You may also be interested in exploring interactive maps exploring the enduring legacy of Redlining Maps on the racial distribution of American towns and cities. Some of the white people who left Cairo blamed changes in the city its population loss, the flight of business, episodes of violence during the civil rights era on black people. Hartline grew up in Cobden, the town just north of Anna. HAYS, Kansas On the night of Jan. 6, 1869, Luke Barnes, Lee Watkins and James Ponder sat in jail accused of shooting a white railroad worker in this northwest Kansas town. We came here on the second stop of The Associated Press' road trip across America, a reporting journey that three of us are taking to look at how the U.S. has been shaken and shaped by months of protests, the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic crisis and the looming November elections. Were sorry it happened. In California, Glendale and Culver City. State Champ #1, read another. (Their niece, Nora, who lived in the same house, died about 30 years later.) The lights were on at a place called the Brick House Grill, and if you were out on South Main Street on a Friday night in February, chances are, thats where you were going. Hunter told me that when hed pull over black motorists, they would sometimes tell him during traffic stops that they knew what Anna stood for and why hed stopped them. But I also feel like it takes all of us that dont feel that way to step forward and to be brave enough to say, No, that is not what were about.. And when they recounted some of those stories to me, they talked over one another and finished one anothers sentences. Walker told me about a sign he said used to be posted near Annas city limits. So that always bothered me, that that was their perception. Racism is not a problem in Anna, he said, at least no more than it is in the rest of the country. Changing reputation: Once known as a 'sundown town' and KKK stronghold, Pekin tries to move past racist history. Sign up for our newsletter to get weekly updates written by our journalists. They want to see racial tensions so they lie. Nathan Bedford Forrest. He kept his composure. Our forefathers have gone through and made decisions that werent the greatest things in the world, Miller said. In 1990, the median owner-occupied house in Tuxedo Park, perhaps the wealthiest suburb of New York City, was worth more than $500,000 (the highest category in the census). This list may not reflect recent changes . They ask him what hes doing out there; doesnt he know Anna is a sundown town? Annas mayor, Steve Hartline, agreed. About 100 steps away is the grave of Anna Pelley, marked by a sculpture of a woman on her knees, crying, with the inscription: A life sacrificed but remembered by friends.. Sundown towns were all over America. Act like the cameras on, act like somebody is following you, act like somebody is watching you, because nine times out of 10, they are.. Its kind of almost a prison gerrymandering that is happening, Taylor says. Sunset in Anna, Ill. (Hindman died in 1998.). Taylors latest book, Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America," examines the historical role and the impact of the Green Book a travel guide printed from 1936 to 1967 to help Black Americans find safe places to stay, shop and eat on the road. Logan Jaffe is a reporter for newsletters at ProPublica. When I called James Taylor, the man I had met at the Anna Walmart months before, he told me there was someone in Cairo I should meet. (For example, yesterday can be changed to last week, and Portland, Ore. to Portland or here.), You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. Have you ever seen the population signs? he asked me. The sundown town was really a way that the North and West patrolled and monitored race without having the dirty signs of saying 'colored only' or 'whites only,' she says. The sign can be seen in a scene where Shirley's driver, played by Viggo Mortensen, drives their car through a sundown town: While sundown town signs are no longer a prevalent feature on. Anyone breaking the rules could risk arrest, a beating or worse. In 1865, a black man walking toward Anna along railroad tracks outside town was shot and killed in what the Chicago Tribune said was supposed to have been done by some Copperhead wretch Copperhead being slang for Northerners sympathetic to the Confederacy as the disposition of the tribe here is to kill or drive off all niggers., And in 1874, during Reconstruction, white residents in Anna were met with demands from what the Cairo Bulletin called ku-klux demonstrations that they fire any black people employed in the area and send the negroes out of the county or suffer the consequences., By the turn of the century, Anna at least according to the Jonesboro Gazette was grateful it wasnt wrapped up in what the newspaper deemed a race problem in places where the negro forms a considerable population; in Cairo, for example, about 40% of residents were black, and many of them were formerly enslaved people who sought new lives in supposedly free states such as Illinois. And thats make a better situation for your kids.. They expect factual data, not hearsay. The sisters have a slew of similar stories. If you are already discussing your communitys history of racial exclusion, please email me. "I imagined I would find maybe ten of these communities in Illinois, where I planned more research than in any other single state, and perhaps fifty across the country. @Anonymous I didn't use the term 'colored people'. Sorry not buying that this map is backed by any real data. Many sundown towns held on with a firm grip during the twentieth century. Cf Jesse Smollett. Lexington. He didnt lower his voice. He purposely listed towns with few Black people in past Census because he says that is a great starting point. Hi there, would like to start by saying I appreciate the concept. We just learn from each other, Arieh said. Learn why sundown cities, towns, suburbs, and neighborhoods developed-and how they continue to shape the lives and relationships of black and white Americans today. Hindman, in his interview, said any black people who worked or lived in Anna were driven out of town after the Anna Pelley incident in 1909. Sundown towns are rare in the South but common in the rest of the country. Yeah, I definitely remember sundown towns being a thing throughout my early childhood in the 1980s . The authors of the sundown towns website explain that the first urgent need is for work that confirms or disconfirms probable sundown towns. I was surprised by the number of northern Wisconsin towns and cities listed. Coincidentally, her name was Anna Anna Pelley. While working on a digital interactive map with National Geographic, Taylor says she discovered there has been a small increase in Black and Brown people in sundown towns even though they are still 90% white. Her eldest son, Arieh Hart, had an idea. In my younger days you werent allowed up here after dark, period, Taylor said in the parking lot as he loaded grocery bags into his car. And all the sidewinding typical tropes like using Jussie and Chicago are all tells that you know the truth. AP Road Trip: Racial Tensions in Americas Sundown Towns. AP NEWS, 20 Apr. But, he said, its not something people there are proud of. I am white. Please fix the dot on the map. Anyone who knows the history of Anna-Jonesboro would never in a million years imagine something like this would ever happen. He just said it. Somebody just drove by and yelled out the window, Youre a nigger lover, Gavin said. Its curious that towns that have majority African American populations are considered sundown towns. People around the area, not just in Anna, have called him derogatory names based on his race, he said. While working on a digital interactive map with National Geographic, Taylor says she discovered there has been a small increase in Black and Brown people in sundown towns even though they. Giacomazzo, Bernadette. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. They dont deserve the economy. Cairos population, roughly 2,500, is now about half of what it was in 1990, though people began leaving earlier. How do you dance like that? James W.. Is that your real hair? Sundown Towns Still Exist in the U.S. Distractify, 28 Apr. People are discussing a history that has been largely forgotten or overlooked. In fact the database comes with a note which states that there are "too many sundown towns for us to have found them all". "There was a contagion of ordinances," says Loewen. B etween 1936 and 1967, the Negro Motorist Green Book was essential for the survival of thousands of Black Americans in an era of segregation cemented into the American legal system through Jim Crow laws, sundown towns where African Americans were under threat of violence after . At the time, he was dating a girl who was biracial. Accessed 3 May 2022. Anna is a city of a little more than 4,000 people located in the middle of Union County, where soybean fields and flatlands to the north give way to the forests and sandstone canyons of southern Illinois. I talked with people going about their lives in the library, the Farm Fresh milk store, the Blue Boar restaurant, the citys park, the Walmart parking lot and other pockets of Anna. 4500. And under it is another sign that looks just like it, a green sign with white letters. This part of southern Illinois had at least a half-dozen sundown towns. HOME OF ARIEH HART, it reads. But there are some black people here, and more, it seems, during the workday. Schenectady and Troy are also decently populated for the region. James W. Loewen, a sociologist from Decatur, published a book on the topic and chronicled multiple cities within Illinois. Credit: Vignesh Ramachandran/ProPublica Illinois), (Source: Mapbox. Were much obliged to the managers of the [quarry] if they will confine their force to whites in the future, the Jonesboro Gazette wrote, in language and thinking typical of the paper at the time. For the small, independent towns all around the state that are still all white or almost all white, its like the civil rights movement never happened, he told me. So was the median house in Kenilworth, the richest suburb of Chicago. He warns that freed black men will take jobs away from white men. I cant tell what color anybody is at night, Hunter said. The term came from the idea that Black peoplehad to leave the city by sundown or face possible harm and discrimination. I got into town just after sunset. Sundown towns also range across the income spectrum. The Sundown Towns Database does not claim to be a complete record of all sundown towns in the USA. But after hearing A-N-N-A said aloud that night, I realized my race made me a sort of insider, too. It's good for a laugh but that's about it. I didnt think it would come out of somebodys mouth, straight to my face, he said. One of Illinois' most written-about sundown towns is Anna, but Loewen shares many examples in his book including Villa Grove, a town twenty miles from our campus. Right?? When he returned home and resumed his role as editor, he wrote that he and the other officers were perfectly satisfied of the fact that fighting to free the nigger is no wise [or] desirable task.. So is the Anna City Council, the Anna Police Department and every teacher at Anna-Jonesboro High School, the public high school serving Anna. People just dont have enough education or just havent been around a lot, said Smith, who lives about 30 minutes outside Anna. The Amtrak/VIA Live Map shows the live position of Amtrak and VIA Rail Canada trains. Ill be bookmarking and avoiding all of these towns, and passing the info onto friends, family, and social media. After 6 p.m., Black people faced the risk of harassment or at worst death. Senate Bill No. Nothing could be further than the "truth" found on this ridiculous map. Im just sorry we have to talk about that. He added: That is not the Anna I know.. I think even he got out when it got too violent. Your map is complete horseshit, there is no accompanying documents or evidence to prove any of this. Thats for Aint No Niggers Allowed. He laughed, shook his head and took a sip of his beer. He said he cant think of a single incident in Anna that had race at its center that had taken place in his years of public service. sundown town, also called sunset town, in U.S. history, a town that excluded nonwhite peoplemost frequently African Americansfrom remaining in town after sunset. Sign up to get ProPublica Illinois investigations delivered to your inbox. Most people I met in Anna, Illinois, wish the racist lore behind the citys name would go away. He recalled an incident in 2016, when he was leaving the Farm Fresh milk store after school. What particularly moved me about talking to a room of 150 or so people is that they wanted to understand how racism has shaped hundreds of communities throughout the state. I mean, at what point do we heal instead of coming back and going, Lets rip this wound open again? Theres got to be a solution, not just a revisiting of the problem. When he said this, he meant that everyone white people, black people, outsiders such as myself should focus on how to move forward. This allowed maids and workmen to provide unskilled labor during the day. Once known as a 'sundown town' and KKK stronghold, Pekin tries to move past racist history, 100-year-old Peorian recalls overcoming racism to start half-century teaching career, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Was Your Town a Sundown Town? 2022, https://www.distractify.com/p/current-sundown-towns. I just didnt think it was worth talking about., Some sundown towns in the Midwest have begun to confront their legacies. The green ones with white letters. I don't think America is worth saving. (Whitney Curtis, special to ProPublica Illinois), (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library via The Library of Congress), Anna is a city of a little more than 4,000 people, (Source: Mapbox. Seeing this honestly gives me hope that people can and do change.. The sign can be seen in a scene where Shirley's driver, played by Viggo Mortensen, drives their car through a sundown town: While sundown town signs are no longer a prevalent feature on America's roadways, racial discrimination can still be an obstacle for Black drivers. The Union County Board of Commissioners is all white. Ignorance? The more you talk about it, it just creates that issue more, Max Miller, Union Countys board chairman, told me. The proposal was never brought up for a vote, in part because commissioners said they didnt believe it was their job to address such concerns. ProPublica Illinois is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. The sundown town database is an interactive map where you can select any state and see a list of all its possible current and historic sundown towns. Sundown towns are communities that for decadesformally or informallykept out African Americans or other groups. Stories of intimidation and violence against black people and against white people who tried to employ them in Anna continued for decades after the war. It is time these stories become a more visible part of our states history. Longmont, CO, where I live, is listed in the database, but the entry for the town has no, zero, information, other than the comment that "Longmont, CO, has joined The Inclusive Communities Partnership of the National League of Cities" and the statement that Longmont is "surely not" still a sundown town.I have no evidence either way, but if you're going to list a town in the database, I'd think you should have SOMETHING to go on. The name derives from the posted and verbal warnings issued to Blacks that although they might be allowed to work or travel in a community . Like many other small towns, Anna has lost industry. How fortunate we are to have so little of darkest Africa among us, the Gazette wrote in January 1903, adding that it would be presumptuous to place the negro in the places where only white men should fill as long as this is a white mans country.. They are so named because some marked their city limits with placards warning specific groups of people to stay away after the sun went down. Its a shame that wording is even out there when it comes to Anna, Hartline said. Yes, Sundown Towns Are Still A Problem For Black Travelers In The United States. Travel Noire, 28 July 2021, https://travelnoire.com/sundown-towns-2021. Black people also work at Choate Developmental Center, a state mental health facility in Anna. For more information about canonical metadata, You cant edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. Grew up in Cobden, the richest suburb of Chicago to provide labor. 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