Home » Oklahoma » Greer County

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

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

Greer County

Oklahoma

Basic Information

Type of Place
County
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Unions, Organized Labor?

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?
Surely Not

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900 17,912 9
1910 16,449 146
1920
1930 20,282 986
1940
1950 11,749 5
1960
1970 7,979 537
1980
1990
2000 6,061 4,937 532 16 150 451 242
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

“When the 1905 Greer County cotton crop was
threatened by a shortage of pickers, 150 black
workers were brought in to help save it. No African
Americans had ever been allowed to live in the area,
and their influx was resisted by some local whites
making serious threats in an attempt to scare the
workers away.”
-Deemed Unsuitable, R. Bruce Shepard, 1997

The importation of black workers broke Greer County,
and it is no longer sundown. There was an astounding
drop in black population (and total population)
between 1930 and 1950, but the black population has
since rebounded, although the total population
continues to decline.