For the first time, Loewen takes a long, hard look at the history, sociology, and continued existence of these towns, contributing an essential new chapter to the study of American race relations. These towns used everything from legal formalities to violence to create homogenous Caucasian communities-and their existence has gone unexamined until now. In a provocative, sweeping analysis of American residential patterns, Loewen uncovers the thousands of “sundown towns”-almost exclusively white towns where it was an unspoken rule that blacks could not live there-that cropped up throughout the twentieth century, most of them located outside of the South. Loewen, author of the national bestseller Lies My Teacher Told Me, brings to light decades of hidden racial exclusion in America. In this groundbreaking work, bestselling sociologist James W. The social costs of sundown towns on whites, blacks, and the social system are then detailed and recommendations for. Loewen, exposes the secret communities and hotbeds of racial injustice that sprung up throughout the twentieth century unnoticed, forcing us to reexamine race relations in the United States. 'A sundown town is a town that for decades was, and a few still are, all-white on purpose,' Loewen said in an interview. Loewen, the author of Sundown Towns, has an entire website dedicated to learning and teaching the oft-hidden and rewritten history of many American. But only by taking “actual steps” to change, such as by making a concerted effort to hire Black teachers, police officers and other municipal employees and to diversify the town's population.Bestselling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen said that sundown towns, many of which continue to have nearly all-White populations, can enter the recovery phase after acknowledging and apologizing for their racist pasts. The event also featured Logan Jaffe, an engagement reporter for ProPublica Illinois, who wrote an article in November titled “The Legend of A-N-N-A: Revisiting an American town where Black people weren’t welcome after dark,” as well as Takiyah Coleman and Jessica Moore, two organizers of Anna’s first Black Lives Matter rally in June. Loewen, a sociologist and the author of “Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism” was speaking Tuesday at a virtual forum hosted by ProPublica Illinois exploring the history and current state of sundown towns, many of which have recently hosted Black Lives Matter protests and marches for the first time in their histories. Loewen said, “they need to admit it: Yes, we did this.” The author of a well-known book exposing sundown towns - where Black people were not welcome after dark - said these communities need to take three steps: acknowledge their racist past, apologize for it and take concrete steps to change.

Sundown Towns by James W. Loewen