Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism (95 page)

BOOK: Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism
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55
Derfner successfully sued a small town to change an ordinance that he was able to find in its records, but neither the original ordinance nor the new version ever got into the file of codified ordinances.
It is possible that knowledge of
Buchanan v. Warley
prompted city councils to avoid putting any ordinance in writing, thus making legal attack more difficult, but I doubt it. Not only does no oral history or other evidence support this hypothesis, I have uncovered no concern about such a challenge outside the South. Moreover, southern and border cities continued to enact
Buchanan
-like segregation ordinances for decades, despite their unconstitutionality.
56
Armand Derfner, 11/2003.
57
Landis quoted in Ken Burns,
Baseball
(PBS, 1994).
58
Harrisburg (IL)
Daily Register,
4/5/1923.
59
Clayton Cramer, e-mail, 6/2000.
60
Letter to
New York Times
citing 3/15/1973 story, my italics; John D. Baskerville, e-mail, 7/2003; I eliminated the name of the city councilor because Baskerville was not certain of it.
61
Nationally it is also possible, I suppose, that a plethora of errors of inclusion might convince readers that sundown towns have been more common than in reality they have. Such errors might unnecessarily increase readers’ motivation to eliminate sundown policies, sending some readers charging off to fix something that isn’t broken. Since so many towns and suburbs
have
been unwelcoming to African Americans, however, increasing the cross-racial hospitality of all-white communities, even some that were all-white only by accident, will hardly harm our nation.
62
Pinckneyville native, e-mail, 6/2001.
63
My web site,
uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundown
, contains a longer discussion of my methods, including my assessment of sources on three additional towns, and can help you decide if you should trust my judgment.
CHAPTER 9: ENFORCEMENT
 
1
Michelle Tate, typescript, 10/2002.
2
Illinois State Register,
8/17 or 8/18/1908, quoted in Roberta Senechal,
The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 129.
3
Billy Bob Lightfoot, “The Negro Exodus from Comanche County, Texas,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
56 (January 1953): 415.
4
“For White Men Only,” Fairmont (WV)
Free Press,
12/7/1905.
5
Ann Hammons,
Wild Bill Sullivan
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1980), 52; Gregg Andrews,
City of Dust
(Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996), 11; probably notes from an interview by Van Ravenswaay, Missouri state supervisor of the WPA Federal Writers Project, with Judge Williams, 11/20/1937, now in folder 1089, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri.
6
Senechal,
The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot,
130.
7
Comanche County historical society spokesman, 8/2003; Lightfoot, “The Negro Exodus from Comanche County, Texas,” 415; Bud Kennedy, “Signs of a Racist Past in the Small Towns of Texas,”
Ft. Worth Star Telegram,
2/17/2002,
realcities.com/mld/startelegram/mon/news/columnists/bud_kennedy/archive.htm
; Ronald L. Lewis,
Black Coal Miners in America
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1987), 83–84; “Negroes Killed or Driven Away,”
Chicago Tribune,
8/21/1901.
8
William Pickens, “Arkansas—A Study in Suppression,” originally published in
The Messenger 5
(January 1923), reprinted in Tom Lutz and Susanna Ashton, eds.,
These “Colored” United States
(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996), 35; Arthur F. Raper,
The Tragedy of Lynching
(New York: Dover, 1970 [1933]), 452.
9
“See First Dark Face in County in Many Years,”
Chicago Defender,
4/2/1921; Esther Sanderson,
County Scott and Its Mountain Folk
(Nashville: Williams Printing, 1958), 186.
10
Tate, typescript, 10/2002; David Blair, e-mail via
Classmates.com
, 3/5/2003; motel clerk, Owosso, 10/2002.
11
Jeanne Blackburn, e-mail, 11/2003.
12
Scotland native, e-mail, 6/2002.
13
“White Men Shoot Up Church Excursioners,”
Pittsburgh Courier,
8/17/1940.
14
Barbara Elliott Carpenter fictionalizes this incident in
Starlight, Starbright . . . ,
a novel for teenagers (Bloomington, IL: 1st Books, 2003), 185–200, including the antipathy that underlay the helpful gesture.
15
Helen Harrelson, 10/2002; former Pinckneyville resident, e-mail, 6/2002; elderly white Harrison couple, 9/2002; Arcola native, e-mail, 1/2003; cf. Barbara Elliott Carpenter, e-mail, 9/2002; several African Americans at Crispus Attucks Museum, Indianapolis, 8/2001.
16
Jean Nipps Swaim, “Black History in Cedar County, Missouri,” in
Black Families of the Ozarks,
Bulletin 45 (Springfield, MO: Greene County Archives, n.d.), 2:535; Shirley Manning, e-mail, 9/2002; Carl Jackson, 1/2004.
17
John Keiser, 1/2005; woman at Richland Community College, 10/2001; Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad,
Nameless Towns: Texas Sawmill Communities, 1880–1942
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998), 108–9; Millie Meyerholtz,
When Hatred and Fear Ruled . . . Pana, Illinois: The 1898–99 Mine War
(Pana, IL: Pana News, 2001), 34; 1986 Resident Assistant at Indiana University, e-mail, 11/5/2002.
18
James Clayton, e-mail, 11/2002; student from Salem, University of Illinois–Chicago, 10/2002; Melissa Sue Brewer, e-mail, 8/2002; Dwight ambulance volunteer, e-mail, 10/2003; cf. Kenneth Meeks,
Driving While Black
(New York: Broadway, 2000); David A. Harris,
Profiles in Injustice
(New York: New Press, 2002).
19
Mary Pat Baumgartner,
The Moral Order of a Suburb
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 119–20; Gary Kennedy, e-mail, 6/2002.
20
Gregory Dorr, e-mail, 7/2002.
21
Bob Johnson, e-mail, 1/2003; name withheld by request, e-mail, 10/2002.
22
Ibid.
23
Harris,
Profiles in Injustice,
105.
24
Frank U. Quillen,
The Color Line in Ohio
(Ann Arbor: Wahr, 1913), 161; Wali R. Kharif, e-mail, 9/2002, citing William Hiram Parrish, interview, 12/23/1975, and Walter Maxey, interview, 12/29/1975, in the Folklife Collection, Western Kentucky University; Elvin Light, 6/2002; Herbert Aptheker, remarks at the graveside of Mary Brown, Saratoga, CA, 5/6/2000, and letter, 7/7/2000; Tate, typescript, 10/2002; Wise County, Virginia, native, e-mail, 8/2002; African American Bluefield native, b. 1932, 3/2004.
25
Washabaugh quoted in David M. P. Freund, “Making It Home,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1999, 548; Carole Goodwin,
The Oak Park Strategy
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 98; Baumgartner,
The Moral Order of a Suburb,
119–20; Diane Hershberger, 11/2000.
26
Al Brophy, 4/2002.
27
“Tricksters Discourage Black Settlers,” undated, unidentified newspaper clipping in files of Rogers Historical Museum.
28
“Attorney Is Driven from Court,”
Chicago Defender,
12/24/1921.
29
“Negroes Are Threatened,”
Benton Republican,
7/26/1923.
30
Olen Cole Jr.,
The African-American Experience in the Civilian Conservation Corps
(Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999), 19, 30, 57; Shirley Ann Moore, “Getting There, Being There,” in Joe W. Trotter Jr., ed.,
The Great Migration in Historical Perspective
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 57, 107–11.
31
DeWindt, “Wyandotte History; Negro,” 24–26, quoting
Wyandotte Daily News,
12/4/1935, and
Wyandotte Herald,
12/6/1935.
32
Truman K. Gibson, Jr., civilian aide to the secretary of war, remarks to Illinois Inter-Racial Commission, 12/19/1943, minutes in Illinois State Archives, 7.
33
Stetson Kennedy,
Jim Crow Guide
(Boca Raton: Florida Atlantic University Press, 1990 [1959]), 80; Emma Lou Thornbrough,
The Negro in Indiana
(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1957), 226.
34
“Blacks in Greenbelt,” summarizing research by W. H. Form,
otal.umd.edu/~vg/mssp96/ms12/expla.html
, 10/2002; Tate, typescript, 10/2002.
35
Former theater worker, e-mail, 10/2002; Peoria resident, 2/2001.
36
Oak Lawn librarians, 4/1997; University of Illinois–Chicago student, 9/2001; person at Mattoon, 10/2002.
37
Khan let the man live in the motel; after a few months he went back to his hometown.
38
The 2000 census lists nine households with at least one black householder, so Paragould may be moving beyond its sundown status.
39
Jim Clayton, 11/2002; Nick Khan, 9/2002.
40
Female 1983 Goshen College graduate, relayed by Kathryn Reimer, e-mail, 9/2004; Stephen Crow, e-mail via
Classmates.com
, 11/2004.
41
Elice Swanson, e-mail, 1/2003; Dyanna McCarty, e-mail, 10/2002 (her italics).
42
Lois Mark Stalvey,
The Education of a WASP
(New York: William Morrow, 1970).
43
Cullman native, e-mail, 5/2002; Virginia Cowan, “An Essay,”
robandjen.net/jen/mom.html
, 10/2002.
44
“Norman Mob After Singie Smith Jazz,” Norman, OK, 2/5/1922, in
Oklahoma City Black Dispatch,
2/9/1922, 1, thanks to Al Brophy; “Don’t Let the Sun Set on You Here, Understand?”
Chicago Defender,
2/11/1922.
45
Henry Louis Gates Jr.,
Colored People
(New York: Knopf, 1994), 119–20; Henry Louis Gates Sr., 7/2002.
46
Swaim, “Black History in Cedar County, Missouri,” 535; Mary Jo Hubbard, e-mail to Classmates. com bulletin board, 12/2002, her ellipses.
47
Ironically, Neenah and Menasha may also have been sundown towns, but at least someone or some hotel in one of them was willing to let her spend the night.
48
In her autobiography, Anderson tells how hotels occasionally housed black celebrities such as herself, even though she could sense they admitted no other African Americans.
49
Marian Anderson,
My Lord, What a Morning
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992 [1956]), 239–40, 267–68; “Einstein” exhibit label, American Museum of Natural History, 12/2002; Judy Zimmerman Herr, e-mail, 3/2002; librarian, Appleton, 4/2002.
50
Howard Bryant,
Talk of the Nation,
NPR, 9/26/2002.
51
Elderly couple, Harrison, AR, 9/2002; Grey Gundaker, e-mails, 7/2002.
52
Pinckneyville native, e-mail, 6/2001.
53
Steve Bogira, “Hate, Chicago Style,”
Chicago Reader,
12/5/1986.
54
Zeigler miner, 9/2002.
55
Ray Stannard Baker,
Following the Color Line
(New York: Harper Torchbook, 1964 [1908]), 126.
56
Browne quoted in Shane Johnson, “Read No Evil,”
Salt Lake City Weekly,
9/25/2003,
slweekly.com/editorial/2003/feat_2003-09-25.cfm
, 10/2003; Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic,
Home-Grown Racism
(Boulder: University of Colorado Latino/a Research & Policy Center, 1999), 30, 44, 74.
57
Pinckneyville resident, Greenup resident at Mattoon, 10/2002; Martinsville native, 10/2002; Mel Dubofsky, e-mail, 6/2002.
58
Former resident, LaSalle-Peru, e-mail, 10/2001.
59
Elizabethtown graduate, 8/2004.
60
Actually, although considered a sundown county, Madison County does contain Mars Hill, a small college town that allowed African Americans to live in it.
61
“Where Negroes are Barred,”
Charlotte Daily Observer,
8/18/1906.
62
Dante Chinni, “Along Detroit’s Eight Mile Road, a Stark Racial Split,”
Christian Science Monitor,
csmonitor.com/2002/1115/p01s02-ussc.html
, 11/15/2002.
63
Freund, “Making It Home,” 93–95, 120; Orfield quoted in Dennis R. Judd, “The Role of Governmental Policies in Promoting Residential Segregation in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area,”
Journal of Negro Education
66, 3 (1997): 233; Deborah Morse-Kahn,
Edina: Chapters in the City History
(Edina: City of Edina, 1998), 94.

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