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?
- Possible
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Yes, Strong Oral Tradition
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | 2708 | 210 | ||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | 2904 | 134 | ||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | 4460 | 26 | ||||||
| 1950 | 5389 | 51 | ||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | 5310 | 11 | ||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 8194 | 2014* | 7 | |||||
| 2000 | 5185 | 4919 | 12 | |||||
| 2010 | 8586 | 2430* | 24 | |||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
In 1966 while en route to Paduchah, Ky (McCracken County) to visit relation, I first passed through Chester and viewed the roadsign “Trucks 55mph; Cars 65mph; Niggers Full Throttle!” (Taken 2006)
Fist saw it posted, coming/going into Chester…just above the Rotarians welcome sign with a smaller notation beneath it stating “If your ass is black, don’t let the sun set on it here!”; the date March 5th 1966. (Taken 2006)
One resident of Chester wrote in 2009, “(…) inmate families (we have a 3500 inmate state prison at the edge of town) have never been welcome here.”
*Much of the black population at this time consisted of inmates at the prison in the town.