Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism

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Authors: James W. Loewen

BOOK: Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism

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Table of Contents

Also by Jim Loewen

Title Page

Note to the Reader

PART I - Introduction

Chapter 1 - The Importance of Sundown Towns

Sundown Towns Are Almost Everywhere

This History Has Been Hidden

My Own Ignorance

Sundown Towns Are Recent

The Role of Violence

Sundown Nation

Why Dwell On It Now?

Sundown Towns Persist

The Plan of the Book

The Penultimate Denial of Human Rights

Residential Segregation Lives On

Chapter 2 - The Nadir: Incubator of Sundown Towns

Impact of the Civil War

Anti-racist Idealism During and After the Civil War

Welcoming African Americans, 1862–1890

The “Fusion” Period, 1877–1890

The “Three I’s”

The Nadir of Race Relations Sets In

How the Nadir Gave Birth to a Sundown Town

African Americans, Not Racism, Become “the Problem”

History, Popular Culture, and Science Legitimize the Nadir

The Nadir Continued to About 1940

Setting the Stage for the Great Retreat

PART II - The History of Sundown Towns

Chapter 3 - The Great Retreat

Aching to Be All-White

The Chinese Retreat

The Chinese Retreat and the Great Retreat

The Great Retreat Was National

County Populations Show the Great Retreat

The Great Retreat and the Great Migration

The Great Retreat in the Heartland

Sundown Towns in the Far North

The Great Retreat Did Not Strike the “Traditional South”

The Great Retreat from the Rest of the South

The Great Retreat in the West

Sundown Subregions and “Dead Lines”

The Great Retreat from Prime Real Estate

Almost All Suburbs Were Sundown Towns

Sundown Neighborhoods

Creating All-Black Towns

Black Townships

Alternatives to the Great Retreat

The Great Retreat Was No Solution

Chapter 4 - How Sundown Towns Were Created

Creating Sundown Towns by Violence

Creating Sundown Towns by Threat

The Role of the Ku Klux Klan

Creating Sundown Towns by Ordinance

Ordinances, Legal or Illegal?

Creating Sundown Towns by Official Governmental Action

Creating Sundown Towns by Freeze-out

Creating Sundown Towns and Suburbs by Buyout

Creating Sundown Suburbs

All Planned Suburbs Were Intentionally Created All-White

Most “Unplanned” Suburbs Were Also Created All-White

Regardless of the Creation, the Result Was the Same

Chapter 5 - Sundown Suburbs

The Importance of Suburbs

The Good Life

Avoiding the Problems of the City

Blacks as a Key Problem to Be Avoided

Suburbs Start to Go Sundown

Sundown Cemeteries

Keeping Out Jews

Sundown Suburbs Explode After World War II

The FHA Helped Create Our Sundown Suburbs

Too Little, Too Late

PART III - The Sociology of Sundown Towns

Chapter 6 - Underlying Causes

Why African Americans?

The Nadir Made Sundown Towns Possible

Tautological “Causes”

Sundown Suburbs Are Not “Natural” and Not Due to Class

Other Nonsensical “Causes”

Political Ideology as a Cause of Sundown Towns

A Different Pattern in the Upland South: Many Unionist Areas Later Expelled ...

White Ethnic Solidarity

Labor Strife

Chapter 7 - Catalysts and Origin Myths

Labor Strife as Excuse

On the Knife Edge

Claims to Equality Led to Sundown Towns

Threat of School Desegregation Led to Sundown Towns

Other Catalysts

Interracial Rape as Catalyst

Black “Crime Waves” as Catalyst

Catalysts Do Not Explain

Vague or Mislaid Catalyst Stories

Contagion as Catalyst

Catalyst Stories as Origin Myths

Historical Contingency: The Influence of a Single Individual

Contingency Again: The Positive Influence of an Individual

Chapter 8 - Hidden in Plain View: Knowing and Not Knowing About Sundown Towns

Knowing and Not Knowing About Sundown Towns

The Unsuspecting Researcher

American Culture Typically Locates Racism in the South

A Conspiracy of Silence

Silence on the Landscape

Local Newspapers Don’t Say a Thing and Vanish if They Do

Chambers of Commerce Stifle Coverage

Historical Societies Help to Suppress the Truth

Absent from the History Books

Defining “Sundown Town”

All-White on Purpose?

Oral History

Ordinances, Written or Oral?

Ordinances Are Real, Written or Not

Errors of Inclusion and Exclusion

PART IV - Sundown Towns in Operation

Chapter 9 - Enforcement

The Inadvertent Visitor

Public Transportation Through Sundown Towns

Automobile Travel Through Sundown Towns

“Driving While Black”

Sundown During the Daytime

Night Work in Sundown Towns

Economic and Social Ostracism

Harassing Invited Guests

The Importance of the City Limits

Zoning

Defended Neighborhoods

Policies and Ordinances

Restrictive Covenants

Real Estate Agents as the Front Line of Defense

Other Elements of the “System”

The Grosse Pointe System

Picking on Children

How One Town Stayed White Down the Years

Violence

Developing a Reputation

The 1964 Civil Rights Act Made Little Difference

Chapter 10 - Exceptions to the Sundown Rule

African American Servants

Hotel Workers

Refugees, Soldiers, Students, and Other Transients

Having a Protector

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