sundown towns
Whites-only after dark
Sundown towns were American communities that excluded Black people and sometimes other minorities, either by law or through intimidation.
The name comes from signs warning Black travelers to leave by sundown: Don't let the sun set on you in this town.
Though the explicit signs are gone, the term still describes places with histories of racial exclusion or reputations for hostility toward minorities.
- racismPrejudice based on ethnicity
- mob violenceGroup-inflicted harm
- segregationForced separation by group
- signMark conveying information
- Green BookDirectory of safe establishments
lynching · fear · bigotry · exclusion · prejudice · intolerance · white supremacy · racial terror · redlining · road · unwritten rules · Jim Crow · color line · vigilante justice · curfew · generational trauma · oral history · night
- racismracism, racial bias, white supremacy, racial discrimination, bigotry
- Jim CrowJim Crow laws, separate but equal, segregation laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, whites only
- oppressionoppression, tyranny, racism, repression, secret police
- racial injusticesystemic racism, institutional racism, racial profiling, racial bias, discrimination
- Southern HistoryDeep South, Antebellum, Old South, Dixie, Confederate
- segregationresidential segregation, redlining, ghetto, ghettos, steering
sundown townsdiverse neighborhoods
Areas with varied populations
inclusive communities · multicultural communities · mixed neighborhoods · sanctuary cities · rainbow coalitions