Racial Oriented Towns Pre Civil Rights

By Brayden Shanley, 12/4/18

“Blue birds fly with blue birds, pigeons want to be with pigeons”, quote by Mohamed Ali.
When Ali was stating this race mixing was a much larger problem in American communities
then it is today, this lead to all sorts of racial oriented towns, (previous and after his time). These
towns were either called Sundown Towns, which were all white, versus Black Communities
which had no specific given name to them, much like normal everyday towns which advanced
and fell back the same as regular ones do. But this all ties into the idea that Racial oriented
towns operated similarly to modern towns and how they fell under the impact of racism.

According to Brandee Sanders Black Towns Prospered, This is demonstrated when she
says, “...​Greenwood​, part of Tulsa, became home to thriving black businesses-decades later
earning it the moniker “Black Wall Street”(January 27th 2011). From this piece of information we
can infer that certain black towns really made it big. With Brandee sander going as far as to
compare the town of Greenwood to Wall Street.

Black towns still felt the issue of race when Brandee sanders also says, “ But in May
1921, Greenwood, faced escalating racial unrest after a young white woman accused a black
man of rape. The man wasn’t charged, but that didn’t stop a white mob from burning down
Greenwood, the site of the worst race riot in U.S. history,”(January 2011). Then racism always
has to look down on everything and then a mob burned down Greenwood. Like a large,
beautiful flower in a demolished forest.

White towns proposed as well says Jack Shuler, “..often diffused by the mist of memory.
On one hand,it was an important stop on the Underground Railroad,”(March 27th 2017). The
underground railroad was a very important part in the freeing and prospering of the lives of
many Black and african American Slaves. Making this a key factor of prosperity within a
comuntit due to it’s historical relevance.

But White Towns still faced the issue of race when Jack Shuler also writes that, “​“​These
are the stories of “sundown towns” – towns where, black Americans knew, they were not
welcome once the sun went down. In some cases, such as Goshen, town brochures boasted of
“no negro population” as recently as 1955,"(March 27th 2017). With the recent inventions in
mind it forces us to really think about how obsessed sundown towns were with race. Going as
far as to say “no negro population” as Shuler tells us.

‘Sundown Towns’: Midwest confronts its complictaed racial legacy, Jack Shuler
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2017/0327/Sundown-towns-Midwest-confronts-its-com
plicated-racial-legacy​, The Chrisitan Sience monitor (March 27th 2017) accessed Novemebr
27th 2018

History’s lost Blakc Towns, Brandee Sanders

https://www.theroot.com/historys-lost-black-towns-1790868004​, ​www.theroot.com​( January 27th
2011), accsesed November 27th 2018