The ‘sundown towns’
Mary Bonner, Emporia
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
CONGRATULATIONS to the Department of Social Sciences at Emporia State University for selecting James Loewen as the speaker for Wednesday’s Bonner and Bonner Diversity Lecture. If we can assume that Loewen has written all of those books piled on his knee, then we can be sure that we are going to have an informative, germane lecture for the intelligentsia at Emporia State University and the surrounding community.
While searching through an accumulation of papers, I found one from Don Coldsmith sent to me in 1997. He is a person whom I admire. He is a syndicated columnist who writes for The Gazette.
Part of his letter is as follows:
“My friend and I (the Y director at the Carver Y) got out of Hays, Kansas, about 12 minutes ahead of a sundown law once in 1953. We were traveling together to a Y conference in Colorado. I know what it is like not to be able to use a bathroom, much less a place to eat. ‘Colored people served in sacks only’ was a familiar sign in restaurants. We had a confrontation once with three rednecks in a small town where we did stop to eat and the point of friction was that ‘a goddam nigger shouldn’t be allowed to have a car like that!’ That was 1953. We were on the cutting edge, didn’t realize it, and were probably in a lot more danger than we realized!”
According to a recent “Spotlight” from Emporia State University, the author of “Sundown Towns” said that some of these towns still exist.
Justine Curry, who lives here in Presbyterian Manor where I am also a resident, came to my table in the dining room. She said that she had lived in a sundown town close to Emporia. She was my favorite librarian when I worked at Emporia State. She described the signs that were posted to keep those of my ilk reminded to scat before dark.
I recalled that I was invited to that town to play bridge (about 13 years ago). I noticed that one player brought a book to read or review while her partner was playing the hand. Guess what the name of the book was? “Mein Kampf” by Adolph Hitler. For the Nazis it was a guide; also, for their sympathizers. I am delighted that I hit the road in my beautiful Aurora before dark!
Mary Bonner
Emporia