sundown town
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English
Etymology
After signs posted at town entrances warning that “colored people” (among other terms) were required to leave town by sundown.
Noun
sundown town (plural sundown towns)
- A place or jurisdiction that prohibits or discourages a certain class of people, typically a certain race or ethnicity, from living there or remaining there after sundown, or, in some cases, from visiting during the day.
- Synonyms: sunset town, gray town, sundowner town
- 1957 November 11, Joseph Ator, “Firm Hand of the Law Stifles Nashville's Strife by Racial Segregation”, in Chicago Daily Tribune[2], via Newspapers.com, section 1, page 2:
- Cousin Paul said: "Of course, this is a sundown town [no Negro residents tolerated], but if Ike sends in the paratroopers, we can always integrate with the bears."
- 1960, The National Conference and the reports of the State Advisory Committees to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights[3], page 330:
- However, according to old-timers, there is a time-honored tradition extending back at least two generations that "this is a sundown town."
- 1968 August 25, Doug Walker, “Integration Moving on Peaceful Feet”, in Dayton Daily News[4], Dayton, Ohio, via Newspapers.com, page 4-C:
- 2016 July 11, Miller Jozwiak, “From 'Go Home' to 'Welcome Home' for local man”, in The Sheboygan Press[5], Sheboygan, Wisconsin, via Newspapers.com, pages 1A–2A:
- [James W.] Loewen compiled an online map allowing people to find out more about the racial history of their towns, identifying thousands of likely and confirmed sundown towns across the U.S.
Translations
place that prohibits certain people from living there
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See also
Further reading
sundown town on Wikipedia.Wikipedia