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?
- Don’t Know
- 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 | 2539 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 1930 | 3905 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | 5215 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 1960 | 6737 | 0 | ||||||
| 1970 | 9641 | 1 | ||||||
| 1980 | 9097 | 0 | ||||||
| 1990 | 10030 | 15 | ||||||
| 2000 | 12100 | 30 | 49 | 10 | 408 | 10 | ||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Threat of Violence
- Reputation
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
A former Indiana resident writes:
%u201CIn Evansville, which has a sizable black population compared to the rest of southern Indiana, it has apparently long been the practice (and still was in 2001 from what I heard) to play away games at Jasper earlier in the day than usual. The reason: it was still commonly understood that for the safety of the student athletes of color and their parents, the team needed to be out of Jasper before dark or as close to it as possible. Apparently this fear went so far that the teams would only stop at McDonalds or wherever on the way back to Evansville outside of Jasper.%u201D
A former Indiana high school cheerleader from 1974-76 writes:
%u201CI recall only one trip to Jasper, but don’t remember which year. I believe it was a basketball game. We rode with the team on buses and remember that these otherwise big, tough black athletes were really scared about going. There was talk on the bus about Jasper being the KKK capitol of Indiana and we were all worried about violence. Central, at that time, was probably about 10 15% black and we didn’t really see much racial violence. Athletes in particular were usually well respected. The basketball team was racially mixed, not predominantly black. I remember that we were carefully escorted into and out of the school. I don’t remember anything about the game, but when we left, rocks were thrown at the bus. The driver got us out of town in a hurry and no one was hurt. Now that I think back, it seems unusual that we didn’t contact the police or otherwise pursue any kind of legal response. We just got the hell out of town. I don’t remember ever going to Jasper after that. Maybe the school instituted a policy against traveling there, I don’t know.%u201D
A current Indiana resident wrote: “I have heard stories of how intolerable attitudes were in the past. One lady shared with me that the deed of a house that she had acquired for Habitat for Humanity had a clause stating that the house should not be sold to a person of color.”