Illinois
Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Suburb
- Metro Area
- W. Chicago
- Politics c. 1860?
- Unions, Organized Labor?
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Probable
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- 1970
- Still Sundown?
- Surely Not
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | 0 | |||||||
| 1930 | 4991 | 0 | ||||||
| 1940 | 5220 | 0 | ||||||
| 1950 | 8746 | 1 | ||||||
| 1960 | 20729 | 1 | ||||||
| 1970 | 22096 | 141 | ||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 20241 | 4817 | 14352 | |||||
| 2000 | 20535 | 1197 | 16783 | |||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Zoning
- Realtors
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
The 1970s brought racial change to the community — and involvement in a U.S. Supreme Court case. In 1975 the village of Bellwood filed a lawsuit accusing a local real estate firm of racial steering. Four years later a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court granted municipalities the legal right to use testers and to sue when discrimination occurred. During this time Bellwood’s population changed from 1.1% black in 1970 to 35% black in 1980 to 70% black in 1990.