All-white municipalities that practice a form of racial segregation
Part of a series of articles on
Racial and ethnic segregation
Overview
Anti-miscegenation laws
Crime of apartheid
Allegations
Caste
Xenophobia
Environmental / Institutional racism
Ethnic nationalism
Forced displacement
Housing discrimination
Exclusionary zoning
Redlining
Settler colonialism
Historical examples
Australia
Canada
Pass system
Separate schools
Indian hospitals
Fascist Italy
French colonial empire
Code Noir
Indigénat
Greek–Turkish population exchange
Jewish ghettos in Europe
Pale of Settlement
Partition of India
Portugal & Spain
Nazi Germany
Nuremberg Laws
Rhodesia
South Africa
Bantustans
Pass laws
United Kingdom
United States
Black Codes
Jim Crow laws
Separate but equal
Contemporary examples
Anti-Romanyism
Italy
Romania
Slovenia
Roma walls
Bosnia–Herzegovina
Schools
Brazil
Cyprus
Gulf states
Saudi Arabia
UAE
South Asian labourers
India
Uthapuram
Muslims
Israel
Palestinian enclaves / law
Hafrada
Barriers
Malaysia
Mauritania
Morocco
Myanmar
Northern Ireland
Sudan
United States
Academies
Housing
Schools
Residential
Xinjiang
Yemen
Related
Citizenship
Statelessness
Forced assimilation
Gender apartheid
Income inequality
One-drop rule
Slavery
Category
Commons
v
t
e
Part of a series on the
Nadir of American race relations
Violence in the 1906 Atlanta race massacre
Historical background
Reconstruction era
Voter suppression
Disfranchisement
Redeemers
Compromise of 1877
Jim Crow laws
Segregation
Anti-miscegenation laws
Convict leasing
Practices
Common actions
Expulsions of African Americans
Lynchings
Lynching postcards
Sundown town
Whitecapping
Vigilante groups
Black Legion
Indiana White Caps
Ku Klux Klan
Red Shirts
Lynchings
Michael Green
Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer
Eliza Woods
Amos Miller
George Meadows
Joe Vermillion
Jim Taylor
Joe Coe
People's Grocery
Ephraim Grizzard
Alfred Blount
Samuel J. Bush
Stephen Williams
Frazier B. Baker and Julia Baker
John Henry James
Sam Hose
George Ward
David Wyatt
Marie Thompson
Watkinsville
Ed Johnson
William Burns
Walker family
Laura and L. D. Nelson
King Johnson
John Evans
Jesse Washington
Newberry Six
Anthony Crawford
Ell Persons
Jim McIlherron
George Taylor
John Hartfield
1920 Duluth
James Harvey and Joe Jordan
Joe Pullen
Massacres and riots
Opelousas massacre
Rock Springs massacre
Thibodaux massacre
Spring Valley Race Riot of 1895
Phoenix election riot
Wilmington insurrection of 1898
Pana riot
Robert Charles riots
Evansville race riot
Atlanta Massacre of 1906
Springfield race riot of 1908
Johnson–Jeffries riots
1912 racial conflict in Forsyth County
1917 Chester race riot
East St. Louis riots
Elaine massacre
Red Summer
Chicago race riot of 1919
Washington race riot of 1919
Ocoee massacre
Tulsa race massacre
Perry race riot
Rosewood massacre
Reactions
Anti-lynching movement
Exodusters movement
Great Migration
Back to Africa movement
Related topics
Black genocide
Civil rights movement (1865–1896)
Civil rights movement (1896–1954)
Mass racial violence in the United States
v
t
e
Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, are all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States and Canada that were most prevalent before the mid-20th century, which practiced a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation or violence. The term came into use because of signs that directed "colored people" to leave town by sundown.[1][2]
Entire sundown counties[3] and sundown suburbs were created as well. While the number of sundown towns decreased following the civil rights movement[clarification needed], some commentators hold that certain 21st-century practices perpetuate a modified version of the sundown town.[4][5]
Discriminatory policies and actions distinguish sundown towns from towns that have no black residents for demographic reasons. Historically, towns have been confirmed as sundown towns by newspaper articles, county histories, and Works Progress Administration files; this information has been corroborated by tax or U.S. census records showing an absence of black people or a sharp drop in the black population between two censuses.[6][3][7]
^Morgan, Gordon D. (1973). Black Hillbillies of the Arkansas Ozarks. Assistance by Dina Cagle and Linde Harned. Fayetteville: U of AR Dept. of Sociology. p. 60. OCLC 2509042.
^"Racial Segregation of Black People in Canada". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
^ abLoewen, James William (2009). "Sundown Towns and Counties: Racial Exclusion in the South". Southern Cultures. 15 (1): 22–44. doi:10.1353/scu.0.0044. S2CID 143592671.
^Cite error: The named reference YNews was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Loewen3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Loewen, James William. "Sundown Towns on Stage and Screen". History News Network.
^"Shedding Light on Sundown Towns". www.asanet.org. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
Sundowntowns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, are all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States and Canada...
The Town That Dreaded Sundown may refer to: The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 film), a horror film loosely based on the 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders...
Look up sundown in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Sundown is a synonym for sunset. Sundown may also refer to: Sundown, Queensland, a locality in the...
shooting. Others thought the lyrics were supportive of lynchings and sundowntowns. Sharon Knolle of TheWrap likewise noted such comparisons among users...
Age and the Progressive Era, and was characterized by the nationwide sundowntown phenomenon. Logan's focus was exclusively on African Americans in the...
Sundown Heaven Town is the thirteenth studio album by American country music artist Tim McGraw. It was released on September 16, 2014 by Big Machine Records...
McDuffie, Dwayne (w), Luis, Jose (p), Mayer, J.P. (i). "Welcome To SundownTown Part Two: Shadow and Act" Justice League of America, vol. 2, no. 28 (February...
in the United States Racism in the United States Second-class citizen Sundowntown Timeline of the civil rights movement The New Jim Crow Fremon, David...
Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its rotation...
James Loewen's SundownTowns, this may be a vestige of Burroughs's having been from Oak Park, Illinois, a former Sundowntown (a town that forbids non-white...
cycle. Bart Allison and his true and faithful friend Sam ride into the town of Sundown. Blinded by hate, Bart has only one thing in mind: to seek revenge...
Sundowntown, a town that excludes African Americans from living in it. Many towns went sundown after expelling black populations though most sundown...
covenant for a home in Beverly Hills, California. Cicero, Illinois, a sundowntown adjacent to Chicago, for example, was made famous when Civil Rights advocate...