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Authors: James W. Loewen
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population in 1909, no one was ever arrested. The federal government did nothing; neither did the state. Indeed, the times had shifted so much that there was no thought that either government might intervene. Nothing ever happened to the lynch mob in 1909 in Cairo, nor to the men who drove African Americans out of Anna.
Although the increasing racism of the Nadir was a necessary characteristic underlying the outbreak of sundown towns, it cannot explain why one town went sundown while another did not. In Union County, for instance, the Nadir cannot explain why Anna drove out its African Americans in 1909 and has kept them out ever since, while Cobden, five miles north, has African American households to this day.
7
Catalysts and Origin Myths
About forty years ago Negroes began to settle in this township in numbers, and it was not long before they became a nuisance. Stealing was rife and all kinds of depredations were going on. Ned Harrigan, who lived here at the time, says that the whites met at the . . . school building, and decided to clear the country of the blacks. A notice was served on the offenders giving them 24 hours to get out of town, and by noon the next day every Negro shanty was empty, and that was the last that was ever heard of them.
— Chesterton Tribune, 1903, explaining why and how that northern Indiana town went all-white 1
M OST RESIDENTS of the typical sundown town are not good sociologists and never invoke factors such as those given in the previous chapter—political ideology, ethnic makeup, and the like—to explain their town’s racial policy. For that matter, the underlying sociological causes do not flatly determine the outcome in a given community. Not every Democratic town expelled its African Americans, although Democratic towns did so far more often than Republican towns. Not every monoethnic town kept blacks out, although monoethnic towns did so more often than multiethnic towns. Not every town with strong white supremacist labor unions drove out all its African Americans, although many did. However, as racism intensified during the Nadir, the position of African Americans in towns marked by any or all of these three factors grew so tenuous that the least disturbance—an incendiary remark by a demagogic white politician, news of the next town getting rid of its blacks, a criminal act by a black resident—might set off an expulsion.
What residents of a sundown town often do recall is the immediate “reason” why its African Americans were expelled—the trigger. These events play the role of catalysts. If the underlying conditions are right, just as a catalyst in a chemical reaction provides a surface or “hook” enabling the reaction to proceed more rapidly, so the triggering incident provides an excuse or justification for the expulsion or prohibition of African Americans.
In most towns that had African Americans and then had none, some account of this triggering event persists in the local culture to explain their absence. This story then gets raised to the level of myth and becomes used not only as the sole reason for the original expulsion but also to justify the town’s continuing exclusion of African Americans.
Other Catalysts
Every sundown town, especially those that expelled their African Americans violently, has its own answer as to why it went all-white. Residents of sundown towns and suburbs rarely refer to the increased racism of the Nadir or to such social and cultural factors as politics, ethnic composition, or labor history. Instead, residents “explain” their town’s policy by telling about the incident that triggered it. We must not accept these trigger stories at face value: sometimes there are competing accounts, and often they are after-the-fact rationalizations detailing acts that may or may not have taken place. Even where an account of the beginning of a town’s sundown policies is accurate, leaving it as the actual
Although the increasing racism of the Nadir was a necessary characteristic underlying the outbreak of sundown towns, it cannot explain why one town went sundown while another did not. In Union County, for instance, the Nadir cannot explain why Anna drove out its African Americans in 1909 and has kept them out ever since, while Cobden, five miles north, has African American households to this day.
7
Catalysts and Origin Myths
About forty years ago Negroes began to settle in this township in numbers, and it was not long before they became a nuisance. Stealing was rife and all kinds of depredations were going on. Ned Harrigan, who lived here at the time, says that the whites met at the . . . school building, and decided to clear the country of the blacks. A notice was served on the offenders giving them 24 hours to get out of town, and by noon the next day every Negro shanty was empty, and that was the last that was ever heard of them.
— Chesterton Tribune, 1903, explaining why and how that northern Indiana town went all-white 1
M OST RESIDENTS of the typical sundown town are not good sociologists and never invoke factors such as those given in the previous chapter—political ideology, ethnic makeup, and the like—to explain their town’s racial policy. For that matter, the underlying sociological causes do not flatly determine the outcome in a given community. Not every Democratic town expelled its African Americans, although Democratic towns did so far more often than Republican towns. Not every monoethnic town kept blacks out, although monoethnic towns did so more often than multiethnic towns. Not every town with strong white supremacist labor unions drove out all its African Americans, although many did. However, as racism intensified during the Nadir, the position of African Americans in towns marked by any or all of these three factors grew so tenuous that the least disturbance—an incendiary remark by a demagogic white politician, news of the next town getting rid of its blacks, a criminal act by a black resident—might set off an expulsion.
What residents of a sundown town often do recall is the immediate “reason” why its African Americans were expelled—the trigger. These events play the role of catalysts. If the underlying conditions are right, just as a catalyst in a chemical reaction provides a surface or “hook” enabling the reaction to proceed more rapidly, so the triggering incident provides an excuse or justification for the expulsion or prohibition of African Americans.
In most towns that had African Americans and then had none, some account of this triggering event persists in the local culture to explain their absence. This story then gets raised to the level of myth and becomes used not only as the sole reason for the original expulsion but also to justify the town’s continuing exclusion of African Americans.
Other Catalysts
Every sundown town, especially those that expelled their African Americans violently, has its own answer as to why it went all-white. Residents of sundown towns and suburbs rarely refer to the increased racism of the Nadir or to such social and cultural factors as politics, ethnic composition, or labor history. Instead, residents “explain” their town’s policy by telling about the incident that triggered it. We must not accept these trigger stories at face value: sometimes there are competing accounts, and often they are after-the-fact rationalizations detailing acts that may or may not have taken place. Even where an account of the beginning of a town’s sundown policies is accurate, leaving it as the actual
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