‘Sundown towns’ focus of Bonner lecture
ESU Media Relations
Thursday, September 4, 2008
In many parts of the United States as late as the mid-20th century, it was not uncommon for communities to exclude African Americans by force, law or custom. These so-called “sundown towns” — and the unwritten laws that kept them essentially all-white — are the subject of the next Bonner and Bonner Diversity Lecture Series presentation at Emporia State University.
James Loewen, author and sociologist, will present “Sundown Towns: Hidden Racism Across America,” at 7 p.m. Oct. 22 in Emporia State’s Memorial Union Webb Lecture Hall. Admission to the lecture is free.
Loewen’s Bonner and Bonner address comes during the same week as ESU’s annual Homecoming celebration.
“We think the intellectual bulk of Dr. Loewen’s presentation will complement the mix of activities that Emporia State traditionally serves up during Homecoming Week,” said ESU President Michael R. Lane.
Loewen defines a sundown town as any organized jurisdiction that for decades kept African Americans or other groups from living in it, rendering the community “all-white.” Many such communities posted signs warning non-whites to leave the city limits by sunset, giving rise to the “sundown town” designation.
“When I began this research,” Loewen notes, “I expected to find about 10 sundown towns in Illinois, my home state, and perhaps 50 across the country. Instead, I have found more than 440 in Illinois and thousands across the United States.”
Loewen’s most recent book, “Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism,” provides the backdrop for his Emporia State University address. The book won the Gustavus Myers Human Rights Book Award and was named by Booklist as a 2005 Editor’s Choice Selection.
For 20 years, Loewen taught race relations at the University of Vermont. Before that, he taught at Mississippi’s historically black Tougaloo College. Since 1997, he has been a visiting professor of sociology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Loewen is also the author of “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong,” and “Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong.” Both books chronicle the ways that errors and omissions in everything from classroom textbooks to highway historical signs have led to an incomplete recounting of U.S. history.
Loewen will be available to sign copies of his books at a reception immediately following the lecture.
The Bonner and Bonner Diversity Lecture Series was established in 1992 to honor Thomas Bonner and Mary Winstead Bonner, Emporia State University’s first and second African-American faculty members. Created to recognize ESU’s commitment to diversity, the series has featured nationally known speakers such as former NAACP chairman Julian Bond, 1964 Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills, author Cristina Garcia, civil rights lawyer Morris Dees, and Muslim politics expert Vali R. Nasr.
Last year’s Bonner and Bonner lecturer, Minnijean Brown Trickey, was one of the “Little Rock Nine,” the African-American students who were the first to attend the formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.
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Posted by create (anonymous) on September 4, 2008 at 8:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I went to see Billy Mills and Morris Dees speak when they were here. This is a high quality lecture series and one to take in if the time allows. I'm so glad that ESU presents this each year.
Posted by sciguy (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 12:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Mid-20th-century is a little optomistic. I know of this happening in a small town in Southeast MO as recently as the late 1980s. Angry phone calls from community members asking why so-and-so (the relative I knew) had a non-white friend in visiting from Kansas City, and warning that he'd better be out of town...yep, by sundown.
It is stunning to think that kind of attitude existed as recently as the 1980s--and, as far as I know, it might still.
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