Sundown Towns

The other day, while browsing the internet on unrelated topics, I stumbled upon someone mentioning a "Sundown Town". A Sundown Town is defined as a neighborhood or municipality which prohibits certain races (most commonly African Americans) from staying within the area at night (hence, "sundown"). These laws, common from the late 1800s through the mid 1900s, allowed the minorities to stay and work during the day, possibly spend their money in town, but immediately kicks them out once the white residents believe they would be dangerous. What is perhaps most notable about the existence of these towns is that they were primarily located not in the South, but in many Northern, Western, and Midwest towns. While freed African Americans continued to live in rural towns in the South, many of them moved into cities in the North. So many of the small towns in the North never had a substantial population of African Americans. To ensure this would continue, these small towns enacted these laws, thereby guaranteeing that their towns would stay white (if you can't stay in town after dark, how can you own a home there?). But these laws didn't just prevent living. The signs and the pseudo-laws often threatened harassment and violence up to lynching for those unlucky enough to be found after dark.

I attempted to look up whether my own hometown was guilty of this sordid past. While my personal hometown, Hudson, OH does not show any evidence one way or another (and is listed as "Possible"), other towns nearby do. The town I was originally born in, Chippewa Township, is listed as "Probable". For evidence, there is census data which shows 122 African Americans living there in 1880, and then 0 in 1900. There is a disturbing story about a strike at a nearby mine, where the striking white miners were temporarily replaced with black miners from Virginia. Those miners and the barricade protecting the mine were attacked. None of those miners ever settled in town.

The most damning evidence seen for a nearby town was undoubtedly for Amherst, OH. Here, to this day, there is a siren that goes off at 6pm everyday. Those in the town today have asked older members of the community what the siren is/was for, and they explain in graphic terms: ""It wasn't until 1978 or 1979 that my parents told me why the fire alarm went off everyday at 6:00pm. The phrase was 'The sun never sets on a N____ in Amherst.' I heard racial slurs and signs of prejudice frequently." The town was 100% white through the mid-60s. These are all personal anecdotes, and one person on the site states that the siren was only "siren check" every day (though in most other cities I've known, siren checks are usually weekly). Still, the existence of these rumors, if they are only that, shows the beliefs of the town. 

The Sundown Towns were dangerous and proves a hassle to any African Americans traveling throughout the country. Any one traveling would need to plan days ahead to ensure they didn't run out of gas or try to stay overnight in one of the many racist towns, thus endangering their own lives. These towns existed primarily outside the South, showing that the racism and violence were not isolated to Memphis and Atlanta and the rest of the Deep South. It was not as easy as just moving North to those suffering under the boot of racism.