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?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Probably
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 383 | 0 | ||||||
| 2000 | 416 | 0 | ||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
My father grew up in Centertown, Kentucky (a town of about 3,000 in Ohio County), and I’d heard stories from him that the locals used to brag that no black person had spent the night in Centertown. I asked my Dad about it recently, and he said he remembered it all well. If you want a better story about it, or perhaps some more information or details, my father’s e mail address is dwhite@aya.yale.edu (his name is Don Whitehead). I’m sure he could better fill in the details.
Centertown is too small to have any written records (pop.300 on a good day). I remember the myth that “no n____ has ever spent the night in Centertown” as a youth. I don’t know where it came from. I racked my brains for examples or times when it reared its ugly head, but I can’t remember any. It was something I knew but I don’t know how I knew it. %u2014 Don Whitehead