sundown town
Racist exclusion zone
A sundown town is a community that excluded Black people, typically through intimidation, violence, or local ordinances requiring them to leave by sunset.
The term comes from signs warning "N*****, don't let the sun go down on you in this town." Though the explicit signs and laws are gone, the phrase persists to describe places with histories of racial exclusion or where Black visitors still feel unwelcome: That county was a sundown town well into the 1970s.
Racial separation laws
- Great MigrationVast collective relocation
- civil rightsGuaranteed individual legal protections
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
lynching · sharecropping · white flight · racial covenants · antebellum · freedmen · voting rights · abolitionism
Doctrine of racial superiority
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
- prejudicePreformed unfavorable opinion
- intoleranceUnwillingness to accept differences
- KKKWhite supremacist hate group
racial purity · hate crime · racial profiling · ethnocentrism · neo-Nazism · supremacist · stereotype · bias
Refusing loans by neighborhood
- racial covenantsDeed clauses barring minorities
- deed restrictionsLegal limits on property use
- housing segregationSeparation of residences by demographics
- blockbustingScaring homeowners into selling
steering · homogeneity · color line · racial hierarchy · separate facilities · covenant · subdivision · real estate
Deliberate fear-inducing pressure
- expulsionForced permanent removal
- warning signsIndicators of impending danger
- unwelcomeNot wanted here
- banishmentForced removal from place
harassment · threats · violence · railroad tracks · city limits · signs · boundary · curfew enforcement
Onset of darkness
- enforcementCompelling compliance with rules
- duskDimming after sundown
- twilightLight after sunset
- eveningLate day period
deadline · patrol · watchman · policing · lights-out · restriction · warning · darkness
Jim Crow
Racial separation laws
- Great MigrationVast collective relocation
- civil rightsGuaranteed individual legal protections
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
emancipation · lynching · sharecropping · white flight · racial covenants · antebellum · freedmen · voting rights · abolitionism · plantation
white supremacy
Doctrine of racial superiority
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
- prejudicePreformed unfavorable opinion
- intoleranceUnwillingness to accept differences
KKK · racial purity · hate crime · racial profiling · ethnocentrism · neo-Nazism · supremacist · stereotype · bias · anti-miscegenation
redlining
Refusing loans by neighborhood
- racial covenantsDeed clauses barring minorities
- deed restrictionsLegal limits on property use
- housing segregationSeparation of residences by demographics
blockbusting · steering · homogeneity · color line · racial hierarchy · separate facilities · covenant · subdivision · real estate · neighborhood
intimidation
Deliberate fear-inducing pressure
- expulsionForced permanent removal
- warning signsIndicators of impending danger
- unwelcomeNot wanted here
banishment · harassment · threats · violence · railroad tracks · city limits · signs · boundary · curfew enforcement · vigilantes
nightfall
Onset of darkness
- enforcementCompelling compliance with rules
- duskDimming after sundown
- twilightLight after sunset
evening · deadline · patrol · watchman · policing · lights-out · restriction · warning · darkness · bell
- Jim CrowJim Crow laws, separate but equal, segregation laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, whites only
- restricted areasno-go area, lab, cordoned area, buffer zone, safe zone