Yes, Sundown Towns Are Still A Problem For Black Travelers In The United States

[Nevilledog]

https://travelnoire.com/sundown-towns-2021

*snip*

In 2017, the NAACP issued a travel warning for the entire state of Missouri — the first time the entire state had been issued such a warning. That same travel warning was issued in 2020 for San Antonio, TX, by the Defund San Antonio Police Department Coalition, who also labeled the Texas city a sundown town.

The NAACP also revealed that Black drivers are 75 percent more likely to be “stopped and searched” by law enforcement than their white counterparts. (Did we really need research to prove this?) And the hashtag #DrivingWhileBlack on Twitter reveals frontline anecdotal stories about the horrors of traveling while Black, especially through suspected sundown towns.

In his groundbreaking book, James Leowen said that the biggest mistake that Black travelers can make is assuming that their sole issues exist in the American South, or that the concept of a sundown town is a relic of the past.

“There are five Hollywood movies about sundown towns and all of them are set in Mississippi, except one that’s out in Georgia. It sets us back in race relations because the whole rest of the country is like, Yeah, we’re all right. This is a good country. Everything’s fine except those nasty white Southerners with all them sundown towns, and they used to have slavery and all that. It’s a national problem. It’s more a Midwest problem than it is a Southern problem,” he said.

*snip*

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Loewen's book: Sundown Towns, well worth the read.

https://www.amazon.com/Sundown-Towns-Hidden-Dimension-American-ebook/dp/B07HNDCGXZ/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=james+loewen&link_code=qs&qid=1627753881&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-2

[wryter2000]

9. You just cost me some money

I'm going to download a sample and see how much $$$ I have left over after paying the bills.

[LakeArenal]

2. I'm sure Wisconsin has their share of sundown towns, villages, counties, cities.

[mopinko]

6. my nephew calls it "whitefolk's bay"

lives in whitefish bay, just outside milwaukee.

there's surely some in il, too. esp by the in border.

[LakeArenal]

11. Also Door County, The Fox River Valley, and most of northern WI.

[mopinko]

12. yeah up north is mostly white even when there's no snow.

used to have peeps in hayward and eagle river.

[Runningdawg]

3. I grew up in one - Osage Co OK, it's still the same.

[yardwork]

4. I grew up in rural central Ohio. Not a friendly place.

There was a church outside town that regularly burned big crosses and had other scary ceremonies.

[roamer65]

5. Too bad they accidentally didn't catch the church on fire.

[eleny]

7. What a coincidence...

Husband and I have just been discussing The Green Book. Afterward, I refreshed GD and your posting popped up second in the list.
Thanks for the article link.

[qazplm135]

8. San Antonio

Is not a sundown town. I'm sure we have the same police issues as other cities do. But as an AA having lived here for years now and old enough to have experienced sundown towns, no SA isn't one.

[Scrivener7]

10. The article links to a list of sundown towns. It includes Yonkers, NY. Yonkers has about 50% Black

or Latino residents.

There might be a little problem with the list.

[Sympthsical]

13. Rural America can get real weird

One time I was driving through a rural part of Utah late at night. I stopped at a gas station to fuel up and grab something to eat. Got to talking to the clerk. Pleasant fellow. As I was getting ready to leave, he said, "Oh, when you reach exit X, keep an eye out. The troopers will stop you just to say hello."

I didn't think too much of it. I've been through enough of rural America to know law enforcement will bother you just because they can. Then the clerk followed up.

"But at least you're not black."

I shuddered a bit. If they're harassing white people just because, imagine how they're behaving towards minorities.

I was paranoid right up until I crossed into Colorado.

I dislike the whole, "Only the South is super racist" trope. Everywhere in America is racist. Hang out in Chicagoland sometime. It'll do for ya.