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?
- Probable
- Was there an ordinance?
- Yes, Strong Oral Tradition
- Sign?
- Yes, Strong Oral Tradition
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
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| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
Comments
Email 1/2008
My father had told me that the town had signs that said in essence “Nigger, don’t let the sun set on you”. It’s heavily Eastern European and I believe settled mainly by miners and workers from the old Illinois and Michigan Canal.
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LaSalle-Peru became all-white after the lynching of a black man. The high school was all-white until 1998. The Chicago Tribune of 1889 stated, “The miners of LaSalle, Peru, and Spring Valley do not allow a Negro in their city limits.” A former resident also stated that he saw signs growing up.
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Email 1/2008
I thought I should mention that it’s not accurate that the high school was all-white until 1998. I graduated in 1981 and had an African-American classmate who transferred to the school in 1979 or 1980 and played football and ran track, so it’s not like his existence was unknown to the community, which was and is sports-mad.
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One long time resident claimed that the town had a whistle. She was born in 1942 and grew up in LaSalle Peru. The whistle blew around sun set. -email, February 2012