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?
- Surely
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Perhaps, Some Oral Evidence
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | 4172 | 62 | ||||||
| 1930 | 4408 | 21 | ||||||
| 1940 | 4801 | 18 | ||||||
| 1950 | 5147 | 13 | ||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | 5600 | 2 | ||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 5709 | 4 | ||||||
| 2000 | 6260 | 29 | 7 | 5 | ||||
| 2010 | 5148 | 18 | 12 | 6 | ||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Threat of Violence
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
One Indiana resident remembers that Tipton, Elwood and Alexandria, all on State Road 28, each had the “Sundown” signs at the city limits. He saw those signs personally many times when he was growing up in the 1940s and 1950s. Another resident recalls a Sundown sign in Alexandria as well in the 1950s.
%u201C’Living in Alex and knowing I was the only black person in town wasn%u2019t a comfortable situation,’ [Christopher Hayes] said. ‘It was different walking to the store and to the park and to the library.’%u201D
He moved there in 2011. “Uncomfortable inviting his family and friends to his home or frequenting Alexandria%u2019s restaurants %u2014 one of which he heard was a hangout for white supremacists %u2014 Hayes, 30, worked and socialized primarily in Anderson.
“Hayes said he believed the reaction he received as he walked through Alexandria was rooted more in fear than in hate.” — Rebecca R. Bibbs, “Madison County communities strive to overcome ‘sundown town’ reputation ,” Herald Bulletin, 4/3/2016, heraldbulletin.com/news/madison-county-communities-strive-to-overcome-sundown-town-reputation/article_51e21ccd-63bc-5cea-a47b-3278d3eb3020.html.