I just returned from trip to Syracuse, NY, where I had the good fortune of hearing historian James Loewen speak about his new book, "Sundown Towns." In a word, it's fascinating. Loewen documents how the South effectively won the US Civil War (a.k.a., "The War Between the States"), given the propagation of racist ideologies and practices nationwide thereafter. He looks specifically at the flourishing of what he calls "sundown towns," that is, of towns that implemented both implicit and explicit policies to exclude people of color (and sometimes Jewish people, too) from living in their communities. And lest you think this practice was uncommon in the North, think again. Loewen spends a great deal of time documenting more than 400 such towns in Illinois alone (a blue state, no less), and he estimates that as many as 10,000 of them have existed in the US as a whole. Frighteningly, I happen to live about 1/2 hour from one, and to this day the folklore (which seems to be all too true) says that people of color shouldn't stop there after dark. How far, indeed, have we come?
Monday, October 10, 2005
Don't let the sun go down on me...
I just returned from trip to Syracuse, NY, where I had the good fortune of hearing historian James Loewen speak about his new book, "Sundown Towns." In a word, it's fascinating. Loewen documents how the South effectively won the US Civil War (a.k.a., "The War Between the States"), given the propagation of racist ideologies and practices nationwide thereafter. He looks specifically at the flourishing of what he calls "sundown towns," that is, of towns that implemented both implicit and explicit policies to exclude people of color (and sometimes Jewish people, too) from living in their communities. And lest you think this practice was uncommon in the North, think again. Loewen spends a great deal of time documenting more than 400 such towns in Illinois alone (a blue state, no less), and he estimates that as many as 10,000 of them have existed in the US as a whole. Frighteningly, I happen to live about 1/2 hour from one, and to this day the folklore (which seems to be all too true) says that people of color shouldn't stop there after dark. How far, indeed, have we come?
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2 comments:
What sundown town are you near?
Hi Jim,
My apologies! This entry got archived and I missed your comment. I live near Martinsville, Indiana, which you mentioned in your talk at Syracuse U. back in October. There's a popular sentiment among African American students here at Indiana University (in Bloomington, which is about 25 minutes south of Martinsville) that's its unsafe to stop there after dark....
Your talk was fascinating and I look forward to reading the book--and buying it for friends and family. By the way, I grew up in Goshen, New York, which is a small town about 60 miles northwest of New York City. It was a nice place to come of age in some respects, though it was a very, very white community. Do you know of any sundown towns in or around that area (Orange County, NY)? I'd like to know more about the racial history of my geography and upbringing.
Thanks for writing,
Ted
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