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James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.

Breese

Illinois

Basic Information

Type of Place
Independent City or Town
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Unions, Organized Labor?

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?
Surely
Was there an ordinance?
Perhaps, Some Oral Evidence
Sign?
Don’t Know
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?
Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960 3546 0
1970 2885 2
1980
1990 3567 3546 7
2000 4048 3990 4
2010 4442 8 2
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Reputation

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • German Catholic

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

According to a local genealogist, “They all seemed to have the same kind of law: that you could come to town but couldn’t stay past 5PM.”

During some year in the 1960s, Chicago Carver High School traveled to Breese to for a basketball game. A fight broke out before the out of the end of the game and the game was called early.


One resident said that he heard there is a klan cemetery in the town on private property. email; 2010