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?
- Surely
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Yes, Photo or Written Evidence
- 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 | ||||||||
1960 | ||||||||
1970 | ||||||||
1980 | ||||||||
1990 | 3202 | |||||||
2000 | 3147 | 3107 | 5 | |||||
2010 | ||||||||
2020 |
Method of Exclusion
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
I grew up a farm boy about half-way between Nashville, IL and Hoyleton. My parents paid out-of-district tuition for me to attend elementary school in Nashville from 1943-1946 when consolidation of rural school districts made it possible for me to continue 6th grade in Hoyleton without the payment of extra tuition. The only black people I ever saw in those years was when we went visiting distant towns such as Centralia With respect to the “no blacks overnight” sign at the edge of town, I don’t remember ever seeing the sign, but I’ve certainly heard many people people mention it over the years. My mother always us wash our hands after touching things – like fresh produce from the grocery store in Nashville because “some dirty old black man may have touched it.” (Of course we always washed fruit & vegetables from our garden, too because of possible contamination from animals and insects.) And this from a woman whose ancestors fought for the Union during the Civil War.
Pretty much all of washington county, il, except for the area just outside of Centralia, is sundown. if you see blacks, its either they’re passing through or they’re there due to work. some of the towns (especially Nashville) sound their fire horns every evening at 5 pm. (Email to Fox TV website in St. L. after story on Anna, 3/2007)