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?
- Was there an ordinance?
- Sign?
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Surely Not
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
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| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
In 2020 Groton noted its KKK and possible sundown town past and took an important step to move beyond it–https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/07/metro/once-ku-klux-klan-stronghold-groton-rejects-its-reputation-sundown-town/ (Boston Globe, 7/7/2020)
Email from 2010:
“One in the past, may have been Groton, Mass where I lived when in boarding school. The Klan was openly active there in the 1920’s , to the depression. It has been rather a cool place to minorities for quite a while.
Also , if you’ve been there, note the hill overlooking the playing fields at Lawrence Academy, on the golf course, where there were cross burnings. The Klan is still said to be present in that part of the state.”
The same author followed up with an email in 2016:
“Groton is unique in that a fair amount of the Klan activity was documented, unlike a lot of New England. It began as an outgrowth of the Nativism which arose in the 1840’s with the arrival of immigrants, and later some blacks as well.
The center of the support in Groton for was the Congregational church, which went into overdrive at the end of the 1800’s, when more Catholic churches were being built.
From there, it was only a small step of transition from Nativism to supporting the Klan, which was gaining power across America at at point.
And, in a short period of time, Groton soon became the stonghold of the Klan in the Nashoba Valley,where Goton is located. In time the support evaporated, with the events of 1925 (D.C.Stephenson trial) and local events like when the Klan took over the Groton Fair (driving out one of the judges who was Catholic) and proceeded to alienate townspeople to the point that they no longer attended the fair or Klan rallies, by the end of the 1920’s.
These things basically made Groton a sundown town from the atmosphere they created. To this day, there is a residual undercurrent of nativism & racism which I have continued to notice when I return to Groton on occasion. Also, on rare instances when dark skinned people passing through visit some business in town, it’s not unheard of for them to receive rude service or be denied any. In spirit, at a minimum, it’s still basically a Sundown Town, though a number of people in town will deny it.”