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 Not, Although Still Very Few Black People
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | 6077 | 9 | ||||||
| 1960 | 9587 | 14 | ||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 15502 | 129 | 18 | |||||
| 2000 | ||||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- English
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
Testimony of a nearby resident (1/26/2005): “For years, ever since I was a boy [in the 1940s], everybody knew. I heard stories by whites: this black or that black was chased out…[often] said in a bragadoccio way” by youths.
According to a local museum employee (2/2002), a saying known among nearby Richmond whites was “Nothing but whites in Colonial Heights,” who often referred to the town as “Colonial Whites.”
Testimony of a nearby resident (6/12/2000): “Colonial Heights, Virginia, just north of Petersburg on I 95, was a ‘whites only’ town at least into the mid 1980s. I vaguely recall a big flap back then about blacks not being able to buy or at least being discouraged from buying homes there. I remember a big write up about it in the Norfolk Virginian Pilot. Some folks, who know the area better than I do, say it’s still a ‘whites only’ town.”
Testimony of a nearby resident (10/12/2001): My daughter works in colonial Hgts. and my mom is in a nursing home there. My son played CH in sports while in a high school nearby. The only nonwhites I know of living there last time I heard were a family of Asian Indians. The man was a teacher at VA State Un. which was are predominately black university. I got my masters there. It borders Colonial Hgts. I left [the area] in 1985. People then still carried KKK cards. It was the KKK headquarters for area.”
According to a nearby resident (1/26/2005): “When Meadowbrook High School, a majority-white but integrated school, played Colonial Heights, extra chaperons went along, to help students deal with the racism they would experience there. This was according to the cheerleading coach.”