There has recently been a story about a young black man who went to a town in North Carolina and was found hanging from a tree. He was from Chicago and was driving his truck through this area. Now there are conflicting reports, the family says he was hanging from a tree and the sheriff’s office said he was found at the base of the tree with a rope draped around his shoulders. They also say that he bought the rope from Walmart. Although they say there is an active investigation, they are leaning toward it was a suicide. The family isn’t buying it, and I don’t blame them. We all remember the story about Kendrick Johnson whose body was found rolled up in a carpet in the school’s gymnasium which they ruled an accidental death. To this day, the murder of Kendrick Johnson has not been resolved. When the story first came out, I wanted to tell them how I really felt, but there were more lawyers involved in that situation than at a hundred car pileup in front the Bar Association. I mean lawyers were suing everything and everyone they could… I heard they even sued someone’s dog… okay no I didn’t… but I wasn’t getting into the middle of that mess.
Anywho, word was that the town where the young man was found used to be what was called a sundown town. A sundown town is a town where Nigra’s better be scarce after the sun goes down. Did I say scarce? Any Neegrow seen alive after dark in a sundown town, will be seen alive when the sun comes up the next day. You can always tell if you are in a sundown town by the number benches they have. If there are benches in front of the General Store and there are benches in front of the church, if there are no benches in the park but there are benches where there is no reason for there to be a bench there… then you are probably in a sundown town.
You: I wonder why those old men white men are sitting on that bench in the middle of the crosswalk.
Them: Boy, I hope you have a watch…
It’s like they’re moving them suckers around so they can keep an eye on you…
Anywho, sundown towns started right after the Civil War and were commonplace all the way up into the 1960’s. Not only were there sundown towns, but there were also sundown counties!
So where did the term “sundown town” come from? It’s not only because black folks had to be out of town by sundown, but they actually had official racist signs that read… “Don’t Let The Sun Set On You Here – Rosewood” or sometimes something a little less conspicuous like, “Whites Only within City Limits After Dark.” That last one is like giving you a napkin to wipe the sweat off your forehead before they hang you. So yeah, they were called sundown towns because the racist called them sundown towns.
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Racist: Hey boy… you there!! Haven’t you noticed sumpin?
Black: No suh…
Racist: Well don’t the sun come out where you live?
Black: Yes suh…
Racist: But you in town and its dark… so, you think you think you’re a white man huh? Smack me across my lips…
Black: No suh… please suh!!! I ain’t bothering nobody!!
Racist: Naw!! I said smack me across my lips! Look here… Ima put my gun back in my holster boy… I ain’t gonna tell you again!!
Black: PLEASE SUH!! PLEASE!!
Racist: Naw boy… you one of them uppity naggers… aren’t you? You saw the sign!!! You might as well smack me across my lips… That’s what you came here for boy right? You want to smack a white man across the lips… don’t you?
Black: Please suh!! I’ll leave and you won’t ever see me again!!
Racist: What do you think boys? Should we let him leave?
Racist II: Yeah… he can go after he smacks me across my lips…
Black: OMG!!
Racist: Okay boy… Ima let you go with a warning this time… You do know you got to be out of this town when its dark… don’t cha?
Black: YES SUH!!
Racist: Do you think we put up that sign for you naggers to ignore it… or did you come to town looking for a white woman!!?? You came here to see a white woman in the dark… didn’t you?
Black: NO SUH!!
Racist: Yes you did… smack me across my lips…
Black: OMG!! PLEASE SUH!! NO SUH!!
Racist: I’ll tell you what… Ima let you go this time boy because I got to get back to my Missus… but just so the next I see you there won’t be no mistakes!! You are not going to be able to tell me you didn’t know you have to be out of town when its dark… are you hearing me nagger?!! Now what does that sign say!!
Black: YES SUH!! IT SAYS MATINEE FIVE CENTS… ALL OTHER SHOWS TEN CENTS…
Yessiree… they were real ugly back in those days…
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Don’t Worry… We Got You
So, sundown towns started during colonial times when they started restricting the movements of minorities after sundown. You know how it is nowadays when they blame the high crime rates on minorities? Well, it was the same back then. As a matter of fact in 1714 New Hampshire passed a law called “An Act to Prevent Naggers From Acting Up At Night…” okay no it wasn’t called that… it was called “An Act to Prevent Disorders in the Night.”
“Whereas great disorders, insolencies and burglaries are oft times raised and committed in the night time by Indian, Negro, and Molatto Servants and Slaves to the Disquiet and hurt of her Majesty’s subjects, No Indian, Negro, or Molatto is to be from Home after 9 o’clock.”
So really although they claimed everybody was stealing, I think their main focus was on the Native Americans. I mean there were probably a lot of folks going to bed with a full head of hair at night and waking up looking like Jean Luc Piccard.
Wife: Did you go to bed last night looking like that? I could have sworn…
You: Shut up!!
So yeah, it was probably more focused on our Native Indian brothers and sisters. I mean if an enslaved black man or woman would have stolen something… how would they get rid of it… because keeping it was out of the question. I can’t count the number of times where I’ve read about unmark graves of enslaved black folks being dug up from colonial times with porcelain plates, jewelry, and silverware stuffed up their… well we ain’t gonna talk about that… only to say there were consequences if you were enslaved and got caught stealing.
Our Native American brothers did not have to worry about that because if they punished one of them everybody in town was going to get a haircut whether they wanted one or not… I mean men and women! So, I guess the natural procession of accusing them of being thieves was to ask them to leave at night.
Right after the Revolutionary War, something similar to a sundown town occurred in Virginia. They restricted all free blacks from entering Virginia. Free blacks were not allowed to enter Virginia day or night! As an aside, Virginians were still feeling some kind of way about the number of black folks that enlisted in Her Majesty’s Army when they said if you fight for us, we will free you. As a matter of fact, somewhere between 15 and 20 thousand fought on the side of the English. By contrast only 5 to 7 seven thousand fought on the side of the Continental Army. It didn’t make any difference. In the end a lot of the blacks who fought in the Revolutionary War were returned to slavery anyway… both those who fought for the British and those who fought for the US.
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Black British Solider: Is this the boat going to the Carribean? I fought for her Majesty!
Captain: Why yes it is! Let me see your papers and we will get you all settled in.
Boats mate: Okay… the Captain says you are a British subject now… have a seat over there… I’ll be right back.
Black British Solider: Can you bring my papers when you come back sir?
Boats mate: Sure…
Later
Boats mate: The Captain said he will be holding onto your papers for safe keeping… Now I need you to hold your hands out… (clamp.. clamp…) Now your legs… (clamp… clamp…)
Black British Solider: What the hell is going on!! Why are you chaining me up!! I am a subject of her Majesty!!
Boats mate: Now don’t you fret… we are chaining you up, so you don’t fall off the boat once we go out to sea…
Black British Solider: Ohhhh… okay!!
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Now don’t get me wrong… a lot of the African Americans who fought for the British were given their freedom papers. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite movies is about African Americans who gained their freedom in the Revolutionary War fighting for the British. It was called the “Book of Negroes.” They emigrated to Canada, Europe and some to the Carribean, however, not all found freedom.
As for the blacks who fought for the Continental Army… some were freed, but some eventually returned to slavery because of the prejudice and discrimination they faced.
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Prejudice: Now wait one damn minute boy!! Did you shoot a white man with that gun during the war!!??
Black Continental Solider: Well yeah because they were shooting at me!
Discrimination: So, you are going to sit right here and tell us right to our eyeballs… you shot a white man with that large gun you got there, right boy?
Black Continental Solider: Fellows it was war…
Prejudice: Did you laugh when you shot him… ? You shot him in the azz didn’t you?
Discrimination: Yeah, he shot him in the azz… That’s all he was doing in the war… shooting white men in the azz… I can tell by the way he looking at me… you want to shoot me in my azz… don’t cha boy?
Black Continental Solider: Look I’m leaving now…
Prejudice: (Smack!! Smack!!) You ain’t going nowhere boy!!
Black Continental Solider: (SMACK!! SMACK!! SMACK!!)
Discrimination: HOT DIGGITY DOG!! IT’S ON NOW!! THAT NAGGER DONE SMACKED A WHITE MAN RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYEBALLS!!!
Crowd gathers around…
Crowd: HANG THAT NAGGER!! HANG THAT NAGGER!! HANG THAT NAGGER!!
Prejudice: Now boy you know you done faqued yourself up… but Ima gives you a chance to get yo’ mind right… You out here shooting white men in the azz and you done smacked one right in front of these gawd fearing red blooded patriots…
Discrimination: THEY SAY THEY SAW HIM WITH A WHITE WOMAN TOO!!
Prejudice: Now you got two choices… you can come back to the plantation with me Toby… or… you can go with them… Betty…
Crowd: CUT IT OFF!!! CUT IT OFF!! CUT IT OFF!!
Black Continental Solider: YES SUH MASSA… ISA BE GOING WID YOU!!
Discrimination: Dang!! That ain’t fair!! What about me!!
Prejudice: Now just hold your horses… We’ll get you one tomorrow…
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Thank Goodness For The Law
So yeah, many were returned to slavery.
Anywho, after the Civil War and Reconstruction, thousands of towns and municipalities became defacto sundown towns because of Jim Crow. One of the ways they enforced this bullshat was through restrictive real-estate shenanigans. I mean who could buy what and where they could it at. If you remember laws against housing discrimination weren’t passed until the late 1940’s and weren’t enforced until the 1960’s Civil Right acts. Before then you could move wherever your death wish wanted to move. Legally they could not throw you out, but after a few cross burning, rope sightings and visits by the local sheriff… you started to know something. If you hadn’t figured it out by then, well you ‘d figure it out when your house was burning down, and the sheriff and fire chief were standing in front of it with a gas can and a book of matches…
You: WHAT HAPPENED!!
Fire Chief: Looks like arson…
Sheriff: I’ll get our men right on it…
They really hated us back then. Take the Oregon Territory for instance. Before they became a state, they banned slavery in 1843… in 1844 they banned black folks from the territory altogether. Don’t you know that blacks were not allowed to legally live in Oregon from 1844 until 1926!! Although Oregon is a blue state, even now only two percent of its population is black. The Oregon law started it all. Soon other states, counties and cities would legislate where African American could live. In 1911 Louisville, Kentucky passed a law restricting blacks from owning land in certain parts of the city. That law was challenged in the Supreme Court and found unconstitutional. Not sure why somebody would want to move in an area where they are not wanted, but there were people who did precisely that.
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Neighbor: Welcome to the neighborhood nagger!! My name is Chief Klan… I’m the fire chief… and this is Sheriff Roscoe and Detective R.U, Kettingme. She is out here investigating a suicide… been a rash of suicides around here lately… why one fella even duct taped himself to a chair and then set his house on fire… when do you plan on moving in?
You: Wait… what!!?? Honey… I don’t think this home is exactly what we are looking for…
Neighbor: Oh that’s too bad… I was really wishing you would move in there… I mean it’s a brand new home…
You: Honey lets go…
Neighbor: They such a nice couple…
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So, with that defeat in the Supreme Court, it fell on the city planners and real estate agents. Their methods of creating sundown towns were often overlooked by the courts. Like putting a business zone at the edge of town and selling residential use zones on either side of it.. Another tactic was changing the city limits. One day you are living in Whyteville and the next day you are living in the Blackton. Of course, by the time you find out, you also find out that Whyteville is a sundown town now. Now like I said, there was nothing legally preventing you from entering a sundown town after dark… it was just the staying and leaving you would be having a problem with. Citizens turned to violence and harassment in making sure that Black people would not remain in their cities after sundown and most of the times it was the citizens who inflicted violence and harassment on black folks… but sometimes it was the Sheriff…
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Sheriff: Boy, do you know why I stopped you?
Blackman: No suh…
Sheriff: I got a report that this car has been stolen…
Blackman: But I bought this car from you an hour ago!!
Sheriff: Now I ain’t up for a lot of back sass… Ima takes you down to the jail and we will have this sorted out when the sun comes back up…
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Can’t We All Get Along
So African Americans weren’t the only minorities subjected to sundown-town racism. I mean the racists were faquing with everybody. Around 1870 Chinese people made up one-third of Idaho’s population. The racists were like “they’re eating the dogs… they’re eating the cats… they’re eating the pets…” Okay, they didn’t say that… they just didn’t like people that didn’t look like them. After a wave of violence and an anti-Chinese convention held in Boise in 1886, by 1910 there was not a single Asian living in Idaho. You ain’t have to tell them twice to leave. So, what did the Asian community find attractive in Idaho in the 1800’s? Well, the transcontinental Railway had been completed in 1869 and a lot of laborers went to Idaho for new opportunities. The main reason being gold was found in Idaho. We are used to hearing about the Yukon Gold Rush, but a similar event happened in Idaho in the 1860’s called the Boise Basin Gold Rush.
In Nevada there were a couple of towns named Minden and Gardnerville which required Native Americans to be out of town by 6:30pm. That law was in effect from 1910 until 1974! Now get this because you may have heard it in your community and thought nothing of it… Minden and Gardnerville would sound a siren at 6:30pm to let the Native American brothers and sisters know it was time to get their peace pipes and leave town! In 2021 they were still sounding a siren at 6:30pm and people started complaining about it. They said it was a nightly tribute to first responders… They made them cut that shat out a couple years later. You know when I first moved in the small town I live in, they would play a siren around dusk… I live not too far from Antietam, home to one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War and yes, we had enslaved people here, but we also had free African Americans. I guess the siren was a throwback to a time when my little corner of the world was a sundown town. They still play it now and then, but not as much. I guess when they play it, it means Neegrows stay in the house, there’s a Klan meeting tonight…
In 1936 a man named Victor Hugo Green published a book called the Green Book. So, 1936 was right in the middle of Jim Crow discrimination laws. Like I said there were thousands of these sundown towns, and you never knew which one you might end up driving through. Green published a book telling you which places were safe for African Americans… but I’m sure other minorities used it as well. We used the book mainly because we weren’t trying to put up with segregated transportation down south. Can you imagine riding the train from New York to Mississippi and when you crossed the Virginia state line, the conductor would ask all African American to move to the back of the train!! I might be like “make me!!” Next thing you know I’m sitting in the back of the train with my eyes blacked and lips swollen with two large muscular 6’ft 4′ inch, 250lb white teenagers grinning at me while kicking my luggage down the aisle… Anywho, the Green Book was in circulation until 1966. By 1966 all of us had a gun… okay no we didn’t. The 1960’s Civil Rights Act made segregation illegal, and we could sit anywhere we wanted.
I wish I knew then what I know now. When I was a young man, I would never try to sit up front on the bus. I would try to get as close to the back as possible. My favorite seat was the bench seat in the back near the window. Yes, I would be sitting back there looking out the window grinning at the white folks… and they would be grinning back. If only I knew. Well, those days are long gone. As for the Green Book, well it’s become a collector’s item. A 1940 copy recently sold for $22,000… and I heard that copy wasn’t in the best of shape.
So that’s my story about sundown towns. Though they are a thing of the past, racism is not. As late as 2017, the NAACP issued a warning to prospective African American travelers to Missouri. This was the first NAACP warning ever covering an entire state. The NAACP conference president suggested that, if prospective African American travelers must go to Missouri, they travel with bail money in hand. I got an even better idea… don’t go there.
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