Segregation in the US: Difference between revisions

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  EJI researchers documented 4075 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950—at least 800 more lynchings of Black people in these states than previously reported in the most comprehensive work done on lynching to date.
  EJI researchers documented 4075 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950—at least 800 more lynchings of Black people in these states than previously reported in the most comprehensive work done on lynching to date.


=====INTRODUCTION=====
=====America’s history of racial inequality continues to haunt us. =====
[https://segregationinamerica.eji.org/report/introduction.html by eji]
[https://segregationinamerica.eji.org/report/introduction.html by eji]
  In the 1950s and 1960s, heroic civil rights activists staged a valiant revolt against racial inequality that compelled our nation to change some of its most racially offensive practices and policies. The Civil Rights Movement profoundly changed the character of American society and opened doors for people of color that had too long been barred by bigotry and ignorance. There has been substantial progress on a range of issues as a result of increased participation by non-white people in the political process. Diversity has become a demand that has strengthened the political, social, cultural, and economic landscape in significant and visible ways.
  In the 1950s and 1960s, heroic civil rights activists staged a valiant revolt against racial inequality that compelled our nation to change some of its most racially offensive practices and policies. The Civil Rights Movement profoundly changed the character of American society and opened doors for people of color that had too long been barred by bigotry and ignorance. There has been substantial progress on a range of issues as a result of increased participation by non-white people in the political process. Diversity has become a demand that has strengthened the political, social, cultural, and economic landscape in significant and visible ways.
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  Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, the question of how far we’ve come in eliminating segregated education is not a simple one. Gwen Ifill leads a discussion with Cheryl Brown Henderson of the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research, Sheryll Cashin of Georgetown University, Catherine Lhamon of the Department of Education and Ron Brownstein of Atlantic Media.
  Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, the question of how far we’ve come in eliminating segregated education is not a simple one. Gwen Ifill leads a discussion with Cheryl Brown Henderson of the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research, Sheryll Cashin of Georgetown University, Catherine Lhamon of the Department of Education and Ron Brownstein of Atlantic Media.


=====Introduction=====
=====Introduction ACLU=====
[https://www.aclu.org/about/aclu-history by ACLU History]
[https://www.aclu.org/about/aclu-history by ACLU History]
  In the years following World War I, America was gripped by the fear that the Communist Revolution that had taken place in Russia would spread to the United States. As is often the case when fear outweighs rational debate, civil liberties paid the price. In November 1919 and January 1920, in what notoriously became known as the “Palmer Raids,” Attorney General Mitchell Palmer began rounding up and deporting so-called radicals. Thousands of people were arrested without warrants and without regard to constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure. Those arrested were brutally treated and held in horrible conditions.
  In the years following World War I, America was gripped by the fear that the Communist Revolution that had taken place in Russia would spread to the United States. As is often the case when fear outweighs rational debate, civil liberties paid the price. In November 1919 and January 1920, in what notoriously became known as the “Palmer Raids,” Attorney General Mitchell Palmer began rounding up and deporting so-called radicals. Thousands of people were arrested without warrants and without regard to constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure. Those arrested were brutally treated and held in horrible conditions.
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  When Reconstruction ended in 1877, 90% of African Americans lived in the South. As white southerners regained political control in state and local governments, they passed new laws restricting African Americans. The new laws segregated Black and white people and condemned African Americans to an inferior and second-class citizenship. In response, African Americans created institutions that sustained their communities.
  When Reconstruction ended in 1877, 90% of African Americans lived in the South. As white southerners regained political control in state and local governments, they passed new laws restricting African Americans. The new laws segregated Black and white people and condemned African Americans to an inferior and second-class citizenship. In response, African Americans created institutions that sustained their communities.


====A history of Segregation In The United States=====
=====A history of Segregation In The United States=====
[https://www.irp.wisc.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Focus-34-4a.pdf by Focus]
[https://www.irp.wisc.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Focus-34-4a.pdf by Focus]
  While civil rights efforts have worked to abolish segregation in
  While civil rights efforts have worked to abolish segregation in
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[https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/sundown-towns/ by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT]
[https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/sundown-towns/ by ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT]
  “Don’t let the sun go down on you in this town.” We equate these words with the Jim Crow South but, in a sweeping analysis of American residential patterns, award-winning and bestselling author James W. Loewen demonstrates that strict racial exclusion was the norm in towns and villages across the United States, from sea to shining sea, for much of the twentieth century.
  “Don’t let the sun go down on you in this town.” We equate these words with the Jim Crow South but, in a sweeping analysis of American residential patterns, award-winning and bestselling author James W. Loewen demonstrates that strict racial exclusion was the norm in towns and villages across the United States, from sea to shining sea, for much of the twentieth century.
=====Sundown Towns=====
[https://justice.tougaloo.edu/sundown-towns/ by HISTORY & SOCIAL JUSTICE]
From Maine to California, thousands of communities kept out African Americans (or sometimes Chinese Americans, Jewish Americans, etc.) by force, law, or custom. These communities are sometimes called “sundown towns” because some of them posted signs at their city limits reading, typically, “Nigger, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On You In.
=====sundown town=====
[https://www.britannica.com/place/sundown-town by Will Gosner  10/10/25 Britannica]
sundown town, in U.S. history, a town that excluded nonwhite people—most frequently African Americans—from remaining in town after sunset. More generally, sundown town is used to describe a place where the resident population was through deliberate action made to be overwhelmingly composed of white people.
=====Sundown Towns=====
[https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/sundown-towns/ by Ross Coen 24/8/20 BLACKPAST]
Sundown Towns are all-white communities, neighborhoods, or counties that exclude Blacks and other minorities through the use of discriminatory laws, harassment, and threats or use of violence. The name derives from the posted and verbal warnings issued to Blacks that although they might be allowed to work or travel in a community during the daytime, they must leave by sundown.
=====Structural racism through Sundown towns and its relationship to COVID-19 local risk and racial and ethnic diversity=====
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335523001511 by Yulin Hswen ScienceDirect]
“Sundown towns” across the US prevented racial and ethnic minorities from living and working within their borders as they forced minorities to leave these towns after sunset. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between sundown town status, COVID-19 local risk index and racial and ethnic diversity. A multi-level hierarchical model was used to examine the effect of historical segregation through sundown towns status on present day COVID-19 local risk index and city-level diversity.
=====Historical Shadows: The Links between Sundown Towns and Contemporary Black–White Inequality=====
[https://www.asanet.org/wp-content/uploads/attach/journals/jul19srefeature.pdf by Heather A. O’Connell1]
I contribute to our understanding of black–white inequality in the United States by assessing the legacy of
“sundown towns.” Sundown towns are places that restricted who could live there based on ideas about
race. The often-violent tactics employed to create and maintain all-white spaces reshaped dramatically
the demographic and social landscape of the non-South. I extend previous research on sundown towns
by examining their association with contemporary black–white economic inequality. In addition, I advance
a new theoretical perspective to explain how the history associated with sundown towns contributes to
contemporary inequality, namely large-scale segregation. To assess the contemporary impact of sundown
history
=====Defining Sundown Towns=====
[https://academyhealth.org/blog/2024-08/legacy-sundown-towns-persistent-force-structural-inequities-health by Leia Belt, M.A., Ph.D. 29/8/24 Academy Health]
The legacy of sundown towns—any organized jurisdictions that employed violence to enforce exclusionary and segregation policies against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)—is not merely a concealed relic of a racist past but a persistent force perpetuating structural inequities that contribute to ongoing health disparities. Because they are often seen as shameful and concealed from American history, sundown towns—most prevalent in the Midwest and the West—are frequently excluded from discussions of places with a legacy of structural violence and segregation. Incorporating measures of sundown town histories into health services research (HSR) will enable research, policy and interventions to identify the enduring upstream root causes of health inequities, even in rural and data restricted areas.
=====Sundown Towns and Racial Exclusion: The Southern White Diaspora and the "Great Retreat"=====
[https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20221104 by AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION]
This paper studies the rise of sundown towns—places where Blacks and other minorities were excluded after dark—outside the South after 1890. We provide a new dataset on the timing of sundown town establishment using full count census records. Using a shift-share instrumental variables approach, we show that the presence of Southern Whites is causally related to the appearance of sundown towns, with lynchings and the establishment of KKK chapters as plausible mechanisms for racial exclusion.
=====A national data set of historical US sundown towns for quantitative analysis=====
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-024-04330-9 by David Rigby 8/1/25 scientific reports]
We present a new national data set of historical sundown towns in the United States linked to contemporary spatial information – i.e., the Historical Sundown Towns Linked to US Census Geographies database. Sundown towns are places that once enacted legal or conventional practices meant to restrict the movement or residency of Black people and other people of color within their borders.
=====List of sundown towns in the United States=====
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sundown_towns_in_the_United_States by WIKIPEDIA]
A sundown town is a municipality or neighborhood within the United States that practices or once practiced a form of racial segregation characterized by intimidation, hostility, or violence among White people directed toward non-Whites, especially against African Americans. The term "sundown town" derives from the practice of White towns then erecting signage alerting non-Whites to vacate the area before sundown.
=====Sundown Towns=====
[https://www.prrac.org/newsletters/novdec2005.pdf by PRRAC]
Between 1890 and 1968, thousands
of towns across the United States drove
out their black populations or took steps
to forbid African Americans from living in them. Thus were created “sundown towns,” so named because many
marked their city limits with signs typically reading, “Nigger, Don’t Let The
Sun Go Down On You In
=====Sundown Towns Are Still A Problem For Black Drivers=====
[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adeonibada/sundown-towns-racism-black-drivers-tiktok by Ade Onibada 22/7/21 BuzzFeedNews]
When 30-year-old hiker Marco Williams journeyed from his home in Prince George’s County, Maryland, to visit Devil’s Bathtub in deep Virginia in June of last year, the outdoor enthusiast never imagined that a stop for gas would present him with a warning that potentially saved his life.
=====Historical Database of Sundown Towns=====
[https://landtrustalliance.org/resources/learn/explore/historical-database-of-sundown-towns by James W. Lowewen 2/8/24 Land Trust Alliance]
The world’s only registry of sundown towns, entire communities that for decades was all-white on purpose. The site contains images, tips for teaching, and strategies for transcending its past and building good race relations.
=====AP Road Trip: Racial tensions in America’s ‘sundown towns’=====
[https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-race-and-ethnicity-violence-db28a9aaa3b800d91b65dc11a6b12c4c by TIM SULLIVAN and NOREEN NASIR 13/10/20 AP]
VIENNA, Ill. (AP) — Ask around this time-battered Midwestern town, with its empty storefronts, dusty antique shops and businesses that have migrated toward the interstate, and nearly everyone will tell you that Black and white residents get along really well.
=====Sundown towns - Washington State=====
[https://depts.washington.edu/covenants/sundown_towns.shtml by Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium / University of Washington]
Black people were not allowed to live in many towns and suburbs in Washington state during the era before the National Fair Housing Act (1968) and some towns operated with unofficial sundown rules. African Americans might work in the community but were expected to leave in the evening. Black men would be harrassed after dark, either by law enforcement or by white residents, typically young men in cars. Kennewick was the most notorious sundown town in Washington.
=====The Importance of Sundown Towns=====
[https://sundown.tougaloo.edu/content/sundown-introduction.pdf]
ANNA IS A TOWN of about 7,000 people, including adjoining Jonesboro.
The twin towns lie about 35 miles north of Cairo, in southern Illinois. In
1909, in the aftermath of a horrific nearby “spectacle lynching,” Anna and
Jonesboro expelled their African Americans. Both cities have been all-white
ever since.1 Nearly a century later, “Anna” is still considered by its residents
and by citizens of nearby towns to mean “Ain’t No Niggers Allowed,” the
acronym the convenience store clerk confirmed in 2001.
=====Sundown Towns: 'Hiding' Racism Right in the Open=====
[https://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/sundown-towns.htm by John Donovan howstuffworks]
At a certain time in American history, if you happened to be of a certain racial heritage — that is to say, not white — it was probably best not to hang around after dark in certain cities and certain places. It was possibly dangerous. Sometimes deadly.
=====Racial Exclusion in Oregon=====
[https://oregonremembrance.org/sunrise-project/the-history/ by History]
When Oregon became a state in 1859, it entered into the Union with Black exclusionary laws, essentially making it a “whites only state.” In 1890, 17 of Oregon’s 32 counties had 0-10 African Americans living in them.
=====What is a Sundown Town? A Dark History of Exclusion=====
[https://greenbookglobal.com/travel-the-world/what-is-a-sundown-town/ by GREEN BOOK]
Few Americans know the term “sundown town,” yet the phenomenon is ubiquitous in our country’s history. So what is a sundown town? It is any municipality that uses intimidation to deliberately exclude non-white people from its borders after sunset.
=====It’s Time for Sundown Towns to Become a More Visible Part of Illinois History. But How?=====
[https://www.propublica.org/article/sundown-towns-illinois-history by Logan Jaffe 21/2/20 PROPUBLICA]
I was in Springfield this week to talk about my reporting in Anna, Illinois, and sundown towns like Anna. My talk was held at the Springfield public library — which, I must point out, is officially named Lincoln Library, The Public Library of Springfield, Illinois. It was hosted by the Sangamon County Historical Society in partnership with the Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum, and, between those two organizations, the room was packed!
=====Sundown towns : a hidden dimension of American racism / James W. Loewen.=====
[https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/215868?ln=en by UC Berkeley Law Library Catalog]
Loewen (emeritus, sociology, U. of Vermont) exposes the history and persistence of "sundown towns," so-named for the signs often found at their corporate limits warning African Americans and other minorities not to be found in the town after dusk. He historically situates the rise of the sundown town movement in the years following the Civil War; describes the mechanisms of violence, threats, law, and policy that were used to force minorities out of Northern and Western towns into the big cities; and charts the continued existence of such communities.
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