Sundown town

As Sundown town were in the United States, cities, neighborhoods or residential areas designated, which were deliberately kept " all white ".

The name is derived from signs that were installed in the city and colored ( original: people of color, so generally non-whites ) mitt rushed, they would have to leave the city until sunset. An example from Hawthorne California sounded about as follows: " Nigger, Do not Let The Sun Set On YOU In Hawthorne" ( German, mutatis mutandis: " Nigger, do not stay until sunset in Hawthorne ").

History

The term become popular, particularly from the 1930s. In some cases, he was part of an official municipal policy, in others he was forced by the white majority as a set of rules. This illegal enforcement was often exercised by officials and police officers.

Since the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited racial discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of a house, the number of Sundown towns has decreased significantly. However, as the sociologist James W. Loewen noted, the real impact of this law on the Sundown towns are difficult to estimate, because most of those who concealed their status as such held and collected any files to it. He described also that this status requires more than the fact that non-whites in these cities could not live. Rather, he meant that they were exposed to open harassment, threats, violence, and in many cases even lynching.

This status was directed mostly to African-Americans and Africans, in some cities and regions but also in Sino - American, so Americans of Chinese descent. This was the case in the state of Idaho is the case, whose population in 1870 still consisted of about 30 % of Chinese and Sino - Americans, according to a wave of violence and an "anti - Chinese Agreement": up, however (original anti- Chinese convention) 1910 were almost completely expelled.