Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Independent City or Town
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Don’t Know
- Unions, Organized Labor?
- Don’t Know
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Probable
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- No
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Don’t Know
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | 4618 | 0 | ||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | 8625 | 8623 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 1960 | 11947 | 11938 | 1 | 8 | ||||
| 1970 | 15396 | 15 | ||||||
| 1980 | 16162 | 9 | ||||||
| 1990 | 17767 | 85 | ||||||
| 2000 | 20013 | 159 | ||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
“It was always whispered by my family that Nicodemus
residents should be out of Hays, KS by sundown.”
Apparently, Hays comes close to being a
legitimate sundown town in Kansas, based on the
town’s history as the home to Fort Hays, a western
outpost that garrisoned units of the so called “Buffalo
Soldier” black cavalry units between 1865 and 1889.
According to Francis Schruben, who grew up in
nearby Stockton during the 1920s and 1930s, Hays
had a reputation as a town where blacks were not
always real welcome, probably owing to the
experience of having Fort Hays adjacent to the town.
Francis says that he never heard of any official signs
advising black people to vacate at sundown.
Ironically, Francis says the local state university in
Hays never had any black athletes until well in to the
40s and beyond.
I have talked with that local historian at the Hays
Public Library, and she indicated today that Hays never
posted a “sundown’ sign although stories to that
effect seemed to circulate around the state as late as
the 1930s.”