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?
- Yes, Strong Oral Tradition
- Sign?
- Yes, Photo or Written Evidence
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Surely Not
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | 6951 | 75 | ||||||
| 1940 | 9222 | 161 | ||||||
| 1950 | 11767 | |||||||
| 1960 | 18437 | 112 | ||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | ||||||||
| 2000 | 19,607 | 18,816 | 89 | |||||
| 2010 | 20,732 | 138 | ||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Private Bad Behavior
- Realtors
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
- Jewish
Comments
Email 1/2008
I was born to a working-class family in Darien, CT in 1951 and spent most of my life up into my late 20’s there.
It was well known — though never spoken of above a whisper — that no-one could sell a house to either a black family or a Jewish family.
One Jewish family moved into Darien sometime in the early ’60s and one of the daughters was in my class. The first black — or actually mixed race — family moved into a neighborhood almost on the Stamford-Darien border right about 1970. I became good friends with them since the son belonged to an amateur theatrical company I was a member of and around that time I also joined the Baha’i community that the family belonged to. As I recall, the children was mercilessly hounded by the high school ruffians and this is probably why they moved out of Darien
within a year or so.
***
email 1/2008
I believe there were some neighborhood kids (15-17yo – ish) and they banged on the door and ran. The bag had excrement in it – the intent being that you step in it as you stomp out the fire.I also seem to recall (we are talking about 35 yrs ago so I am a bit foggy on it) that the family said they had alot of calls with hang ups. I think Burt (the son) was accepted in school since he was very charming and athletic – but also I am sure for the sheer novelty of this tall dark skinned afro-ed young man in our midst! For what its worth: after my early lack of exposure to “persons of color” in my hometown, I have enjoyed working for 20 yrs in an environment (public housing) that is very racially mixed; my first husband was Jewish, plus my son-in-law is bi-racial. I didn’t emerge from Darien tainted with prejudice or bigotry. Except maybe against the nouveau-riche and yuppies that now populate the area!
***
Laura Hobson’s bestselling novel, “Gentleman’s Agreement” and the Elia Kazan film adaptation released the same year, made Darien, Connecticut, a sundown suburb of New York, briefly notorious in 1947 when it publicized the town practice on not letting Jews spend the night.
Email from a longtime resident:
“I lived there for 16 years, definitely still a sun down town.”