditional South, I excluded Wilson, Carter, Clinton, and Gore.
Since sundown towns are rare in the traditional South, I excluded Wilson, Carter, Clinton, and Gore.
25
Cedar County had 37 African American residents in 1890; just 2 remained by 1930. West Branch has a substantial Quaker population, however, and initial research unearthed no oral tradition of sundown practices in the town.
Cedar County had 37 African American residents in 1890; just 2 remained by 1930. West Branch has a substantial Quaker population, however, and initial research unearthed no oral tradition of sundown practices in the town.
26
Even in 2000, Johnson City, Texas, had not 1 black resident among its 1,191 total population; in
Master of the Senate
(New York: Knopf, 2002), Robert A. Caro implies but does not quite state that they were not allowed.
Even in 2000, Johnson City, Texas, had not 1 black resident among its 1,191 total population; in
Master of the Senate
(New York: Knopf, 2002), Robert A. Caro implies but does not quite state that they were not allowed.
27
Cheney traveled to Wyoming to register to vote shortly before the 2000 nominating convention to avoid conflict with the Twelfth Amendment, which prohibits electing a president and vice president from the same state.
Cheney traveled to Wyoming to register to vote shortly before the 2000 nominating convention to avoid conflict with the Twelfth Amendment, which prohibits electing a president and vice president from the same state.
28
McKinley, Bryan, Teddy Roosevelt, Harding, Willkie, Dewey, Truman, LBJ, and George W. Bush grew up or lived in confirmed or probable sundown towns (TR and LBJ are “probable”). Parker, Taft, Hughes, Davis, Cox, Smith, FDR, Landon, Eisenhower, Stevenson, JFK, Goldwater, McGovern, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, Dukakis, and Dole grew up in towns that probably did allow African Americans. I haven’t confirmed or disconfirmed the towns identified with Coolidge, Hoover, Nixon, Humphrey, and Mondale.
McKinley, Bryan, Teddy Roosevelt, Harding, Willkie, Dewey, Truman, LBJ, and George W. Bush grew up or lived in confirmed or probable sundown towns (TR and LBJ are “probable”). Parker, Taft, Hughes, Davis, Cox, Smith, FDR, Landon, Eisenhower, Stevenson, JFK, Goldwater, McGovern, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, Dukakis, and Dole grew up in towns that probably did allow African Americans. I haven’t confirmed or disconfirmed the towns identified with Coolidge, Hoover, Nixon, Humphrey, and Mondale.
29
William D. Jenkins,
Steel Valley Klan
(Kent: Kent State University Press, 1990), 65; Ed Hayes, e-mail to Salem High School bulletin board,
Classmates.com
, 11/2002; Phillip Payne, e-mail, 10/2002; Morris Milgram, “South Has Little to Fear from Truman of Missouri,
Pittsburgh Courier,
10/2/1944; David Mark, “Carpetbagging’s Greatest Hits,”
Washington Post,
8/15/2004.
William D. Jenkins,
Steel Valley Klan
(Kent: Kent State University Press, 1990), 65; Ed Hayes, e-mail to Salem High School bulletin board,
Classmates.com
, 11/2002; Phillip Payne, e-mail, 10/2002; Morris Milgram, “South Has Little to Fear from Truman of Missouri,
Pittsburgh Courier,
10/2/1944; David Mark, “Carpetbagging’s Greatest Hits,”
Washington Post,
8/15/2004.
30
Since 2002, most Krispy Kreme mix has been made in a new factory in Effingham.
Since 2002, most Krispy Kreme mix has been made in a new factory in Effingham.
31
Catherine Jurca,
White Diaspora
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 42.
Catherine Jurca,
White Diaspora
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 42.
32
For a discussion of race in
Gone with the Wind
see Loewen, “Teaching Race Relations Through Feature Films,”
Teaching Sociology
19 (1/91): 82–83, reprinted in Diana Papade-mas,
Visual Sociology
(Washington, D.C.: ASA, 1994).
For a discussion of race in
Gone with the Wind
see Loewen, “Teaching Race Relations Through Feature Films,”
Teaching Sociology
19 (1/91): 82–83, reprinted in Diana Papade-mas,
Visual Sociology
(Washington, D.C.: ASA, 1994).
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