Brookston

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

1922

Still Sundown?

Probably

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	844		0
1940
1950	1014		1
1960	1202		0
1970	1232		0				5
1980
1990	1804		0
2000	1717		1	3	3	25
2010	1554		0	3	1
2020

Method of Exclusion

• Threat of Violence
• Private Bad Behavior

Main Ethnic Group(s)

• Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

• Black

Comments

Brookston was the subject of a dissertation, see Grover Hartman, “Brookston: A Study of the Cultural Evolution of an Indiana Agricultural Community 1829 – 1940” (Ph. D., http://dcwi.com/~bptpl/brookston/ch5.htm, 8/2002), not paginated on web; Chapter 5.
%u201CSince Brookston had no Negroes, no foreign group, and fewer than 4% Roman Catholics in its population, the situation would not seem propitious for Klan activity. Actually, however, states like Indiana with relatively homogeneous, largely American born populations and with low illiteracy rates became Klan strongholds. It is certain that many Brookston people became Klansmen. The Klan may well have been, as in many midwestern communities, the largest social organization. The parade of the hooded knights in Brookston in 1922 drew one of the largest crowds the village had ever seen.
In Brookston the Klan gained recruits through exploiting the bogy of intermarriage and the alleged immorality of Catholic priests and nuns. Since the people knew few Negroes or Catholics personally, they accepted uncritically the reports of others concerning them.%u201D