Unearthing the 'hidden' racist history of America's sundown towns
Tougaloo College, an HBCU in Mississippi, maintains the only active database of sundown towns in the United States.
By Dierre Hartman, Open Campus
When sociologist James Loewen took his first academic position at Tougaloo College, he couldn’t have known the profound impact his work on sundown towns would have on the understanding of systemic racism.
Decades later, his research continues to shed light on these racially exclusive communities, and his legacy endures at Tougaloo College, which maintains the only active database of sundown towns in the United States.
This term refers to communities that, through formal laws or informal practices, prohibited Black individuals — and sometimes other marginalized groups — from living there, especially after sunset.
Loewen passed in 2021, and his life’s work investigating the history of racial exclusion in American towns — his interest originally came about in the 1970s — revealed that this phenomenon was not isolated to a single region but spanned the entire country.
Daphne Chamberlain, a Tougaloo alumna and former vice president for strategic initiatives of the institution, said Loewen’s relationship with Tougaloo exemplified the college’s role in preserving the truth of America’s racial history.
“James wanted to place the website on Tougaloo’s servers so people could not only learn about sundown towns but also access resources for research, curriculum development, and racial justice,” she said.
Signs, threats, and violence enforced exclusion in these downs, creating environments where safety and belonging were elusive for people of color. They even led to the creation of the Negro Motorist Green Book, a printed guide of where it was safe for people of color to rest, eat and visit on their travels.
“By that time [evening], you really just were not in that town. If you were, you could be literally, brutally murdered,” said Elwood Watson, a historian at East Tennessee State University who studies racial violence. He described a billboard in Erwin, Tenn., that used a racial slur to tell Black people “Don’t let the sun set on your Black ass,” illustrating the overt hostility that characterized these towns.
Erwin is just 15 miles from Johnson City, Tenn., where Watson works, and the town has a complicated history.
Loewen’s database, now hosted by Tougaloo College, serves as both a resource and a call to action. This database is a living document, with contributions from scholars, students, and everyday citizens.
Tony Bounds, a two-time Jackson State University alumni who manages Tougaloo’s historical archives, reflected on the deeper implications of Loewen’s work.
“The preservation of narratives is just as important as the narratives themselves.”
“People reach out to us almost daily, saying, ‘This town isn’t in your database, but it should be,’” said Stephen A. Berrey, a scholar of African American history and culture at the University of Michigan. His students also participate in this effort, using their research to deepen our collective understanding of sundown towns’ enduring impact.
“Sundown towns are a hidden dimension of racism,” Berrey said.
This commitment to historical preservation has made the Tougaloo archive an essential resource for students, scholars, and the general public alike.
“The archive is open not only to students but to faculty and the general public,” Bounds said. “Any person with an interest in these topics is welcome to come to the archive and conduct their research.”
The legacy of sundown towns extends far beyond the historical markers of violence. Bounds noted that while the explicit signs may be gone, their effects still echo through small-town America.
“The whole notion of sundown towns is a broad umbrella. It’s not just about a person being under the threat of violence — though we can’t rule that out— it’s about dispositions and attitudes that persist, that are yet evident, and that manifest themselves against people of color, specifically in small-town America,” he said.
Heather A. O’Connell, a spatial demographer and sociology professor at Louisiana State University, emphasized that sundown towns weren’t always reactions to immediate demographic changes. O’Connell’s research sheds light on how these towns were not simply reactions to Black migration but were proactive in maintaining racial exclusion.
“Some towns didn’t have Black residents at the time they were established as sundown towns. Sometimes it was in response to growing Black populations elsewhere or an immediate local event, but often, it was preemptive,” she explained.
O’Connell also highlighted the influence of sundown towns on Black migration patterns.
“When Black southerners moved, they were equally as interested in living in small towns as white southerners were,” O’Connell said. “But the racist structures tied to sundown towns were more easily applied in small places than urban ones, creating a specific, more urbanized migration pattern.”
While overt violence has waned, Watson, the East Tennessee State historian, explained that modern manifestations of sundown towns are more subtle.
“Today, you might not hear outright racist comments, but you’ll get hostile stares or be ignored,” he said. “Redlining and exclusionary practices still play a role, like making areas so expensive that many people of color can’t afford to live there.”
O’Connell also emphasized the lingering influence of sundown towns on current institutions.
“Housing policies, healthcare systems, and even the criminal legal system have historical foundations that are often explicitly racist,” she explained. “Many of those policies appear race-neutral today but still maintain their exclusionary effects.”
Loewen’s work at Tougaloo College has remained integral to the institution’s commitment to racial justice and social activism. Daphne Chamberlain, former vice president for strategic initiatives at Tougaloo, emphasized the college’s long-standing dedication to civil rights.
“Tougaloo has always stood ten toes down in its commitment to civil rights and social justice.”
Tougaloo College’s commitment to preserving this history ensures that the stories of exclusion and resilience are not forgotten.
“Even if there aren’t many instances of race-based violence today, the fear of that violence is real,” O’Connell said. “People will avoid places they deem unsafe for themselves or their families.”
Watson held a similar sentiment.
“We still follow those preferences and segregation patterns today, even without explicit laws,” he said.
“We hope communities acknowledge this past and think about what they can do to become welcoming, diverse places,” Berrey said.
Thank you. Our parents used a Negro Motorist Green Book as we traveled by car from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to Fort Ord, California in 1955.
I worked with James B. Loewen a little before he died.
Published this just yesterday.
https://josephsfurey.substack.com/p/necessary-ghosts